Hurricane Street

March 14, 2016
In this brief but compelling snapshot of early 1970s activism, Kovic recalls the sit-in and hunger strike he led in 1974 to protest the poor quality of the care he and other disabled Vietnam veterans were receiving at the VA hospital in Long Beach, Calif. He sets the mood quickly with references to the era’s music and vivid descriptions of the hospital’s grim environment. Stirred by deplorable conditions and corrupt aides, Kovic eventually writes a book (Born on the 4th of July, the basis for the 1989 blockbuster film of the same name) and organizes the protest depicted here. Kovic selected the site strategically: it was the office of California senator Al Cranston, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, who was up for re-election at the time. The small group of Vietnam veterans, in wheelchairs and wearing combat medals, made for dramatic news footage when they appeared at Cranston’s office one morning and turned it into a “makeshift VA hospital ward.” Without social media or cell phones to boost the signal, it was Kovic’s flair for the dramatic and ability to marshal reporters that turned the protest into a battle victory. His account of subsequent, less successful protests could easily have been omitted, but Kovic’s updates on the fates of his fellow veterans provide a memorable and bittersweet conclusion.

May 1, 2016
The author of Born on the Fourth of July (1976) recounts the brief 1974 movement he initiated to change how Veterans Affairs hospitals cared for wounded soldiers. Kovic (Around the World in Eight Days, 1984, etc.) returned from the Vietnam War in the early 1970s paralyzed from his chest down. Insomnia, anxiety, depression, bedsores, and lack of sexual function also tormented him. During his stay in VA hospitals located in the Bronx and Long Beach, he observed that the "wards were overcrowded and terribly understaffed"; when bed-ridden soldiers called for help, none came. Kovic began to discuss his situation with other patients and soon realized that the poor treatment he had witnessed was a universal problem that cried out for reform. In the spring of 1973, he organized a group called the Patients'/Workers' Rights Committee, which was a success among young Vietnam veterans but became the bete noire of older vets and hospital administrators. The group fell apart after Kovic went home to New York; it received new life after he returned to Southern California that fall. At that time, the author created the American Veterans Movement and began looking for ways to publicize the plight of wounded veterans at the national level. His search led him to the idea of occupying California senator Alan Cranston's office with other AVM members. The sit-in quickly developed into a two-week hunger strike in which veterans demanded a meeting with Donald Johnson, the head of the Veterans Administration. Kovic and his fellow veterans succeeded in making the changes they sought, but the AVM spiraled into chaos afterward, disbanding a few months later after an unsuccessful Independence Day march on Washington. The great strength of this book is that the author never minces words. With devastating candor, he memorializes a short-lived but important movement and the men who made it happen. Sobering reflections on past treatment of America's injured war veterans.

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August 1, 2016

Renowned antiwar activist Kovic, a Vietnam veteran, delivers a powerful memoir detailing his organization of the American Veterans Movement (AVM) during the mid-1970s. The former marine, who suffered battlefield injuries resulting in paralysis, describes the inadequate care that he and fellow veterans endured in a California VA hospital. From unsanitary conditions to limited access to resources, a grim profile of an afflicted veteran's situation is candidly explored. Kovic recounts how he rallied other patients to protest their unacceptable medical treatment, including conducting a sit-in of Sen. Alan Cranston's Los Angeles office in order to draw attention to the poor quality of their care. The group eventually resorted to a hunger strike to underscore further their dedication to effecting change. Although the AVM was short-lived, Kovic describes how he and his compatriots attracted national attention that resulted in significant improvement to VA health care. Kovic's best-selling memoir of his Vietnam experience, Born on the Fourth of July, works well as a companion piece. VERDICT This chronicle will resonate with those interested in the all-too-human effects of war and the challenges faced by our wounded warriors.--Mary Jennings, Camano Island Lib., WA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
Kovic, a Vietnam veteran paralyzed from the waist down and the author of the seminal war memoir Born on the Fourth of July (1976), looks back to the spring of 1974, when he led a two-week hunger strike in the Los Angeles office of U.S. Senator Alan Cranston. The title refers to the location of a small house he rented in Marina Del Rey, along the ocean, where he worked on his first book and came up with the idea for the American Veterans Movement. Kovic recounts how he got other injured veterans to join him for the Cranston sit-in, and how they managed to awaken the country to the plight of those who served only to receive inadequate health care. Kovic informs readers that this is a work of both memory and fiction; volunteers his shortcomings, such as poorly planned protests in Washington, D.C.; and declares that he is so grateful to be alive. Kovic's personal tale is also a topical book as veterans' mental and physical health care remain woefully insufficient.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)