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Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July is the autobiography of a Vietnam War veteran. The previous sentence defines the most important experience of his life, around which the book is built. It is written in the mid-70s, thus after the war. The author presents his personal history as a series of flashbacks, narratives, poems, dreams, and nightmares. It is clear that writing the book was an important part of the self- healing process. We learn from him bit by bit about his happy, normal and typical childhood and teenager years, when he had a few close friends he played ball with, went to school, was interested and active in sports. After a Marine gave a convincing talk in his shiny uniform at his high school, he decided to join the Marines. We learn how unexpectedly brutal the boot camp was for him, but the real thing, the war, was even more devastating. This book does not just retell the story, but the majority of it describes the author’s thoughts, reflections, and emotions related to the eve nts.
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