"This is partly a work of fiction. Charley Goddard really existed," Paulsen says at the end. What Paulsen does is build a work of fiction out of historical facts. In the case of Soldier's Heart, he has a particular point he wishes to make about the dehumanizing process of warfare on those who are in the middle of combat. There seem to be two purposes in this: One is to explain the state of mind of those with soldier's heart, to make it comprehensible to those who see the body but do not understand the worn out mind within. The second is to make a statement about war, often portrayed as a mass event in historical works, showing it to be an individual experience with individual consequences.

To this end, Paulsen fills in details for Charley's experience. Reading the young man's letters must have given some...