Unlike many main characters in fiction drawn in the context of war, David Fleming does not see himself as a weapon or a war machine, a betrayed hero, or a victimized veteran. He thinks deeply about his deeds and his feelings. He, in large measure, goes along with conventions of his society, yet he recognizes, often in retrospect and not in prospect, the ways in which he lives on the fringes.

He makes major moves on impulse —impulse that he does not always understand. Freeing Tuyen took several complicated actions and violations of protocol, but the actions fulfilled a nearly inexplicable impulse. Similarly, once discharged and facing unemployment and disgrace, he bypasses a job offer because he feels he must find Suong—who may or may not be alive—and her son—who may or may not exist at all, and who, if he...