you mean the summer novels actually have relevance?!

reading "APO 96226" reminded me of reading The Things They Carried. it intensifies a reality that was realized in the novel. there's no way to accurately describe war until you've been there. the mother of the soldier asks how things are, and, of course, the soldier gives her basic, vague, pleasant images of the world he's surrounded by. this isn't enough for the curious mother, of course. she continues to ask for more detail, "don't hold back. How is it there?", and the son, not wanting to upset his mother, still says simply, "the sunsets here are spectacular!" the true irony of the piece comes when the son finally tells her a gruesome detail after all of her pleading and the father says, generally, don't do that anymore; you're upsetting your mother. despite what she's said all along, the mother really doesn't want to know "all about it".

the reality of all of the war is that no one knows what goes on if they're not actually there, and even those who think that they want to know what goes on really don't when they finally hear.