the letters increasingly enmesh the reader

The letters provide a satisfying voyeuristic experience. A growing intimacy with Fred and Willie and the folks back home emerges from what at first seems like mundane exchanges. Quiet and with cumulative power, the letters increasingly enmesh the reader in the small dramas of waiting for the magazine or a deck of good playing cards and we begin to understand the life of a boy-warrior away from home and begin to root for these average people facing an extraordinary moment in history with care and fortitude.