Short fast chapters, grandiose writing. Kind of gimmicky how each chapter ends with a lofty thought or poetic turn of phrase, usually right at a suspenseful part. I prefer to read a more linear story. This jumps back and forth in time too much. The ladies in the book club all like it but we all agree that there's too much jumping around for our taste; but we understand that a lot of people like that style. This is a realistic war story--there's no magic realism like some people's review mentioned. For me the style got to be too much for me to bear by the last quarter of the book. The jumping around, short chapters ending right in the midst of action, the lack of dialogue. It got confusing and boring.