Hamill maintains in the epilogue to Loving Women that, although he himself was stationed at Ellyson Field in 19521953, the characters and events are imaginary, a photojournalistic realism—a backdrop of popular and political culture of the times, and a narrative of colorful characters and dramatic, newsworthy events (the "grabbers" Hamill the editor says that every day's newspaper ought to have) are the most apparent techniques of the novel. Framed within a middleaged Michael's reminiscence, the young Michael's odyssey is interspersed with the tools of the journalist's trade, his own notebooks from the time, recording his thought and discoveries—dictionary definitions ("journey," "segregate"), biographical profiles of the people he meets, their own stories (Red Cannon, Dixie, Sale, and Eden herself), his own reflections, and his not-very-informative letters home. The Korean War events in the stories of Bobby Bolden and Red Cannon are set against the history opitimized...