Ron Kovic releases new book; talks past, present, personal and national
by Garth Meyer A story of a man who has fought to live, mentally and physically, Ron Kovic’s newly-published third book, “A Dangerous Country; An American Elegy,” includes a year-long war diary from the paralyzed Vietnam veteran and Redondo Beach resident. The author of the 1976 bestseller “Born on the Fourth of July” had never before shared the diary publicly, nor much at all. The entries start before his second tour of duty, for which Kovic put forth his name 13 times until the Marines called him to re-enlist. He had planned to open the new book with a chapter titled, “A Violent Spring.” “I would look at the diary – but it was painful and a bit traumatic,” Kovic said of the first years after he came back from the war. “I would have anxiety attacks and nightmares after reading what I did. So I was very careful about going back to it. But I held onto it. I just wanted to forget it. Now I feel a distance. I could not have written this book 10 years ago, or five years ago. I wasn’t ready to expose that yet. My girlfriend read it and encouraged me to put it in the book. I knew it could be embarrassing, at the same time I was proud of the diary.” The writings are the voice of Tom…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com