Point of View

The story is related from the omniscient-narrator point of view, but there is a problem for the reader in knowing what is factual and what is fictional. The author combines real people, places and incidents with imaginary dialogue and character motivation that are imaginary. Thus, it is difficult to identify this genre as historical fiction or roman a clef—a shadowy land between the real and the invented. The reader may well pause occasionally and wonder just how far the author has gone in presenting reality, as he sees it. The book is identified as a novel but it is so laden with the concrete minutiae of military life and actual combat, that it might be labeled as "faction" rather than "fiction." A note from the author addressing this issue would have been very helpful for the sake of clarity. A dedication in the front...