This novel features two twin examinations of a singular question: What is the value of reality? By interposing the PTSD and unreliability of our unnamed, paranoid protagonist who believes he is a spy (or perhaps he really is one) and who believes he is constantly saving General Bon (who may or may not be a delusion of his own psyche). Together, he and Bon examine the same question of reality from another angle: What does the reality of the Vietnam matter if the Americans choose to believe the propagandized lie, that America were the good guys and Vietnam were nothing but evil villains.
The problem with that analysis, besides the fact that it is obviously a bigoted, hateful analysis, is that it was popular in the late 1970's when this novel is set, and like Bon details, life can become dehumanizing and patronizing for foreigners in America, especially Asians in California, because Asians are regarded by some Americans with hostility and racism. For Bon, it hurts even more because he is Vietnamese, and he knows that the hatred he feels from others is directly related to the lie they believe in the media.
The value of the plot is therefore scrutiny, because both the protagonist's nameless ramblings and the content of his examination (the value of the Vietnam war in light of American propaganda) converge to a single answer. He is captured and is made to be imprisoned until he finally finds his place as a wanderer, a wayward soul among the Boat People of Vietnam.
There is a side plot that bears mentioning as well, one of the more difficult passages of the novel to stomach, where the protagonist murders a man in cold blood for sleeping with his girlfriend, except they are not married or exclusive, and he doesn't know with certainty about any of it, and his first resort is violence. This is simultaneously evidence that his mental health is delusional and highly paranoid, because he is resorting to inhumane kinds of violence, and it is an indication about the stakes of truth. The cost of believing a lie is real human death, says this side plot.
