When I Was a Young Man

Bob Kerrey's much-acclaimed and fascinating memoir tells the tale of a young boy's life in Nebraska, his journey as a young man into the dangers of Vietnam and the hospitals where he recovered from grievous injuries, and finally to the Nixon White House, where he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. As much a story of the American heartland at mid-century as it is a story of a man who rebuilt his life after it was wrenched awry by war, this "astonishing, wonderful book . . . is a distinguished example of that classic American genre, the tale of lost innocence" (Time).