John Crawford - The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldiers Account of the War in Iraq

Mr. Crawford has sifted through his memories with an eye toward resonant anecdotes and literary flourishes. Crawford tells tales that bring human dimensions to his situation.

The New York Times

A tremendous bookincredibly gripping and incredibly well-written. Its a remarkable story. I commend Crawford not only for the service, but for the account of it, which is really a wonderful read, and I urge everyone to go out there and grab it.

Jon Stewart, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The White House wants to show the U.S. soldiers in Iraq as heroes. Critics want to show them as victims. John Crawford wants to show they are human. The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell is a moving, harrowing, bold, and bitterly beautiful vision of the horror of war and the Americans now dying in it.

The Florida Times-Union

Now that the first wave of reporter memoirs about Iraq has reached bookstores, a second wave of accounts from soldiers has crested on the horizon. The best of the lot is certainly John Crawfords The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell. Crawford is a wonderfully descriptive writerand reading this book feels like climbing into a Humvee to patrol Baghdad in 130-degree heat.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

A harrowing account of daily life on the streets of Baghdadan ordinary guys troubles with the chain of command, bearing up under the constant threat of violence, trying to understand the nature of the military mission, and coming to terms with what it means to be a man. Crawford is lucky to survive his tour of duty, more than a year in length, but his marriage didnt. He returns to his Florida home to write this book, a tale of what hes lost. [His] braveryand occasional foolhardinessis never in doubt, and The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell takes its place among the very best tales of men at warit rings with the raw, emotional energies of truth and anger and sadness.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune

The firston-the-ground memoirto make an impact is The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell . Crawford, who ended up in Iraq after joining the Florida National Guard to help pay his college tuition, turns out to be a bracing writer.

The New York Times Book Review

[Crawfords] stories include accounts of raids and sandstorms; of keeping order in the long queues for rationed gasoline; of tight friendships with comrades; and tenuous relationships with local Iraqis. He describes in horrendous detail two dying Iraqis whose car had been blasted by a machine-gunner from his unit. [Crawford] contrasts the horror with wry observations about the foibles of officers and interpreters, and charming sketches of everyday life.

Orlando Sentinel

A searing look at the stresses and failures that plague a reservist whos ripped from the comforts of home to patrol the streets of Baghdad for a year.

Los Angeles Times Magazine

I picked up Crawfords book and with the first paragraph I was hooked. Its f***king dynamite. A young man pushed beyond endurance. Is a good book worth what he saw, felt, experienced? There are some bad things people know and wish they didnt. And I can just see it all: something very dark in the human heart and it cannot be vanquished. War after war. I finished the book thinking this is like Vietnam all over again. And like Michael Herr in Dispatches , Crawford really has it down. Hes got it nailed.

Thom Jones, author of The Pugilist at Rest

Has all the immediacy of a letter from the front and none of the self-conscious polishing that can reduce military service to something akin to a hunt for material.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

A harrowing, tautly written, and ruthlessly unsentimental story of the experience that profoundly changed [John Crawfords] life.

St. Petersburg Times

The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell is packed with eye-witness accounts of follies, fears, frustrations, bitterness, and gutsy triumphs of American foot soldiers on the gound in the Iraqi war. [A] tell-all, rawly honest memoir.

Tallahassee Democrat

The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell is a savage, gritty, and compelling work that reveals the true cost of the Iraqi Adventure, the price paid by young soldiers. Its not about heroism, but about heroic endurance against the desert, the war-torn neighborhoods, and the lies of their commanders, lies that will echo the rest of their lives.

James Crumley,
author of One to Count Cadence ,
The Last Good Kiss , and The Right Madness

It reminded me a little of Tim OBriens The Things They Carried , but the truth is youve never read anything quite like this before. Mr. Crawford does a beautiful job of conveying the modern infantrymans torn heart, and our nations war literature is richer by one outstanding book. Thank you, Mr. Crawford.

Gabe Hudson, author of Dear Mr. President

Life in war-torn Iraq was raw, and Crawfords use of raw language and graphic descriptions of his life as a machine gunner in the National Guard serving in Baghdad leave readers tasting, smelling, and cringing at what it was like to be there.

Palatka Daily News

Crawfords writing pulses with urgency, and, gloriously, his story of being an American soldier in Iraq is shattering and relentless. Most chillingly for us readers in our early twenties, Crawfords story universalizes the accidental way in which this war has affected us all.

David Amsden, author of
Important Things That Dont Matter