On Distant Ground (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Olen Butler
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: 1975
- Setting: Baltimore, Maryland, and Saigon, Vietnam
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: 1970’s, Biracial people, Asia or Asians, Vietnam War, Military life or service, Baltimore, Vietnam or Vietnamese people
- Locales: Baltimore, MD, Saigon, Vietnam
Characters Discussed
David Fleming, an Army intelligence officer on trial for aiding the enemy. Aloof and incapable of closeness, David finds his life changed irrevocably one day in Bien Hoa when he enters a six-by-six-foot cell that recently had held an important Vietcong prisoner, Pham Van Tuyen. Moving aside the rice stand to find “Hygiene is healthful” scratched on the wall, David feels an inexplicable bond with the man courageous enough to write these words, a bond that becomes an obsession. David searches for Tuyen, eventually finding the newly escaped prisoner and...
[The entire page is 1259 words long]
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