Point of View

A Bright Shining Lie was written in the third person, switching to first person in those moments when the writer himself became a character in the book. The writer was involved in a few of the situations he describes in the book, some involving Vann and some not involving Van. During these events, the book became a first person account of the events the writer himself experienced during his time as a reporter in Vietnam. This point of view made readers feel like a deeper part of the story, more involved in the biography than they might have been if Sheehan had not put himself in his narrative.

Setting

The majority of the book was set in Vietnam, though it traveled through the events in John Paul Vann's life, taking the reader from Norfolk, Virginia to Japan to Korea and various points around the world. The...