Healing

The basic theme of the memoir is that of the psychological healing of an individual amidst the larger sociological healing process of a nation. The author presents the autobiographical memoir with a complex chronology that juxtaposes experiences of 1945 with the reality of 1979. Manchester had been an inexperienced but enthusiastic soldier prior to combat on Okinawa. There he received critical psychological wounds as well as severe physical wounds, including substantive brain trauma. Though he survived, the author remained permanently marked, and perhaps marred, by his experiences.

Many of the autobiographical combat elements of the memoir deal with the direct experience of violence and conflict too great to comprehend. Clearly, the author's experience was not singular, and this is illustrated by the memoir's inclusion of dozens of other soldiers, casualties in one way or another, who experienced roughly the same things as the author experienced.

The author describes his physical...