Zigzag Men is historical fiction. Although the characters and events in the novel are fictional, the circumstances of time and place are all too real. The setting is Quan Loi, Vietnam, during the final months of 1970, more than fifty years ago. None of it exists anymore. Quan Loi was reduced to rubble as the war ended. The dysfunctional, draft-driven Army of the time no longer exists. The young men who survived are now old and gray or dead. The unique commuter war they fought lives only in their memories and in Zigzag Men .