While I found the book horrifying, I did finish it, and dwelt on it for months afterwards. I think it is a great, though difficult, story and cautionary tale. It opened my eyes to political possibilities that I hadn't previously considered, it disrupted my naïveté that America as a nation would/could only ever be on the side of Right. I was in my early 20's when I read it, and I still believed in John Wayne, baseball, apple pie, that America would never wage unjust war. That was part of my early educational formation, and I needed to be shaken awake.