An impressionistic novel about war and storytelling

Rules for Old Men Waiting

By Peter Pouncey

Random House, 210 pages, $21.95

This wise and quiet book, told in an impressionistic fashion and set during World War I, has the feel of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” It is also a story within a novel. Peter Pouncey, a former college president, began the book in 1981, and while it’s the story of Englishmen in the trenches, it’s also the story of the creation of fiction.