Part 1, p. 1 - 39 Summary

This novel is the story of a North Vietnamese soldier, Kien, and his experiences before, during, and after the Vietnam War of the 1960's and 70's. Unstructured but never rambling, the book is an intense, vivid, and empathetic portrayal of an emotionally traumatized mind that experiences survivor guilt. The book is written in the style of a stream of consciousness with shifts of narrative tense juxtaposed with descriptions of both recent events and the distant past. The primary theme of the book involves an exploration of the suffering caused by war and the brief experiences of human contact that give hope for transcending that suffering.

The story begins with Kien, a former platoon commander who is now on body-collecting duty, settles in for a night of attempted rest in a hammock hung in the back of a transport truck...