清川江
John Bickerson "Binx" Bolling, called Jack by his aunt, but Binx by friends, is one week short of his 30th birthday at the start of the book. His older brother Scott died of pneumonia when Binx was eight. He studied Biology at Tulane, and was wounded at the Chongchon River in the Korean War, shot in the shoulder, and knocked out for two days.