Paul Berlin

Paul Berlin is a twenty-year-old man who was raised in Fort Dodge, Wisconsin, and joined the Army. He is sent to Vietnam in June of 1968. The differences between the geography, climate, people and language of Vietnam compared to where Paul Berlin came from are so vast and so incomprehensible that Berlin chooses to escape into his imagination rather than deal with this reality.

Berlin has an unusually vivid imagination and it is not readily apparent to the reader that the story has deviated from reality. Berlin's story shifts from his memories of Wisconsin, his memories of stark horror when his fellow squad members are killed, memories or an escape to an Observation Post that observes and protects nothing, and a detailed trip to Paris in pursuit of a deserting squad member.

Berlin represents the average American young man who is sent to fight a war he neither...