Lively is clearly a writer who is interested in language on many levels. Through Claudia, she reflects on language as itself a historical document as well as on the ways in which we use language to shield ourselves from reality. The jargon of World War II combatants makes the grave realities of injury and death more manageable by euphemizing them. The language of the novel itself, while well-crafted, is less instrumental to establishing the perspectives of its characters than is the simple shift of point-of-view.