OK. I have heard it already too many times. O'Brien suffered under the typecast of Vietnam writer for years. I helped contribute to that reputation! Well, this too is a Vietnam novel, but with a twist. Tim has eluded his detractors; taken the painful experience of a lifetime of war (because as sure as the day is fresh war is universal: we all wait for the wolf's knock at the door...) and turned it into an almost Joycean laugh at the cosmic irony of our circumstances. Some readers might think he has somehow belittled their war experience. This reader is a sixteen year war veteran who thinks he has done the finest act of reconciliation with the past possible: he has defused the hard lessons of history through laughter and joy. The war is over. It has been over. What remains are these daily struggles that kill us all. We are ambiguous. We are indeciphrable. Tim has illuminated the world for a moment. We should all be thankful.