Veteran's Day

Kane served as a combat medic in Vietnam (1965-66) and was in such bad shape on his return to the U.S. that his home appeared to him as an ambush site. After a prolonged period of boozing, brawling, job-hopping and multiple car-wrecks, he realized he needed help, joined a group-therapy program at a VA hospital near Washington, D.C., and began the process of recovery. ``It's easy to go off to war,'' he remarks. ``It's just so damn hard to come back from one.'' In 1985 he achieved a profound catharsis by taking part in the Welcome Home Parade in Washington, D.C., visiting the Wall on the Mall and mingling with men he knew in Vietnam. It took him some 20 years to come back from the war, and the story of how he did it is memorable and moving. Kane, a talented writer with an original voice, has produced a memoir that expresses grief for the dead and survivor's guilt with mad humor. (Feb.)