Fallen Angels | Plot Summary

Fallen Angels Overview

The sole support of his family, seventeen-year-old Richard Perry puts aside his dreams of college and a writing career: He has neither the money for clothes nor the books and supplies his dreams require. Richie chooses the army as a way out of Harlem and a way to fulfill his responsibility to his mother and little brother, Kenny.

Although Richie has a medical "profile"—a knee injury gained while playing basketball during basic training—his medical records are misplaced and he is sent to Vietnam and into active combat. His account of this year near the end of the war, the friends he makes, the boredom endured, and his terror of combat and death, provide readers with a realistic picture of the Vietnam conflict and the horror of war in general.