I bought the book because of the interesting description on the back cover and the note that said the author was the "winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction." This book was dreadful. Thoroughly unsympathetic characters, terrible dialogue, and an unconvincing plot. Sometimes I laughed out loud at the contrived conflicts and plot twists. I felt I should finish the book just to make sure it was really that bad. It was. Please don't waste your time reading this dud.

I loved this book. It is probably my favorite Robert Olen Butler book. The book is sort of a cross between Camus "The Stranger" and Hemmingway's "A Farewell To Arms."

Although this was a historically accurate novel, it was not very good. It was a completely unfair and biased towards the Vietnam war. It was far to sympathetic to the Viet congs and out right disrespectful to those who faught in the war.