Basilisk is an Anti-War book that takes place during and after the Vietnam war. It is about a soldier who is captured and tortured during the Vietnam war and used to try and gt information out of him. Troop placements and the like. After spending weeks being tortured and kept in a muddy hole he finally broke and told them what they wanted to know. He had done everything he could to stay alive and to keep his comrades safe from the enemy. He was eventually released and made it back home to America but word had got out of his betrayal. He went home to his wife who had married another man while he was gone because of what he said that had lead to the deaths of his comrades. His parents moved far away and changed their names to avoid ever getting found by their treasonous son. He was left with nothing and he wasn't accepted anywhere he went. He is eventually chased out of town by an angry mob and he pulls out a 32. pistol and screams at them to crawl to him; that they had no idea what it was like in the prisoner camp and that he had done everything he could to resist their tortures. This book calls into question whether or not it is better to die to save your friends and how the soldier was damned to die no matter what happened. If he died during torture or if he had died at home; homeless and alone. There was no winning for anyone during the Vietnam war.