“When he was a child living in Lam Dong New Economic Zone with Sister Nhã, he once filled a large bucket with water and soap, climbed inside, and rubbed his skin with a sponge gourd to rub the black off of it.”

Phong is the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman, and he is instantly recognizable as different from everyone around him. At this time, many Vietnamese people discriminated against those of American heritage because of the violence perpetrated by American soldiers during the war; also, colorist attitudes prevailed against those with dark skin. For both these reasons, Phong has always been treated cruelly, which is why he wishes he could wash away the markers of his difference.

“Why had they died while he’d survived? He’d asked himself that question countless times during the last forty-seven years.”

Dan is haunted by memories of his wartime years. Like many American servicemembers who fought in the war, he returned traumatized by his wartime experiences. Even decades later, he struggles in his day-to-day life because he has never been able to reconcile the horror of his experiences as a soldier. This has affected his work, his relationships, and even his marriage. In this way, this novel addresses the theme of American Soldiers’ Postwar Trauma.

“Still, Vietnamese literature opened his eyes. The book that had affected him the most was The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh, his former enemy.”

This is an important moment of intertextuality within the novel. In the decades that followed the war, most of the literature about the war in Việt Nam was written from an American