Project Summary: What are your thoughts on the novel/personal reactions, so far? How do you feel about the non-linear plot structrue, with the novel starting in the rain in the jungle in Japan (during WW2) and the trauma inflicted on Tayayo, our story's protaganist, by witnessing his beloved cousin Rocky's death there? Why do you think the author is flashing back and forth in place and time, from Japan, to the veteran's hospital in L.A., and then on to the reservation in New Mexico? Why do you think the recurrence of the RAIN in Japan and the lack of rain back home, right after the war, circa 1946 or so, in New Mexico seems significant in this novel? What do you make of Tayo's relationship to his auntie and grandmother, and to his war/drinking buddies? Try reading the "poem" fragments that run through the novel, in sequence, and see if it makes sense to you - remember that this poem is a retelling of the Pueblo creation story, and that it's being woven into the historical Pueblo past and Tayo's experiences during and right after WW2? Do you sense anything in common between Tayo's PTSD and the PTSD you have witnessed in veterans of the Iraq & Afghani wars?