Larry Heinemann Reads: Paco's Story

Noted author Larry Heinemann reads "Just One Clean Fact," the first chapter of his novel, Paco's Story, winner of the 1987 National Book Award for fiction. The book tells of a massacre at Firebase Harriette during the Vietnam War that killed everyone in Paco's company except for him. It is narrated by the dead soldiers of Alpha Company and the medic traumatized by discovering the horribly wounded Paco. Chicago native Heinemann says he grew up in a working-class family with no books, but some fine storytellers. He began writing after returning from Vietnam, at first to come to grips with the trauma of the experience.