The Restored Edition (The World War II Trilogy Book 1)

I'm at 35 percent, and seriously considering not investing any more time in it. Very boring. Although I've never seen it, the movie is supposed to be a classic. The author spends so much time trying to develop the thoughts and mood of the characters that I fall asleep waiting for the plot to develop.

The movie adulterated it had very little linkage to the book. The movie did not touch many subjects in this book. At times it was a long tedious read. Some of the dialog was stilted and not really how people talk.

Quite simply, this was not a favorite book. The characters are so flawed such that the continual hand wringing becomes redundant. Jones' meticulous detail in each chapter just became an excuse for me to skim over the long chapters.

Although sanitized for the 50's the movie was absorbing and fast moving. The book is certainly not because it goes on ad infinitim as to the philosophies and thought processes of the characters without moving the plot. No doubt Jones wanted to depict the monotomy of the pre war army, but he could have done so without boring the reader to death. When he finally gets to the point it becomes interesting, if you can only hang on that long. Unless your time is unlimited, get the film instead.

This is a celebrated novel by literary critics and publishers, but be fore-warned. This is not a historical novel about the Pearl Harbor attack or about the world events that led up to that attack. The author writes a number of beautifully drawn passages, but they are far outnumbered by tedious and superfluous descriptions (and ramblings). The author will always write 50 words where he would be better served by 20 succinct ones. It is hard to believe that the legendary editor, Max Perkins, worked with Mr. Jones on this novel becuase it represents one of his few lapses of editorial judgment--this work should have been chopped in two. But the work will endure and I suppose that it deserves to be on many lists for renowned American novels---but it is long-winded and discursive.

This book need editing. It took me over 3 months (I was determined to finish it) to read it. I have read other books that have been made into movies and then I felt I learned something the movie did not provide, I was enlightened by the book. In this book, I did learn a lot about the characters - the enlisted men, the non-commissioned officers and the officers.

I was shocked to see how an enlisted man, Prewitt, would never succeed in the military because he refused to be a part of the company boxing team and add to their status. He had seriously injured a fellow boxer and this bothered him terribly. He was assigned KP duties beyond fairness; he was even sent to the stockade frequently.

I was shocked to see how a Jewish soldier committed suicide because he felt unaccepted; he just wanted to be liked as a fellow human being.

I was shocked to see a young black soldier being beaten by the orders of a non-commissioned officer for failing to name a fellow soldier involved in an incident. The young soldier died from the beating!

I was not shocked to read of sexual encounters with enlisted men and wives of officers; in fact I could visualize Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster!

The book is an awakening, and this is good. We should be aware. But James Jones goes into excessive detail, dialogue and descriptions. The book is over 800 pages and could be edited to 400! Thank goodness I read it on my Kindle and did not have to tote this book with me.

I did notice a failure of the characters in this book to bond, to build good friendships. I served in the army and made many friends;
friends are necessary to survive the rigors of training and daily live in the military. In this book the characters seem to be on their own; they would go drinking or spend an evening in a local "house of ill repute" with a fellow soldier, but there was no bonding, no sharing of feelings and no confiding in a buddy.

James Jones does write well, I highlighted a number of memorable paragraphs. But overall the book was tedious and laborious! When I ordered the book, I was thrilled to learn it was a part of a trilogy. Now when I consider the remaining two books, I say to myself, "Never Mind!"

Not the best, but a good Read. Interesting to note----the movie varies a great deal from the book. Maybe the changes were to keep the movie from being too long, or the social standards required certain things in the book be left out of the movie.

I first heard about this restored edition on an NPR interview (I believe it was the author's daughter), and was excited to read the book, having enjoyed the movie. The story arc is extremely interesting and takes one into pre-WWII Army life on Hawaii - the characters are well developed and hold your interest. Unfortunately, the writing gets in the way - - the reader has to work, and work hard, to stay interested at many points in the story. First, the characters like to think about what they are doing, have done, or are about to do, and think they do - a lot! After pages and pages of meandering introspection, the reader is screaming in the back of her or his mind, "Okay! We get it! Let's get on with it!" More than once, I found myself muttering, "no wonder the title of this book is From Here to Eternity. It's taking forever to get through this section." And the writer likes to make up words, usually in the form of adjectives, with an "ly" stuck on the end which are jarring when encountered. It seems clear Jones never met an adverb he didn't like - if one is good, two (or three) strung together are better. But, for example, how do two soldiers move "quickly reluctantly"? I'm sure it could be explained, but only tortuously (sorry for the adverb). These odd constructions are littered throughout the book like so much broken glass.

Another thing - Jones seems to hate officers - all of them. They are either heartless martinets, fumbling incompetents or hypocrites. Even the one officer's wife in the book is savaged - she is a nymphomaniac with a hysterectomy from a previous exposure to an STD who has to take hormones to maintain her femininity as she has gratuitous sex with every enlisted man she can lay her hands on. Granted, my 23 years in the Navy were post WWII, but I find it hard to believe the pre-WWII Army was as dismal and dysfunctional as Jones portrays it. One has to wonder if the author's treatment of officers is based on some sense of payback on his part. Just my opinion.

I'm sure there are those who will lambaste me for speaking critically of a "classic" work. All I can say is, if the writing were more concise, and the book about two-thirds as long, this could have been classic; sadly, it's not. Leon Uris and Norman Mailer wrote much better books about the war. The movie, for all its shortcomings and departures from the book, was definitely better.

There were some strange uses of apostrophes that bothered me. I couldn't figure out if it was the author's style or mistakes in the transcription of the book. That, plus the fact that I am really not interested in WW2 novels, resulted in my not finishing the book even though it is a classic.

The story, while slow, is well described and the author does a great job of getting you "in" with the character. The novel, I'm sure would have picked up w/the war etc., but to listen to a kindle-page of words where every other one is taking God's name in vain with a gd here and a gd there, it got to the point I couldn't even enjoy the story for wincing at every time my God's name was taken in vain. I'm sorry I purchased the book now. Yeah, I know people say that's the way people talk, but it's not like I couldn't get the same message with a dang, darn or da#$ or even a sh#$. And I know for a fact that everyday people use those words, too.

Any old movie buff knows the movie quite well. I was looking forward to reading the book, but this book is awful. The character development is slow moving and tedious. Complicated abstract difficult to understand metaphors abound. I found myself reading along, then going “Huh?” and reading a page over again. But add to this the frequent gargantuan compound sentence of extraordinary length. After struggling through one of them, I went back and counted more than 150 words in one sentence. Really, 150 words in one sentence? I guess Jones is trying to impress the reader. Typically I’ll work through a book to the end, even when it’s not something I particularly enjoy, but into this monstrosity about 30%, and I gave up. It’s not worth the time or effort to read. If you don’t know the story watch the movie.

I read the original published version of this book many years ago and thought it was one of the best books I had read. Having just found and finished reading this restored version, it seems even better than the apparently heavily edited one from the 1950s. The story of life in the US Army leading up to and including the bombing of Pearl Harbor seemed very realistic and imaginable to me, although I will admit to very little actual knowledge of army life. The main characters were developed in depth and in such a way that even after reading the book, it is hard for me to imagine how the author managed to do that while writing in the third person. I realize that not everyone will enjoy this book as much as I did, but as others have said, if you like stories based on historical events and/or World War Two stories, you might find this book very much to your liking. It was a most satisfying read, and like another reviewer said, I was sorry to see it end. But then, I enjoy big thick, interesting books that take a long time to read. After finishing this book, I watched the movie, which was also very good, and my next read will be THE THIN RED LINE, book two of the trilogy. Up to now I did not even realize there was a trilogy of these books:
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
THE THIN RED LINE
WHISTLE

Life in the army is difficult even in peaceful times. Days are an equal mixture of stress and tedium, and soldiers do what they can to muddle through. They gamble away or drink away their paychecks as soon as they are paid. They shirk duties and make enemies with each other over petty complaints. Despite being terrified of syphilis, the soldiers form close relationships with prostitutes. Others join the local gay male scene.

Such is life in Hawaii just before World War II.

Prewitt has just transferred into a new company. His deepest desire is to be a bugler, a position he briefly held in his old company. He knows is it not to be, though. He is a skilled boxer and in these peacetimes the companies have fierce athletic competitions among them. His new captain, Holmes, wants him to box, thereby bringing glory to the company--glory that will reflect upon Holmes. Prewitt has sworn off boxing, though, after a training round in which he accidentally blinded his sparring partner. While he refuses to fall in line and do what his captain wants, life in the army is made especially miserable for Prewitt.

The young man tries to console himself with love and with rebellion, and in both avenues he finds some success in distracting himself from his despair.

Also sharing a common hatred for the company captain is Holmes' wife, Karen, and his first sergeant, Milt Warden. The two begin an affair that at first seems to be built on simple revenge, but then starts to grow deeper as it becomes more and more hopeless.

All the time, Hawaii is under a dark cloud of approaching war.

This book is an excellent rendition of a dismal life for a group of men who seem to have absolutely nothing to look forward to. They are universally trapped in the army, trapped in their company, trapped in their lives. They can't hold onto money long enough to allow their salaries to do anything to help them out of their situations, and none of them seem capable of making a plan toward becoming less unhappy.

I trust that this book is based on reality and on the author's experiences of military life, but it was often hard to wade through when there was so very little light or hope contained within it.

.
The background setting is Pearl Harbour 1941 just before the Japanese `sneak attack' and our main protagonist Sgt Milt Warden is thirsting after his commanding officer's sultry wife Karen. Milt is a man who gets straight to the point, and, barely into proceedings, he informs Karen: "I want to go to bed with you." There is no beating about the bush with this author as he thrusts you into novel.

This is what you get with this weighty piece of pre-WW2 account of barracks life in the United States. It is well written with a considerable cast of characters. The author gives attention to detail, as if using a microscope. The reader is committed to a rather long and intense read - it is very easy for one to lose the various character threads and at times I found myself having to backtrack and re-read parts to just find my `footing', so to speak. I found it was worth the commitment to keep reading and rather rewarding. It is interesting to note that while the author does not breakdown fact from fiction from a number of scenes and the way events panned out and what did happen in real life and was experienced by him while he served first hand.
.

Perhaps overshadowed somewhat in the popular imagination by the famous 1953 film adaptation starring Burt Lancaster, Donna Read, Montgomery Clift and Deborah Kerr, ‘From Here to Eternity’ the novel is a sweeping epic of pre-war army life in Hawaii and a rebuke to the widely held notion that only bad novels result in good film adaptations. This novel is stunningly good with a large cast of characters depicted against a backdrop portrayed in the most minute detail and consisting of the Schofield Barracks, its frightening prison the Post Stockade, and the hotels, bars, restaurants and brothels of Honolulu. And no less detailed are the portraits painted with words (many words, it’s a long book) of the many characters. There’s Prewitt, a bugler with boxing talent who gives up the sport in deference to his mother’s request not to hurt anybody, forced to endure the hazing of his army unit, the “jockstrap company”, because the company commander wants him to return to fighting so he can win a tournament for the unit. Looking out for him is Warden, the First Sargeant who handles all the bureaucratic details of the company and loathes the company commander Dana Holmes, an ambitious, immoral brown noser. Holmes’s betrayed wife takes up with Warden and it turns into the greatest love they have ever known. Jones develops a theme involving the overlap of animal lust and courtly love which probes the souls of these characters as well as Prewitt and Alma Schmidt, a whore with a heart of gold he falls hard for. Jones is able to squeeze some really big ideas with cosmic significance out of all this. The themes include love, human connection, and the frustrating near-impossibility of that feat and it rises way above it’s soapy content, locating the universal in the particulars of this small group of people living in a paradise in the middle of the Pacific ocean about to be shattered.

This novel and author are what the word "finest" itself was created for. One 1 star reviewer said this is boring because the author is taking too much time developing mood and thoughts and is waiting for the plot. But this is what novels are about. Take away character development, thoughts and tone and setting and mood and what's left? A synopsis. A blog. Cooking instructions.Texting. Go on to the next book if it's boring then reset the strobe light rhythm of your mind to it's natural state and you'll find how non boring everything is.and much more time to enjoy a novel or your own character driven plot of life

Originally published by Scribner in 1951, James Jones' novel was heavily edited to, purportedly, get it past the censors of the time. To present a more tasteful image of life in the military. Now, thanks to Jones' family and OpenRoad Media, we can read the book as it was written.

In the wake of the Depression, military service was the only option for many young men in America. Men who were poor, poorly educated, or poor of spirit had few choices in the early 20th century.

On an Army base in Hawaii, in the early weeks of 1941, Robert E Lee 'Prew' Prewitt is a helluva fighter and the "best bugler in the Regment [sic]." Although only twenty-one, he had lived 'on the bum' for years. Seeking to improve his lot in life, Prew chose The Profession.

At his first post with the 27th, Prew became a boxer. After a bout that nearly killed a man, he gave up fighting. Constant harassment and abuse, designed to force him back in the ring, instead sent Prew to 'A' Company, home of the bugle corps.

Now, as the novel begins, Prew has been passed over for promotion to First Bugler in favor of a company 'pet.' There are rumors that Prew rejected his commander's advances; he isn't saying. But, once again, he is transferred.

His new home, 'G' Company, is regular infantry with a commander more focused on boxing than war. Since Prew refuses to fight, conflict is inevitable. And, with the help of his second-in-command, Captain Dana E. 'Dynamite' Holmes is determined to teach Prew the error of his ways.

What follows is a portrait of military life on Hawaii in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor, and the shocked and shocking days that came after. A portrait of men just trying to survive the politics, the discrimination, and the brutality of the few who held power over the many. Written by a man who lived it.

*****

I have never read the 1951 version of this novel and it's been many, many years since I saw the 1953 movie. Therefore, when I chose to read the restored edition, I had a vague Army-on-Hawaii-before-Pearl expectation of the book's content. Which is a bit like saying Moby Dick is about a guy and a big fish.

What grabbed me, and stays with me as I write this, is the language. Not the F-bombs and C-word, expunged in the 50s and common today, but the way that language was used sixty years ago. Language molded in the mind of a remarkable writer.

(A brilliant example can be found - here - at the James Jones Literary Society site.)

It would take days, and skills I simply lack, to describe even a portion of this work. There are people and places that you can see, and hear, and smell, and feel. The voices and lives of Schofield Barracks will live with you long after you close your e-reader.

Why not carve out a couple of weeks, pick up the ebook, and lose yourself?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary electronic galley of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com <[...]> professional readers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

This book captures the mindset of how many enlisted military men think. Whether a war is about to happen, or we are at peace time, enlisted men enter the military, based upon the wonderful promises of adventure, heroism, and "be all you can be."
In the military social conditioning, those who enlist are taught to live for the military. They are taught to disown their limitations, feelings, needs and wants, for the good of military missions. This includes taking what comes your way, as being part of developing your right of passage.
The main protagonist in this story, Private Robert E. Lee, "Prew" Prewitt, finds himself constantly in trouble, amongst his peers, and with the girls that he chooses. But he won't allow the reality to be something to drive him to think of the here and now.
He is so removed from the here and now that he is willing to put up with anything, this includes being brutally beaten up, and being in the stockade. He has that conditioned military mind set of, "Oh. I can handle it. Bring it on."
What impresses me most about this novel is from page one, through the last page, there is so much to absorb, think about, process, and consider from so many angles.
Reading this novel offers readers a glimpse into the human condition, and a chance at making some pretty powerful decisions about living in the here and now.
When he witnesses another person being beaten to death, Prew becomes consumed with revenge. His commitment of revenge becomes self-fulfilling. Which leads him further down the path of destruction.
And what I most admired about this novel is

This ponderously long novel, about the men of Company G stationed at Schofield barracks in Oahu, begins about ten months prior to the Japansesse surprise attack of Pearl Harbor. It deals with the personal struggles of men preparing for war in a peacetime army where promotion is given to the good athletes rather than the good soldiers.
The two main protaganists are 1st Sargeant Milt Warden and Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt a hard-headed Kentuckian who is bent on being a career soldier. Warden runs his company with percision but his efforts are thwarted by his company commander, Captain Holmes, a brown noser with whose wife Warden begins an elicit affair. In the meantime Prewitt, an accomplished boxer and bugler, makes Warden's and his own life miserable by refusing to box on the regimental boxing team coached by Captain Holmes.
Warden and Prewitt develop mutual respect for each other and Warden does his best to lighten the load on Prewitt, even though the other NCO's in Company G proceed to make Prewitt's life miserable at the urging of Catian Holmes.
The main female characters are the embittered Karen Holmes, wife of Captain Holmes, who willingly enters into an intense affair with Warden and Alma the beautiful prostitute who befriends Prewitt.
Warden and Karen begin their affair because of their hatred for Captain Holmes. Despite the risks, Karen and Warden keep seeing each other and fall in love. If Warden and Karen are to be together for the rest of their lives , he must choose to take a commission and give up the job he loves and excels at.
Prewitt and Alma's relationship was more need than love. Alma's ambition being to save enough money to go back to the states and live an ordinary life while Prewitt's ambition, even though he was a non-conformist, was to be a thirty year Army man.
The story all comes together with tragic circumsatances on the day the Japenesse bombed the island.
The novel tells an interesting story and Jones does an excellent job of capturing the grit and brutality of the military and the sometime savagery of its men. I expect that the Army is probably not too different today than it was in 1941. Jones should know as he served with the Marine Corps in the Pacific during WW2.
I enjoyed the book immensely and plan to read the rest of Jones's trilogy.

This book captures the mindset of how many enlisted military men think. Whether a war is about to happen, or we are at peace time, enlisted men enter the military, based upon the wonderful promises of adventure, heroism, and "be all you can be."
In the military social conditioning, those who enlist are taught to live for the military. They are taught to disown their limitations, feelings, needs and wants, for the good of military missions. This includes taking what comes your way, as being part of developing your right of passage.
The main protagonist in this story, Private Robert E. Lee, "Prew" Prewitt, finds himself constantly in trouble, amongst his peers, and with the girls that he chooses. But he won't allow the reality to be something to drive him to think of the here and now.
He is so removed from the here and now that he is willing to put up with anything, this includes being brutally beaten up, and being in the stockade. He has that conditioned military mind set of, "Oh. I can handle it. Bring it on."
What impresses me most about this novel is from page one, through the last page, there is so much to absorb, think about, process, and consider from so many angles.
Reading this novel offers readers a glimpse into the human condition, and a chance at making some pretty powerful decisions about living in the here and now.
When he witnesses another person being beaten to death, Prew becomes consumed with revenge. His commitment of revenge becomes self-fulfilling. Which leads him further down the path of destruction.
And what I most admired about this novel is

This ponderously long novel, about the men of Company G stationed at Schofield barracks in Oahu, begins about ten months prior to the Japansesse surprise attack of Pearl Harbor. It deals with the personal struggles of men preparing for war in a peacetime army where promotion is given to the good athletes rather than the good soldiers.
The two main protaganists are 1st Sargeant Milt Warden and Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt a hard-headed Kentuckian who is bent on being a career soldier. Warden runs his company with percision but his efforts are thwarted by his company commander, Captain Holmes, a brown noser with whose wife Warden begins an elicit affair. In the meantime Prewitt, an accomplished boxer and bugler, makes Warden's and his own life miserable by refusing to box on the regimental boxing team coached by Captain Holmes.
Warden and Prewitt develop mutual respect for each other and Warden does his best to lighten the load on Prewitt, even though the other NCO's in Company G proceed to make Prewitt's life miserable at the urging of Catian Holmes.
The main female characters are the embittered Karen Holmes, wife of Captain Holmes, who willingly enters into an intense affair with Warden and Alma the beautiful prostitute who befriends Prewitt.
Warden and Karen begin their affair because of their hatred for Captain Holmes. Despite the risks, Karen and Warden keep seeing each other and fall in love. If Warden and Karen are to be together for the rest of their lives , he must choose to take a commission and give up the job he loves and excels at.
Prewitt and Alma's relationship was more need than love. Alma's ambition being to save enough money to go back to the states and live an ordinary life while Prewitt's ambition, even though he was a non-conformist, was to be a thirty year Army man.
The story all comes together with tragic circumsatances on the day the Japenesse bombed the island.
The novel tells an interesting story and Jones does an excellent job of capturing the grit and brutality of the military and the sometime savagery of its men. I expect that the Army is probably not too different today than it was in 1941. Jones should know as he served with the Marine Corps in the Pacific during WW2.
I enjoyed the book immensely and plan to read the rest of Jones's trilogy.

The Army serves as microcosm in this novel--not a particularly original or inspiring technique--but the probing depth of the character study displays a profound understanding of human capacity for love, hatred, violence, cruelty and self-destruction . . .
Okay, the itemizing of theme and ordeal in this satisfyingly unpretentious work of art makes commentary like my ponderous opening as pointless and muddled as it comes across: a cold, barren critque of a book far too vast to write off so condescendingly. From Here to Eternity tells a story of men in that very hotbed of macho cliches: the military on the eve of World War II. All of your classic stereotypes are re-imagined: the hard-boiled individualist, the tough yet sensative sergeant, the drunken fools and lascivious pigs, the violent, self-doubting brutes, the high-faulting, arrogant officers and the long-suffering army wives and miltary brats--each one of these characters is either given birth to here or expanded and humanized so deeply that you cannot help but experience all their carnal lusts and hopeless longings right alongside them.
Taken back and pulled forward to the present one begins to see through the encrypted miltary codes and notices men of every walk of life wandering passionately through each situation, locked up inside their doubts and too proud to stop trying to become what they can never hope to be. For all the history, for all the drama (and sometimes melodrama) of Jones' searing vision, the true picture of life he exhibits here is striking. It is a massive portrayal of man under strain, trapped in jobs they are loyal to and love, but can never hope to get ahead at due to the snivelling incompetence of superiors or the selfish agendas of men so far out of their class and league that the very indivudual understanding the book so boldly expresses is not taken into their consideration. Apparently such is Army life . . .
Jones wrote a masterpiece, a truly gargantuan book that deploys its rage at every target of masculine emotion, from the petty prejudices that are justified simply by living to the rainbow of dreams that we all know will never come true. It exposes the lies that we tell ourselves when we need something to hope for and the outcome of such tragic delusions.
If there is one criticism to be made it relates to something that frankly helps to express certain situations more convincingly. There are sometimes long, rambling, ultimately nonsensical passages of drunken joy and drunken loathing, written so convincingly drunkenly that the reader just knows that Jimmy was plastered, giggling no doubt over the sheer authenticity of his character's ambitions. These are not necessarily poorly written scenes (nothing is poorly written in this book and neither is anything so achingly profound that you find yourself remembering one single line that defined your own understanding of some larger issue), but they are sometimes distracting, particularly when you are so caught up in the action that they occur around the 200th page you've read in a single sitting, mournfully flipping ahead to realize you're not even halfway through.
And yet the length is required, pouring more and more of the same thing over and over again until it is no longer a story but an epic of life being lived out before your eyes, telling you the reasons for living and the reasons for dying. It is a prayer, ultimately, a blunt, harsh prayer for mankind that swoons its serande of mutual understanding in a blunt, harsh manner of impatience. It will stay with you for a very long time . . .

...There is something very American about this book. Reading it in the setting of another culture, this point really struck me. As a boy turning 17, there was much of interest to me throughout the book. As a matter of fact, reading it is a good "coming of age" experience. The fighting, the gambling, the swearing, the whoring....whew! All that and a great plot, excellent characters, and a pathos that emerges from a sea of masculinity. I have read some books about WWII where I was disappointed to find that the first 600 pages were spent getting to know the characters and the last 20 pages were about the combat. "Battle Cry" and "The Dirty Dozen" come to mind. This fits the category as well but it wasn't a disappointment at all. Indeed, it is better than Jones's "The Thin Red Line"; the "combat" book of the trilogy. This is a story of military life on the eve of WWII in a world of misfit soldiers whose only future is tomorrow. Over the years I have occasionally forgotten the names of the characters but I always remembered the name of the locale; the Schofield Barracks. This is a story of the life that was lived in the drudgery before the chaos and heroism. Despite what you may hear, it's not too long...

In my humble uneducated opinion, this book is superior to the film as is usually the case. But the movie is STILL a classic, so don't get preturbed at me for sayin' that. It's by and large one'a my favorites, but you don't get the FULL impact of James Jones' story unless you read this book. And while it is LONG as hell, it's worth it. I'll be honest, I was so intimidated by it, I bought it and didn't touch it for a year; I'd never even ATTEMPTED a book that was 800-plus, but when I finally got up the courage, I was hooked by the third chapter. Of course, like most people my age, I had the preconceived notion of how I viewed the characters from the movie, but, trust me, that doesn't water down the incredible impact of the way the book unfolds; it clings more to tragedy and despair than the film, and truly encapsulates Jones' theory that the world stops to mourn no man. He puts you right there for everything; the corruption, the favoritism, the "treatment", the hookers, and many other controversial, politically incorrect topics that the mere mention in this review would be censored. Fifty some years after its first publication the book still feels scandalous. The stockade scenes for instance which were only briefly implied in the film are brutal to read.

But what's really REALLY great is the way Jones puts you in the mind of each and every character, even the ones we're supposed to despise, like Sgt. Galovitch or Dynamite Holmes, making it not so "black and white" like the film was (literally and figuratively). Everyone is a human being, whether in the corridors of power or in the messhall cleaning; there is no true villain; characters you latch on to will more than likely do something or say something to enrage you at least once or twice before the book is over; they're all flawed human beings confused and uncertain about their place in Uncle Sam's army. This book is a real, unflinching, highly critical and uncompromising view of the United States Army and Infantry told from the views of the young faceless men serving at the bottom end; accounts which aren't heard nearly enough.

But the most gut-wrenching part to me deals with a secondary character; the long drawn-out scene of Isaac Bloom considering his options before his tragic end. That scene brought real true-to-life tears into my eyes which hasn't been brought to me by a book in a long time. Anyone looking for a deep, involved, beautifully harsh an' thought-provoking read that shows you the pain and indifference prevalent in the life of the modern man, look no further.

I vaguely recall reading this book many years ago and not being overly impressed. Thus, it is a real discovery to realise what I had missed--the power of the story to move me to howls of laughter and copious bouts of tears and the beauty and lyricism of the words employed to convey how it must have felt to be living in and under the circumstances of being a soldier in the infantry. All the grit is there in the restored version if Jone's novel.

And any woman who wants to know more about what makes a man tick needs to read this book and The Thin Red Line!

743 (out of 850) pages until the pearl harbor bombing. I was hoping this story would move from peacetime to war time, but the majority of the story was the life of a soldier in a company and the politics therein. It went into all aspects of soldiering with a snippet into the lofty lives of officers.

A big part was prostitution, even during peacetime.... I would have assumed this would have grown after the bombing, not before... There are plenty of girls in Hawaii.

It follows the lives of Prewitt and Warden of the same company. Each falls in love with a lady. And they breakup at the end. It's truly a modern day tragedy and personally, I think tragedies are a waste of time. If I want to feel bad, ill just turn on the news. I don't need 850 pages to accomplish this. While the story was well written and the dialogue interesting in parts, the fact that this story was a tragedy is like being dragged along sand paper at 5 miles an hour...painful. I'm not watching the movie because I sense it will be depressing!

show the slow moving pre-jet,GPS,Cell tell,sexual revolution, volunteer peace time army,not politically correct by any means but real.Hawaii was the other side of the world then.
i suggest "Something about a soldier"by Charles Wilford for an excellent run down on pre-WWII army in Phillipines and also that depression era in stateside America.
Unfortunately this era has been romanticized fsr too much by the "greatest generation" crowd,WW II GIs were even more reluctant than Korea and Viet Nam vets,In WWII there was amuch higher incidents of deseration and battle fatigue.(see Stolen Valor)ie 48% of casulities in Okinawia were from combat fatigue(-with the old breed)nothing in Viet Nam even approached that!!
Also see the"Execution of Private Sloviek" William Bradford HUie to show the real(reality doesn't sell and nostalga is a human weakness)of that era.also of cousre there the Hollywood -Media wish I'd been wannabe "patriots"who vicariously sacrifice thru wishful thinking.(almost every man want to "have been to war"especially if he avoided going whem he was young.
best Jimmy Mack
P.S.incidently my Dad was in Eddie Sloviek's unit and I served as a medic in Viet Nam

I first read "From here to Eternity" as a project for my high school senior English class on the reccomendation of a friends. While the sheer size of the volume was intimidating, I was not daunted and I am very glad I was not. It took me a entire month to read the book, but it was one of the best months of my life. "From here to Eternity" captures an immeasurably large spectrum of what it is to be human. Contrary to what I've read about it here and there it is not a love story, nor is it a war story, rather, it is a human story, one of the most dramatic and overpowering tales of human being I have ever read. One should not be intimidated by the size of the book, nor by it's first few chapters, becuase if one gives it time it will entrall beyond belief.
One would be hard-pressed to find a better twentieth century novel, perhaps a better novel ever. I reccomend this book to everyone I know that I think has the intellect and philosophical inclination to appreciate it.

Almost a great novel powerful realistic scenes about depression era enlisted man's army better about women than Hemingway but scenes between Karen and Warden unbelievable and should have been cut as should Jack Molloy section two hundred pages too long