In Country serves as a sort of coming of age novel as much as a war novel. I was particularly agitated by Sam’s naivety throughout the book, especially when she read her father’s journal and camped in the swamp. However, while she may not have grown up entirely, she realizes that she will never really know what happened in the war. Her never ending curiosity and her quest to find out more knowledge about what really happened in Vietnam were driving forces behind the plot of the novel.

This novel takes place over ten years after the war. Some veterans have returned and resumed life as normal while some seem to struggle more than others. Sam lives in a town where people don’t look at veterans as though they’re normal. Even a veteran’s dance doesn’t draw much of a crowd of its own kind.

Throughout the book there’s references to the TV show M*A*S*H and Bruce Springsteen records. Such references ground the book in its time period. When Sam and Emmett watch M*A*S*H together, she feels as though she’s getting a look into what life might have been like for Emmett out in Vietnam. In reality, however, the satirical show was a sugar coated representation of what war might have been like. Bruce Springsteen’s album, Born in the USA, is generally about the hardships of life after the Vietnam War. This directly ties into In Country since the story revolves around a family affected by the war.