A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy [Hardcover]

A powerful, often unsettling book by one of the major voices to come out of the Vietnam era. Ron Kovic is one of America's great voices on war and what it does to the body and soul. His story is as timeless and tragic as the country itself. More than five decades later, [Kovics] words drop the reader right back into the jungles of that misbegotten fight, recording his fellow soldiers routines, the perils they faced nightly on patrol and in camp, and the platitudes he would repeat to himself before he ultimately became disillusioned with his role in the conflict, turning antiwar activist. Its all set against his efforts, twenty years later, to carve out a meaningful civilian life, even as he shares the terrible burden of having accidentally killed one of his own men in the heat of combat. The result is a powerful rumination on the true costs of war. Ron Kovic's brilliant idea of opening this book with his Vietnam diary is riveting. It puts the reader in Ron's platoon, in the psyche of a young, patriotic sergeant who is innocent to the tragedy up ahead. Then he turns that tragedy into a blessing, a gift for us all. I, also, never thought I'd learn how to be a more loving sexual partner to my wife from someone in a wheelchair, but Ron Kovic is one of my teachers. His spirit transcends reality. With Ron Kovic's memoir As the son of the architect of the Vietnam War, I was deeply humbled and saddened reading Ron Kovic totally captured my emotions with Classic and timeless. Ron Kovic's memoir is a classic of antiwar literature. As relevant as ever, this book is an education. Ron is a true American, and his great heart and hard-won wisdom shine through these pages. One of the most powerful [books] I've ever read.