Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Better True Vietnam Stories, October 26, 2001
I became familiar with Ron Kovic while still a Marine. Probably in 71 or 72 after I returned from Vietnam. Luckily I was not wounded. While stationed in Hawaii after returning, I had the occasion to join Vietnam Veterans Against the War. A friend tried in vane to persuade me to join, but I never could quite do it. I had been taught just like thousands of other young recruits that ours was a noble deed. I still believe that. However...after having read this book, I became much more enlightened to what a lot of men experienced after being wounded/and or wounded severely and emotionally. This book is not about a man against America, but in favor of waking some people up to the horrors of war and the terrible losses we all suffer because of war. A must read.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I try to keep telling myself it's good to be alive.", April 25, 2006
Massapequa, New York may well be the most unabashedly patriotic town in America. Like Ron Kovic (who I knew in passing) I grew up there, played in "Sally's Woods" got my hair cut at Sparky the Barber's, and participated in the endless red, white and blue parades that seemed to define our town. A safe, stable bedroom community on Long Island's South Shore, it spawned boys like Kovic who absorbed the tales of "the greatest generation" and took up their fathers' banners when they went to Vietnam.
BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY is Kovic's unpolished, sincere, aggressive and searingly sad remembrance of his Vietnam experience. Kovic was gravely wounded on the first day of the Tet Offensive. Returning home as a paraplegic, Kovic tells us of the hideous treatment he received at the hands of the Veterans Administration, a bureaucracy so rotten that it neglected and abused the very men and women it was supposed to aid.
The sheer contempt with which Kovic was treated turned this All-American young man into a cynic, turning him against the war, and forcing him to confront an uncomfortable paradox: millions were being spent on war machines while America's wounded soldiers had to live with filth and rats in their hospital rooms.
The experience drove Kovic to become a public speaker for Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Interestingly, Kovic never mentions John Kerry, a founder of that organization, but he does recount how VVAW was infiltrated by Nixon operatives and almost derailed.
Kovic also tells us---in various flashbacks---about his psychological journey as a paraplegic, about his loneliness, his depression, his pain and misery, and his frustration at being unable to walk. He writes frankly and cathartically of coping with the loss of his sex life. He recounts how the well-meaning but unknowing people of Massapequa made him feel, like their Yankee Doodle poster child come home, a not altogether pleasant role.
And he writes of his challenge to America. Having shouted down Richard Nixon's 1972 nomination acceptance speech, he demands of America self-examination and a reordering of priorities. That very self-examination is the essence of greatness. Should we expect less?
BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY is an important book, and one which needs to be remembered in these days of disillusionment.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best Book Review, May 13, 2004
"Born on the Fourth of July," by Ron Kovic is a riveting, true autobiographical story of the life of a young man who leaves his small town after high school to enter the harsh Vietnam War to honor his country. He tells his story of the horrors that he had to face and watch as a soldier confronted with many difficult situations. While serving his nation, he gets badly injured in action and is forced to stop fighting and go to the hospital. What he sees is what no man should ever have to experience. His injury is severe. He is paralyzed from the waist down and will never be able to walk again. The hospitals were in gruesome conditions. The government did not want to give the funds for better equipment. Kovic explains how the conditions of the hospital were worse than the war itself. Kovic goes through a life changing event. He struggles with his handicap as he also struggles with the horrific memories of the war. During the course of the book, Kovic seeks to find himself in a world that he is lost in. The book goes into deep detail of Kovic's post war experience. Ron Kovic becomes an active anti-war advocate and goes to many demonstrations. He travels to Washington D.C. and even sits in on a speech given by the president. He and many other anti-war veterans hold up signs and try to draw national attention to themselves. Kovic feels so strongly against this war that he even puts himself in a position where he was sent to jail for his beliefs. Kovic moves a lot of people with this powerful book of his life.
The unique aspect about Kovic's book, "Born on the Fourth of the July" is that Kovic wrote the entire book from personal experience. Kovic is not a writer but had a lot to say. He writes his beliefs and thoughts down to tell the world. Suppressed from the government, this is Kovic's way of expressing his self and getting the word out to the general public in regards to the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Kovic believed that the war was wrong. Here is a person who believed in supporting his country and then came upon the realization that he and his country were wrong in their actions. His writing style accentuates the fact that he is like most males from his generation. With only a high school degree, Kovic switches throughout his book from first person to third. This can be confusing to a reader but is not impossible to understand. In fact, the opposite occurs. The reader gets sucked into the dramatic scenes the book portrays and it is hard to put the book down. Kovic wrote this book with his heart and soul in his words. The book is a valuable resource as it provides great historical accuracy and abundant information to the reader while maintaining its compelling appeal as a story. Because this was written completely from first hand experience this book is completely factual. However, the demerits of the interpretation of this book is that it is completely one sided. Throughout the entire book Kovic complains about how badly he feels about himself, his life, his injury, and the war. A reader may view this as him whining and even may detract them from the book and his writing style. On the other hand, this gives a person that has not experienced such an incident an insight into the feeling the helplessness, hopelessness, and lack of self worth a veteran may suffer. This is an insider's view of the war that one would not normally be exposed to. This type of interpretation is hard to depict yet Kovic does this with flying colors. This book comes highly recommended from majority of its readers. It is a good book to read for not only the historical issues discussed, but to read for the pure pleasure of it. A reader does not have to be a history buff to enjoy Ron Kovic's, "Born on the Fourth of July." It conjures up vivid imagery that allows a reader's imagination to create a distinct picture long after the words have been read. These are memories that the reader will keep with them once the book is finished. Kovic uses intense, powerful words that the reader will find hard to forget.
"I am the living death
The memorial day on wheels
I am your yankee doodle dandy
Your john wayne come home
Your fourth of july firecracker
Exploding in the grave"
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