Like many postmodern-y novels (it's not exactly postmodern), this is a lot like a history book in fictional form. It dramatises very brutally and powerfully many themes in studies of WWI, especially the wide range of psychological responses of soldiers. I think I would have been extremely confused by this book if I hadn't taken a history class last year that gave me all the background I needed for understanding the cultural situation and attitudes of the time towards the war and soldiers. I also wondered why a lot of it was so familiar to me, and on reading the author's note, saw that one of the books that Barker used for her research was one that I used for a paper last year. The style of the novel really wasn't my 'thing', but personal preference aside, it's an extremely interesting, well-conceived and powerful novel coming from a particular, retrospective view of the war. It is sort of a fable, because it engages with modern-day historical criticism and therefore promotes a present-day vision of historical events, but it's also wonderfully psychologically executed and sensitive to the mores, conventions and behaviours of the time. A really great historical novel, which isn't something that can be said very often.
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