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War Reporting for Cowards
Chris 'risk averse' Ayres saw journalism as his ticket to schmoozing with celebrities and penning pompous opinion pieces. Instead he landed a plane ticket to Iraq. An extraordinary true story, this book offers a seditious insight into the political events that have defined the century.
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First published June 6, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
January 16, 2010
I heard about this book on a list of 'best unread books of the decade', and saw that it had good reviews on Amazon. A funny story told from the frontlines of the Iraq war - sounds great, right?. Unfortunately, the guy doesn't actually get to Iraq until page 192, and he only spends about 12 days there. Those few days he does spend with troops are actually really exciting, and the people he meets sound like they would have great stories to tell - only, he doesn't ever talk to them. The author would much rather just talk about himself, and his mind-blowing realization that in this war, with bombs and guns going off all around him, for the first time in his life, he feels like he's actually living. Wow - that's only been reported by EVERYONE who has ever been in a scary, life-threatening situation. It may have been mentioned once or twice in Fight Club, among a few hundred other movies.
Though it ends well, the rest of the book is pretty dull, and mostly filled with the author's whining. I have no sympathy for a man who goes to a North Face outlet to buy camping supplies to take to Iraq. Yeah, it makes for kind of a funny story, but if I wanted to hear about funny stories about shopping in LA, I'd watch the Hills, or 90210.
I recommend pages 192-275, but the rest of the book is crap. If anyone out there has a recommendation for a good story about the Iraq war, I'd love to hear it.
Though it ends well, the rest of the book is pretty dull, and mostly filled with the author's whining. I have no sympathy for a man who goes to a North Face outlet to buy camping supplies to take to Iraq. Yeah, it makes for kind of a funny story, but if I wanted to hear about funny stories about shopping in LA, I'd watch the Hills, or 90210.
I recommend pages 192-275, but the rest of the book is crap. If anyone out there has a recommendation for a good story about the Iraq war, I'd love to hear it.
February 14, 2021
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.
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.
November 7, 2016
CONTAINS SPOILERS
Don't read this book if you have a passion for journalism. Don't read this book if you believe war correspondents do a meaningful job.
It's the first book which managed to make me feel personally insulted.
There is this guy who accidentally ends up as a war correspondent and spends the first week in Kuwait in a luxury hotel enjoying room service and spa. Instead of going out digging for stories as any good journalist would do.
The same guy witnessed 9/11, calls his boss to write a story and instead of seeking the story first strolls home.
Okay, finally in war - after almost 200 pages of whining, asshole thoughts, big ego and basically nothing interesting to say - he doesn't tell us about the suffering, the reality of war, he tells us about his uncomfortable position in the Humvee and lack of sleep.
He is not at all intetested in other people, doesn't want to tell their stories. He is only interested in his own misery (nothing compared to what's really going on). He even dares writing that the 9 days with the Marines turned him into one and that he feels like a hero.
In the end he grabs the first chance to get out of it and return to luxury and spa.
There is only one great passage in the book and this is what a Marine says to him. "You think it's okay to give our position away? I'm glad you're leaving, because otherwise I'd be kicking your sorry ass out of here. You're a pisspoor journalist."
Don't read this book if you have a passion for journalism. Don't read this book if you believe war correspondents do a meaningful job.
It's the first book which managed to make me feel personally insulted.
There is this guy who accidentally ends up as a war correspondent and spends the first week in Kuwait in a luxury hotel enjoying room service and spa. Instead of going out digging for stories as any good journalist would do.
The same guy witnessed 9/11, calls his boss to write a story and instead of seeking the story first strolls home.
Okay, finally in war - after almost 200 pages of whining, asshole thoughts, big ego and basically nothing interesting to say - he doesn't tell us about the suffering, the reality of war, he tells us about his uncomfortable position in the Humvee and lack of sleep.
He is not at all intetested in other people, doesn't want to tell their stories. He is only interested in his own misery (nothing compared to what's really going on). He even dares writing that the 9 days with the Marines turned him into one and that he feels like a hero.
In the end he grabs the first chance to get out of it and return to luxury and spa.
There is only one great passage in the book and this is what a Marine says to him. "You think it's okay to give our position away? I'm glad you're leaving, because otherwise I'd be kicking your sorry ass out of here. You're a pisspoor journalist."
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July 3, 2017I do NOT know why this was worthy of a book. There wasn't much of a story to be told and what little there was was badly told. I kept trying to give this author a chance--I did make it all the way through the book--but he irritated me every time I picked it up. I'm kind of mad that it didn't live up to the hype in the title, inside front cover, back of the book, and reviews. The two or three funny lines in the book were placed there just like in a movie trailer for a bad movie. He's not funny at all and a poor writer to boot. (Tons of typos in this book--it drove me crazy!) How he got a job with the London Times is beyond me. The author was clearly an immature, boorish young man. He describes his characters in stereotypical ways and with no originality. And he's very condescending to women--they're either in stiletto heels (how many field reporters would actually get around in stilettos?) or they're very butch. Much of the narrative sounds hyped up, if not downright untrue. His claim to have seen people jumping off the World Trade Center, very close, seems made up. By the time he got down there, I doubt they would have let him anywhere near that area. And, according to Ayres, he came oh so close to death when the Towers collapsed. (He came oh so close to death many, many times.) Another example of his immaturity was his delight in giving us the gory details--bodies sliced in half and on and on. A TOTAL waste of my time.
February 2, 2010
It's hard to imagine less than two weeks of actual war reporting being stretched into a whole book, but Ayres does it quite well, and I only rarely begrudged him my $12 in exchange for a memoir so light on the experience actually, you know, billed in the title. I found myself laughing out loud on the Metro, which is always a good sign for a book.
What's more, I never felt like Ayres was dogmatic in any way. This isn't an anti-war book. It's an anti-Ayres-being-at-the-war book. And it's not a dry political/military history book -- he doesn't spend much time discussing the overall politics and war strategy of the Iraq war (is it too soon for that?)
Best of all, Ayres appears to have real respect for the others who seem so alien to him, especially the Marines with whom he lived for a short time. Ayres says in the acknowledgments, "My own experiences in Iraq are trivial compared with those of the Marines; but warriors are rarely writers (when they are, they win Pulitzers), and I hope that my memoir helps readers understand what these men's daily lives are like." That it did.
(As an added bonus, Ayres' account of his experiences in NYC on 9/11 and the days shortly thereafter exhibit an insight into the emotions of those weeks better than anything I've read in a long time. I found myself contemplating my own perspective of those anthrax-and-terrorist-filled days much more deeply than I have in the last 5-7 years. A beautifully heart-wrenching chapter.)
What's more, I never felt like Ayres was dogmatic in any way. This isn't an anti-war book. It's an anti-Ayres-being-at-the-war book. And it's not a dry political/military history book -- he doesn't spend much time discussing the overall politics and war strategy of the Iraq war (is it too soon for that?)
Best of all, Ayres appears to have real respect for the others who seem so alien to him, especially the Marines with whom he lived for a short time. Ayres says in the acknowledgments, "My own experiences in Iraq are trivial compared with those of the Marines; but warriors are rarely writers (when they are, they win Pulitzers), and I hope that my memoir helps readers understand what these men's daily lives are like." That it did.
(As an added bonus, Ayres' account of his experiences in NYC on 9/11 and the days shortly thereafter exhibit an insight into the emotions of those weeks better than anything I've read in a long time. I found myself contemplating my own perspective of those anthrax-and-terrorist-filled days much more deeply than I have in the last 5-7 years. A beautifully heart-wrenching chapter.)
May 25, 2008
I got really frustrated with this book. It was breezy reading, but even for a memoir, it was grossly and overtly self-centered. There were so many aspects of the public's opinion on the homefront that he generalized in a pro-Bush view that I got sick of it. It seemed like the kind of book that I would get into, hence why I picked it up, but instead it is a messy, and quite frankly, uncompelling retelling of Ayres' experience of embedded journalism. So much that it really doesn't merit a long review from me. This book is going straight back to the library.
August 13, 2019
Don’t get me wrong: I’m relieved the author made it out alive. Yet, it takes a lot of time to finally get in on the action. And when we’re in, it’s a bone chilling account. Too bad we get yanked out so soon, with no word on what happened to his squad afterwards. So in the end, it paradoxically keeps you wanting for more action. Having such a long prelude, the actual war time reporting is over and done with in just a few chapters. Given the title, I’d expected more. But what was reported was gripping, and gives a harrowing glimpse into what those people over there had to endure.
April 14, 2008
Hmmm, interesting.
Good memoir but in the end, I didn't like the author. He was an interesting character but not one I felt any sympathy for. His experiences were hard yes, but they were also ones that hundreds if not thousands of hard working young journalists would kill to have. He was breezy about being given great opportunities, if he even knew they were opportunities.
Hard to like a book too much when you can't stand the writer.
Good memoir but in the end, I didn't like the author. He was an interesting character but not one I felt any sympathy for. His experiences were hard yes, but they were also ones that hundreds if not thousands of hard working young journalists would kill to have. He was breezy about being given great opportunities, if he even knew they were opportunities.
Hard to like a book too much when you can't stand the writer.
April 27, 2009
Although at times humorous and entertaining, I was in the end somewhat disappointed in the result. All build up and little delivery, so to speak. He was embedded in the same division as the author of Generation Kill (a superior effort), though Ayres was in an artillery unit instead of with a recon unit. There are interesting insights into the world of journalism.
July 13, 2020
I’ve never understood books on war when they are described as hilarious,I guess it’s hilarious if you have made it back home in one piece,anyway this book is the usual standard fare reporter who isn’t a war correspondent gets sent to war zone hilarious,has a few run ins with army personnel hilarious,survives a few near misses you get the picture.
December 3, 2007
great account, very informative
Read
November 23, 2008Quite good, and while not sacrificing truth it is less painful to read than most accounts of modern war.
February 13, 2019
Give this a pass. Save yourself.
January 22, 2020
The Real Deal
I served in the first Gulf War. This book brought back the sights, smells, feelings. Well written and authentic. Even the MREs.
I served in the first Gulf War. This book brought back the sights, smells, feelings. Well written and authentic. Even the MREs.
July 8, 2017
War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres is a book which tells of the time the author was embedded with the Marines in the second Gulf War. Mr. Ayres still writes to British magazines and screen.
If there is one word to describe War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres it’s “honest” – and probably also “funny”. So funny and honest it is.
The book follows Mr. Ayres as he becomes a “war reporter”, a short autobiography of growing up, going to school and getting a job. From there Mr. Ayres tells us about being a foreign correspondent in New York City and witnessing the 9/11 attacks from ground level. Mr. Ayres then gets assigned to Los Angeles, where he knows his assignments are not serious, yet he has to take them seriously in a wry sort of way.
Then he goes to Iraq.
Sometimes people want to talk with me about the Israel-Palestine, an issue I’m always willing to discuss frankly. Many are just trying to get information before making up their minds, but every once in a while I get the “why did Israel disproportionally bomb Palestine after they shot ‘only’ 2,000 rockets on them?”
My answer is almost always the same “what would you want to do if only one of those 2,000 was aimed at your kids?”
“Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.” – John Galsworthy
Being embedded with American troops is no joke, as he soon finds out. Even as an embedded reporter Mr. Ayers finds that he has been hardened witnessing the grim reality of war. The author finds that being on the front lines (without a gun) Mr. Galsworthy starts making sense.
The author’s self-deprecating humor shines throughout the book. He does not make himself to be a hero of the stature of John Rambo or John Matrix, but a reluctant reporter, a coward among brave men. Only that he’s not a coward, just a rational human being.
The book is an enjoyable read, an accurate war story without embellishments and with humor. A fun and easy read which will resonate with many people.
What I couldn’t get past though, were some of the mistakes in the book, outright jumbled words and calling Todd Beamer, the American passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks, “Tom”.
I know those are minor complaints, but they really irritated me.
For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
If there is one word to describe War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres it’s “honest” – and probably also “funny”. So funny and honest it is.
The book follows Mr. Ayres as he becomes a “war reporter”, a short autobiography of growing up, going to school and getting a job. From there Mr. Ayres tells us about being a foreign correspondent in New York City and witnessing the 9/11 attacks from ground level. Mr. Ayres then gets assigned to Los Angeles, where he knows his assignments are not serious, yet he has to take them seriously in a wry sort of way.
Then he goes to Iraq.
Sometimes people want to talk with me about the Israel-Palestine, an issue I’m always willing to discuss frankly. Many are just trying to get information before making up their minds, but every once in a while I get the “why did Israel disproportionally bomb Palestine after they shot ‘only’ 2,000 rockets on them?”
My answer is almost always the same “what would you want to do if only one of those 2,000 was aimed at your kids?”
“Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.” – John Galsworthy
Being embedded with American troops is no joke, as he soon finds out. Even as an embedded reporter Mr. Ayers finds that he has been hardened witnessing the grim reality of war. The author finds that being on the front lines (without a gun) Mr. Galsworthy starts making sense.
The author’s self-deprecating humor shines throughout the book. He does not make himself to be a hero of the stature of John Rambo or John Matrix, but a reluctant reporter, a coward among brave men. Only that he’s not a coward, just a rational human being.
The book is an enjoyable read, an accurate war story without embellishments and with humor. A fun and easy read which will resonate with many people.
What I couldn’t get past though, were some of the mistakes in the book, outright jumbled words and calling Todd Beamer, the American passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks, “Tom”.
I know those are minor complaints, but they really irritated me.
For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
September 29, 2017
I read this on the recommendation of my boyfriend. I'm not sure what I was expecting, this wasn't quite it. I think I was expecting more of the actual war but more of the book is taken up on how the author ended up in Iraq.
I don't think I'd agree with much of the author's politics, or his views and feelings on the invasion of Iraq specifically, but that hardly matters in the reading of this book. It's not a journalistic account of the Iraq war, 9/11, or anything in any way related to that, it's a memoir. It's entertaining rather than insightful.
It tells the story of how this guy chances his way into a career as a financial journalist, and then accidentally finds himself being sent to cover a war. And it seems the gulf between being a financial reporter and being a war reporter are only slightly narrower than that between being an accountant and being a soldier.
War reporting is something he's definitely not cut out for, although it does appear to cure his generalised anxiety disorder.
I don't think I'd agree with much of the author's politics, or his views and feelings on the invasion of Iraq specifically, but that hardly matters in the reading of this book. It's not a journalistic account of the Iraq war, 9/11, or anything in any way related to that, it's a memoir. It's entertaining rather than insightful.
It tells the story of how this guy chances his way into a career as a financial journalist, and then accidentally finds himself being sent to cover a war. And it seems the gulf between being a financial reporter and being a war reporter are only slightly narrower than that between being an accountant and being a soldier.
War reporting is something he's definitely not cut out for, although it does appear to cure his generalised anxiety disorder.
June 3, 2017
I ended up enjoying this book, but I really didn't like it for the first 3/4... I guess this might be the first time an English writer's self deprecating style took a while to gel. To me, Ayres spends so much time explaining why he's useless that when the book gets interesting , in the Kuwait and Iraq parts, it takes a bit to respect his narrative. But stay with it- it gets better. I think this is best for more mature readers but fine for kids over about 10 or 12 who want to plumb deeper shoals. A good look within both the media and the military- and the weird intersection of the two.
February 16, 2021
A strange mix of self-aggrandizement and self-depreciation. And the payoff is, well, anti-climatic at best. Probably the most interesting part is the author's experience of being near Ground Zero in New York on 9/11.
All in all, it smacks of a book that was written too close to the event and therefore has a shallow and subjective tone. Much of what he writes about would have been more interesting with the benefit of time to process the events and witness how history has panned out.
All in all, it smacks of a book that was written too close to the event and therefore has a shallow and subjective tone. Much of what he writes about would have been more interesting with the benefit of time to process the events and witness how history has panned out.
November 20, 2021
It’s well put together, an original take on what was to be a bumper crop of embedded journo books. Good portraits of characters who come in and out of the story, his doctor, Buck and others.
There are moments when it drags, mainly in the run-up to getting in to Iraq. But it’s an achievement to make a readable book out of 7 days in Iraq.
The epilogue works well, a nice final piece.
There are moments when it drags, mainly in the run-up to getting in to Iraq. But it’s an achievement to make a readable book out of 7 days in Iraq.
The epilogue works well, a nice final piece.
April 13, 2022
This book is amazing! I couldn't believe a book involving war could also.make me laugh out loud, but this one did. the book provides a delicately balanced story of war and Ayers making fun of himself and hos experiences in his role of war correspondent. I would recommend this book to anyone. It is just excellent!
May 30, 2024
Some interesting parts. Still I had trouble concentrating on the author's tales of derring-do. I have no doubt he experienced real horror during his time of embedding in the Mid-East. Ayres tried for light heartedness which I respected but did not quite understand considering the theater of war in which he was trapped.
December 19, 2022
What appeared to be a good, funny, personal account of an experience many of us would be desperate to hear about is ruined by the author’s vanity, cowardice and inability to talk about anything other than himself. I expected more.
January 11, 2024
A fascinating look at ground war from the inside. It’s not funny ha-ha, as several of the back & front cover blurbs would lead you to believe, at least it wasn’t for me. Honest, uncomfortable & downright frightening in parts. I’m glad Chris lived to tell his story.
June 25, 2018
Hilarious and easy read
February 7, 2019
It was funny. He’s not actually a war correspondent. Some people may be angry at him - but I kind of feel bad for the guy who got in way over his head
November 1, 2021
Funny, literate account of a London Times reporter's experience as a short-lived embed with American troops in the Iraq War.
It's variously war-is-hell gritty, comical and reflective, as Ayres fights his urge to flee from the dangers and horrors, and repeatedly asks himself why he's putting himself in that position. Is it just for the glory? Is it boredom with his regular life covering celebrities and other stuff in Los Angeles?
Ayres' account is wonderfully vivid, evocative "You Are There" stuff, with colorful, accurate descriptions furthering the narrative -- his decision to go, his movement with his unit, and his return to civilization.
On his potentially treacherous helicopter ride away from the war zone: "I imagined the fate I avoided by a few lucky yards: the fiery hulk, the blackened human shapes. War is so random, I thought. In war, no one is special. In war, you always die for someone else's cause."
(Glad that I stumbled upon this book at a local thrift store).
It's variously war-is-hell gritty, comical and reflective, as Ayres fights his urge to flee from the dangers and horrors, and repeatedly asks himself why he's putting himself in that position. Is it just for the glory? Is it boredom with his regular life covering celebrities and other stuff in Los Angeles?
Ayres' account is wonderfully vivid, evocative "You Are There" stuff, with colorful, accurate descriptions furthering the narrative -- his decision to go, his movement with his unit, and his return to civilization.
On his potentially treacherous helicopter ride away from the war zone: "I imagined the fate I avoided by a few lucky yards: the fiery hulk, the blackened human shapes. War is so random, I thought. In war, no one is special. In war, you always die for someone else's cause."
(Glad that I stumbled upon this book at a local thrift store).
April 16, 2022
Not as good as I would have liked and very little was actually about war reporting but there were enjoyable parts.
November 13, 2022
In een humorvol boeken nadenken of het eigenlijk wel een goed idee zou zijn om op reis te gaan naar een oorlogsgebied. Spoiler: nee.
October 14, 2023
A brilliantly insightful yet very entertaining read.
March 20, 2024
Entertaining. Second book in the “memoir about being a war reporter” genre that I’ve read semi recently. Idk what that says about me
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews