Narrator

The narrator is the protagonist of the story and the entire novel is written from his perspective as he writes his confession to his communist captors. The narrator's name is never revealed, but the reader knows he is a communist spy who is spying on the General, an officer in the army of the Republic of Vietnam. Under the General, the narrator serves as a captain and works very closely with the General. In fact, at the start of the novel he is living in the General's villa in Vietnam. He has spent a great deal of his life with the General and is, therefore, sympathetic toward the General and his family. Although they should be his enemies since he is a communist, he clearly has warm feelings toward them.

The narrator is a conflicted man who not only genuinely likes the man he's supposed to be spying...