Don’t count the days—make the days count. So goes an old adage on military deployments. Ronald J. Glasser did both as a physician treating the wounded in the Vietnam War. After returning home, he wrote 365 Days, a collection of short stories drawn from the patients he treated and the colleagues he served with. This month’s reissue of the book commemorates the 50th anniversary of its publication. The intensity and immediacy of Glasser’s accounts make 365 Days an extraordinary read. So, too, does the perspective from which he wrote: Glasser served not in the jungles of Vietnam but at a military hospital in Japan. Reading the book today raises important questions about how we remember conflicts, and who can tell war stories.
