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ARVN
Soldiers refer to the front lines of the Vietnam War as the “boonies.”
Boonies Quotes in Fallen Angels
The Fallen Angels quotes below are all either spoken by Boonies or refer to Boonies. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 23
Quotes
I got to sit up in a wheelchair, and the leg felt all right in spite of the cast. It felt good. I hoped it wasn’t. I could make it with a limp. I just didn’t want to go back to the boonies anymore.
We got a call from Lieutenant Gearhart on the ham radio network. He told us the other guys in the squad were all right. It was nice of him to call us, but it wasn’t true. Monaco wasn’t all right. Monaco was like me and Peewee. We had tasted what it was like being dead. We had rolled it around in our mouths and swallowed it and now the stink from it was coming from us. We weren’t all right. We would have to learn to be alive again.
He also told us that Captain Stewart had been promoted.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Fallen Angels LitChart as a printable PDF.
Boonies Term Timeline in Fallen Angels
The timeline below shows where the term Boonies appears in Fallen Angels. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
While waiting to leave for “the Deep Boonies” (what the soldiers call the Vietnamese countryside near the front lines), Perry tries to ask...
(full context)
Chapter 16
...him about the kiss, and when he ignores them, they mumble about guys “from the boonies”—from near the front lines—being weird. Perry agrees; everything he wants to say feels too strange...
(full context)
Chapter 20
...the squad to get some rest and sleep. But it’s impossible to relax in the boonies, so near the front lines. Soon after Perry drifts to sleep, he wakes to the...
(full context)
Chapter 23
...spend the rest of his life with a limp than get sent back to the boonies. Lieutenant Gearhart calls and tells him and Peewee to tell that the rest of the...
(full context)
...slowly relaxes and Peewee falls into a restless sleep. Perry’s mind wanders back to the boonies, and he feels almost guilty for being on the plane. He imagines being on patrol...
(full context)
