The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell
John Crawford
ISBN 1-59448-201-2
I read this one the way the Almighty does – in one throw. (I got home from Barnes & Noble at 11:30, and turned out the light at three.)
Lots of carnage, foul language and gallows humor, just what you would expect from an infantryman. For anyone following the foreign press, there are no surprises in the descriptions of the war and the way it is being prosecuted. The book inspires a sick feeling of dread for those of us old enough to know about ‘Nam.
The book seemed too clichéd to me at first, but it has a twist at the end that makes sense of the glib bravado that colors most of the book.
I doubt this will be the best literary offering of this war – it reads like a story that was rushed to market in order to cash in on a wave of popular interest.
Having said that, I sincerely wish John Crawford peace in his soul. If that is even possible.