Fiction. In this novel of war, love, camaraderie, and betrayal Vietnam veteran Clark centers his plot around a search for a rare orchid in the height of the Vietnam War. As novelist and veteran Tim O'Brien has pointed out, the telling element in any true war story is that it doesn't make sense. Clark's characters--both Vietnamese and American, both men and women--are painfully aware that nothing seems to make sense in the war, that one might as well trek off in search of a deep jungle orchid.