When Jamie is close to wrapping things up, we learn that TJ has gone missing in Vietnam. Wait… what? Instead of telling us all the bits and pieces of what happens to TJ over there, she brings her story to an abrupt end. It's only very briefly that we learn he was taken as a POW. Listen to what she tells us:
And though we didn't know it yet, somewhere in Vietnam my brother, TJ, was waiting in a prisoner-of-war camp, where he would wait for two more years, without a camera, without a pen to write us a letter to let us know where he was or if he was safe. (16.44)
We have a hard time with the ending—it leaves us with so many question. TJ is a POW? How does he survive? What happens to him over there? Those are just a couple of the million questions that run through our heads at this news. Plus, it seems very rushed; after spending so much time with Jamie and her family, we want to learn more about everyone's experience during these two years. But we don't get to.
So what's the deal? We think the story is really meant to be about Jamie, not TJ. After all, she is the protagonist. The ending of the book comes at a time when she's finally learned to acknowledge that she has a complex relationship with war. Even though we might like more deets on TJ's experience, that's really not Jamie's story to tell.