Chapter 18 Summary

This chapter is really only one page in the book, yet it explains a lot. Tim says that he is a 43-year-old writer, and that he was once a foot soldier who walked along the Quang Ngai Province; everything else is invented. He says there really was a man who was killed the way he described killing the young man on the road, but that he was only present, he did not do it himself. Then, he says, even that story is an invention. He says there were many faceless, nameless dead in Vietnam, and he was never able to look. By writing these stories, he is able to see and name them. He says that when Kathleen asks him if he killed anyone, he can say, "Of course not"; he can also say, "Yes." Both are true.

Chapter 18 Analysis

Here we begin...