Title: The best book of the trilogy
Product review: Readers who want a fictionalization of Paul Fussell's "The Great War and Modern Memory" should look no further. This slender novel captures the essential cultural impact of World War I--the destruction of sincere discourse. Barker's economical style is ideally suited to the material, although at times I wished she would probe her characters a bit further. While her reticence is fatal to the other two books in the trilogy, it works here, perhaps because Rivers is such a wonderful, complex personality. A haunting experience, and worth every bit of the discomfort it causes.
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