Coming of Age Amid a Sea of Death

While An Ice Cream War is primarily the story of war, it is also the story of one character's transition from adolescence to adulthood. When we first meet Felix, he is a teenage youth full of angst and resentment toward those who do not see him as an adult. At home his relatives see him smoking and laugh about it as if it is an act, much like a younger child playing dress-up in adult clothes. In fairness to those adults, much of what Felix does is posing, a dramatic attempt to draw attention to himself despite being painfully self-conscious.

Felix's first attempt at what he thinks is adult behavior, his advances first toward his best friend's sister and then the following encounter with the prostitute, go horribly wrong. Felix finds himself humiliated and insulted with the worst label possible: "little...