RECOVERING FROM THE WAR: A Woman's Guide to Helping Your Vietnam Vet, Your Family, and Yourself

There's more to this excellent resource for the families of Vietnam vets than the subtitle suggests. For in order to bring home exactly how critical a vet's problem may be, and what made the Vietnam experience different from that of any other theater of war, Mason (a ""trained crisis, line counselor"" and the wife of a Vietnam vet) devotes more than half of her book to interviewed soldiers' memories of Vietnam--the frustration of working in the rear, the horrors and degradations of fighting it out in the jungle. All this extensive and riveting remembrance lays a dramatic groundwork for the author's subsequent exploration of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and her sound advice on how to help the vet--and the woman who must deal with him (""If your vet hits you, leave""), how to deal with the VA, how to contact twelve-step organizations, and so on. A thorough bibliography and list (with addresses) of helpful organizations close this unsentimental, useful work.