A devastating portrait of war in all its horror, brutality, and
mindlessness, this extraordinary novel is written in beautifully
cadenced prose. A combat medic in Vietnam faces the chaos of war, set
against the tranquil scenes of family life back home in small-town
America. This young man's rite of passage is traced through jungle
combat to malaria-induced fever visions to the purgatory of life in
military-occupied Saigon. After returning home from war to stay with his
grandfather, he confronts his own shattered personal history and the
mysterious human capacity for renewal.