The Wars is also compelling because of its parody of modernist James Joyce's Ulysses, recalling similar characters, events, and places with post-modern aesthetics, although without the usually attached comedic effect and with a darker tone in its place. As a result, Findley's novel continues to garner critical interest in the context of Canadian postmodernism. The novel's self-reflexive retelling of such a pivotal moment in Canadian history-by telling the story of history-thus offers a new angle in which to see the Great War and its effect on the country. What makes the novel so striking, as Jack Beatty explains in his review, is the reimagining of a familiar subject: 'The time is 1915, the place is the Western front, and the subject is the slaughter of the innocent. In seeing the novel from this self-reflective perspective, critics posit The Wars as challenging the prominent notion that the First World War was a positive event for Canada's national development. Others, such as Shane Rhodes and Shelton Waldrep, interpret the rape of Robert Ross in the novel by fellow soldiers as symbolic of the violation of young Canadian soldiers by the Great War. As a result, critics from Eva-Marie Kroller to David Williams have preoccupied themselves with the role of photography in the novel, since photographs in The Wars and their self-reflexivity are integral to piecing together Ross's story and to understanding his character. Most criticism situates The Wars in the context of what Linda Hutcheon (The Canadian Postmodern) has called postmodern 'historiographic metafiction,' or a retelling of history through fiction. Timothy Findley's The Wars received immediate critical acclaim, winning the Governor General's Award for fiction in 1977.

The Wars by Timothy Findley