MWSA Book Review

Left for Dead

Author:  Jon Hovde & Maureen Anderson

Publisher:  University of Minnesota Press

Reviewer: Bill McDonald – President of the MWSA

“Left for Dead” will inspire you!

Vietnam veteran Jon Hovde teams up with Maureen Anderson to bring us a real life tale of heroes, redemption, sadness, suffering and joy! Jon’s life story “Left for Dead – A Second Life After Vietnam” will inspire you and it will also make you very aware of the sacrifices that many veterans have made on the personal level. This book tells it like it was and allows you to view a part of the veteran experience that mostly remains hidden from the public view.

We find that Jon is very much a human being with all that baggage that comes from being a baby boomer growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s. That includes his days spent driving fast cars and getting drunk. But his story takes us to new places of the heart and the spirit as we follow along on his personal journey through his life. We are there with him when his body is ravaged by war and his life is almost taken from him. Then we get an insider view of what it was like to recover and try to move on with his life. As a reader you will find yourself rooting for him as he begins his new life with a wife and family.

The thing that will impress you most when reading this story is the author’s lack out anger or outrage at what the war did to him. He accepts life as it is and moves onward as best he can. Of course, with all that happened to him it is matter of time when he discovers that his workaholic attitude is killing him and that he needs to focus on his family and personal needs. He deals with many issues from PTSD to excessive drinking to depression but it is all just a part of the healing process for Jon as he continues to move spiritual and emotionally forward with his life.

This book is riveting—once you read the first few pages you will not put it down until you have savored the final words on the last page. I know that is what happened to me. The book will inspire you as does his life to many people. Jon is a special person and is now doing much through his public speaking and now his book, to inspire and to help others.

This book gets the MWSA TOP RATING – 5 STARS! A must read book

2005 Silver Medal Award for Military Non-Fiction!

Reviewer: Joe Fabel – MWSA Review Board

Left for Dead is the personal story of Jon Hovde, a story presented with no holds barred. From the instance of the mine explosion to the present day, Jon admits the reader to his inner most thoughts, the difficulties he under went as well as his true successes. This is the remembering of an individual fighting for what remains of his life after suffering severe wounding in battle.

Hovde returns to his home town missing half his leg and most of his arm along with a battered foot. There are numerous other physical injuries suffered to Jon. He periodically discovers small pieces of shrapnel journeying to the surface of his skin. “I just pick them off.” You read of the unbelievable ordeal of his slow recovery.

Jon Hovde’s determined mindset and strength of character allow him to adjust and go beyond his physical handicaps. The struggle is time consuming and demanding. The question in many citizens’ minds is how a veteran reacts to extensive and limiting wounds. The very human journey presented by Jon in this book portrays an exceptional individual. We salute him!

This personal story is a must read for all of us who have benefited from the men and women who sacrifice time and, in many instances, limb to provide relief to persecuted people in other parts of the world. We are in their debt!