In 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War, our hero, Dr. Reginald Houghton, a wealthy confident Harvard Yale trained physician with two years of internal medicine residency, was assigned by the US Army as a Senior Medical Advisor to the Korean Army. Upon arrival in Korea, he quickly grasped the contradictory tenets of neo-Confucian Korean versus American laws and customs; in a jam what do you do? Follow American or Korean laws or culture? Unlike most U.S. garrison soldiers Captain Houghton decided to have a "positive" experience beyond alcohol, drugs and "business ladies." The novel recounts his sometimes shocking, often humorous adventures with the Korean language, Korean karate, Korean officers, indigent patients, priceless jadeite carvings, and various ladies.

The poems that Coleridge wrote after his "golden" period are seldom studied or anthologized. Yet many of these later poems are of quality and interest, addressing such universal themes as the nature of self and the experience of unrequited love. Paley examines the later verse in the context of Coleridge's oeuvre. He discusses its distinguishing characteristics, and looks at why the poet felt he had to develop distinctively different modes of writing for these works.