โImagine George Costanza from Seinfeld being sent off to cover the Iraq Warย .ย .ย . Hilarious.โ โMichiko Kakutani, The New York Times
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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 doesnโt have the guts to say no. After signing a one million dollar life-insurance policy, studying a tutorial on repairing severed limbs, and spending twenty thousand dollars on 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 experiencedโthe thrill of having won a fight for survival.
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War Reporting for Cowards tells, with โself-deprecating witโ, the story of Iraq in a way that is extraordinarily honest and bitterly hilarious (The New Yorker).
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โHeartbreakingly funny.โ โAnthony Swofford, author of Jarhead
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โChris Ayres has invented a new genre: a rip-roaring tale of adventure and derring-donโt.โ โToby Young, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
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โDarkly entertaining.โ โLos Angeles Times
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โAyresโs stories of life with Marines are grippingโin part because heโs the perfect neurotic foil.โ โPeople