Hearts in Atlantis--can somebody help me here?

[raccoon]

One of the characters was a Vietnam vet, and he was haunted by an image of a Vietnamese woman after he came back to the US. A psychiatrist told him the Vietnamese women represented something, but what was it? Anybody remember?

[pitohui]

1. give me a pm tomorrow

i have this book and i can look it up if sufficiently motivated

pm me if you don't have your answer and i'll thumb thru it

[pitohui]

2. what i've found so far

ok, i've got a hardcover 1999 edition, on page 464, it says,

You'll start to understand her (meaning the Vietnamese ghost) in time, the headshrinker in San Francisco had told him, and refused to say much more no matter how hard Sully pressed him....

i haven't yet found anywhere he actually tells him what the vision means -- that's it

it's a shame i remember so little of this book, reviewing it now, all i remember is the gambling addiction material, but entire sections, such as the beginning of the book with the kid who befriends the old man...i completely forgot all that!

sorry to be so unhelpful

[raccoon]

4. Thanks, pitohui. I got the books from the library. Here's what

I found (in addition to what you quoted):

According to the books, old mamasan...was "an externalized fantasy" which served as a "coping mechanism" to help him deal with his "survivor guilt" and "post-traumatic stress syndrome." She was a daydream, in other words.

P. 465

I think that was one of King's better books. I may go back and read it again.

[Kire]

3. Read it again.

Whatever you do, don't spoil it here.