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Chris Ayres is a small-town boy, a hypochondriac, and a neat freak with an anxiety disorder. Not exactly the picture of a war correspondent. But when his boss asks him if he would like to go to Iraq, he doesn't have the guts to say no. After signing a 1 million dollar life-insurance policy, studying a tutorial on repairing severed limbs, and spending 20 thousand dollars in camping gear (only to find out that his bright yellow tent makes him a sitting duck), Ayres is embedded with a battalion of gung ho Marines who either shun him or threaten him when he files an unfavorable story. As time goes on, though, he begins to understand them (and his inexplicably enthusiastic fellow war reporters) more and more: Each night of terrifying combat brings, in the morning, something more visceral than he has ever experienced — the thrill of having won a fight for survival.
In the tradition of MASH, Catch-22, and other classics in which irreverence springs from life in extremis, War Reporting for Cowards tells the story of Iraq in a way that is extraordinarily honest, heartfelt, and bitterly hilarious.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Jane Scifleet
reviewed War Reporting for Cowards on February 14, 2021
War Reporting for Cowards
This book has a lot of substance, but is too heavy on confessions of personal foolishness. It has gripping eyewitness accounts of the 9/11 attacks, the Anthrax bio-terror scare, and the US invasion of Iraq. But most of the book is a self-depreciating account of the author's life to date. The war reporting part only starts with chapter 12, and the invasion starts on page 206.
Throughout the book, Ayres remains basically non-critical of everything but himself. Concerning the Iraq War, about as close as he gets to giving personal opinions is the following:
"How was I supposed to feel at this point? Glad that Saddam was going to get his comeuppance and excited by the professional challenge ahead? Or should I have felt moral outrage at the imperial violence about to be visited on Iraq, and proud of my role in exposing the horror of twenty-first-century warfare?
To be honest, I didn't feel any of those things. All I felt was an overwhelming concern about my personal safety. And, of course, a tug of guilt over my own selfishness. To my right, a man was smiling at me. I recognized him as a reporter for National Public Radio. 'Hey,' he stage-whispered, 'Ever get the feeling we're cheerleaders on the team bus?'"
But then, maybe embedded war reporting doesn't get much better than this anyway.
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Add War Reporting for Cowards, Chris Ayres is a small-town boy, a hypochondriac, and a neat freak with an anxiety disorder. Not exactly the picture of a war correspondent. But when his boss asks him if he would like to go to Iraq, he doesn't have the guts to say no. After signing a 1 m, War Reporting for Cowards to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add War Reporting for Cowards, Chris Ayres is a small-town boy, a hypochondriac, and a neat freak with an anxiety disorder. Not exactly the picture of a war correspondent. But when his boss asks him if he would like to go to Iraq, he doesn't have the guts to say no. After signing a 1 m, War Reporting for Cowards to your collection on WonderClub |