The novel frequently creates an ambience of absurdity and surreality in the midst of wartime violence and destruction, placing the characters into situations where they struggle to make sense of what is happening or to find a higher sense of purpose. Through the characters’ inner turmoil, the novel examines the search for faith and meaning in an arbitrary world.

The novel frequently emphasizes how characters often seek meaning through idealistic schemes, only to be disappointed with the reality. Skip clamors for a position in Vietnam so he can indulge in thrilling, “real” espionage, yet he gets stranded in a “villa in the boonies” (190), once again sifting through endless, incomprehensible documents. Thus, the colonel’s grandiose project evaporates even before it is truly launched. The greatest absurdity is war itself, where half a village can be wiped out in an instant. Survival, too, is random, with the experiences of Carignan and Kathy showing them that it is impossible to predict which sick child or wounded woman will survive through the night. Stranded in this nihilistic-seeming world, the only way forward is for characters to seek faith and meaning.

Characters often turn to philosophies and religions, and the novel is filled with allusions to several faiths, from Buddhism to Seventh Day Adventism. Those who are not overtly religious try to find meaning through studying works of literature, philosophy, and strategy, as when Skip reads the diaries of Dr. Bouquet, which are filled with notes on thinkers and artists like Antonin Artaud and Emil Cioran. Despite the presence of these philosophical and religious systems, the world challenges the faith of the characters at every turn, filling them with spiritual terror. This dynamic is most evident in the case of Kathy and Trung, two of the most impassioned people in the novel. The more Kathy tries to believe in the possibility of salvation, the more she sees horrors convincing her that some people are “fated from the foundation of the world to spend eternity in Hell” (227). Trung, who sacrificed his youth and personal ties for the communist cause, now faces the pain of betraying that cause when he recognizes that it is not delivering what he believes it promised.

However, some characters do ultimately find the meaning they seek. As Trung tells Skip, the pain of his betrayal is also “the pain of life returning” (392). Trung has not abandoned the search for meaning, but has been slowly returning to a different kind of faith, inspired by his Buddhist and Confucianist heritage, which favors acceptance over violence. He tells Skip that he continues to seek the truth of “Dukkha, Samudaya, Nirodha, Magga” (393), that life is suffering, but in letting go of attachment, one can achieve liberation. Trung’s journey back to his religious roots and community signifies that instead of being abandoned, the search for meaning has to be constantly refined and reexamined.

A similar movement occurs for Kathy at the novel’s end, with her realizing that ultimately “all will be saved” and recovering her faith (615). Despite the absurdity of the world, she accepts that human beings have no choice but to keep faith in humanity.