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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
This book is absolutely hilarious, although I'd advise against trying to read it in a restaurant. Turns out people look at you funny when you try to suppress inappropriate bouts of laughter only to end up snorting and choking on your jasmine tea.
This was a quick read that was an incredible cultural artifact. The book reeks of verisimilitude which makes the clumsiness of some parts of the writing acceptable. The structure as a series of vignettes made it a natural for the movie and ultimately the TV show, and the changes propagated to the characters and and setting needed for each version of it are fascinating. Well worth the couple hours it will take to plow through.
A great read for fans of the movie and series. You won't be disappointed!
I saw the movie and the tv series but had never read the novel. At first I thought well this is going to be kind of boring because I know the whole plot. But it wasn't. The novel sounds more like a doctor who worked in the Korean War and made some friends and knew some wild guys wrote it up with a lot of embellishments. The stories are similar or the same in many cases with some interesting differences. I have always hated the shower scene and the microphones in the tent scene where Houlihan and Frank Burns are having sex so that it can be broadcast across the base. Both scenes cross the line from cute into humiliating and sadistic. Houlihan might be a tight ass, but she does not deserve to be exposed naked in shower in front of a group of howling clapping men. And while the houlihan and the Frank Burns characters are repellent, their sex lives should have been off limits. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that neither scene came from the book. The worst Houlihan gets is an occasional snide "hot lips" comment. The movie character Frank Burns is a composite of two book characters both of whom are run out, but neither of whom is treated sadistically.
Which is not to say the book is nicey nice. Women are still treated largely as sex objects. There is one chaplain they don't like who is treated sadistically, rather spectacularly. It's interesting too that the movie exaggerated the sex abuse and some of the sadism while cutting out some of the anti Christian sentiment.
But the book also deals with traumatic stress and the difficulties of the families left behind in the US. The characters drink not to be cool, but to anesthetize themselves. They have bouts of depression. Also there is actual surgery in the book, described in depth, which was really interesting. It is not just a soap opera set in a war, but an in-depth description of meatball versus stateside surgery.
Which is not to say the book is nicey nice. Women are still treated largely as sex objects. There is one chaplain they don't like who is treated sadistically, rather spectacularly. It's interesting too that the movie exaggerated the sex abuse and some of the sadism while cutting out some of the anti Christian sentiment.
But the book also deals with traumatic stress and the difficulties of the families left behind in the US. The characters drink not to be cool, but to anesthetize themselves. They have bouts of depression. Also there is actual surgery in the book, described in depth, which was really interesting. It is not just a soap opera set in a war, but an in-depth description of meatball versus stateside surgery.
I wish I had read the book before seeing the movie. The movie was genius. The book is funny but the movie took the situations and characters from the book to another level of comedy. I’m not disappointed and if I had read the book first, I’d rate it higher.
funny
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I loved the show growing up, and that background knowledge made reading the book much easier. Without that, I would have been lost well into the novel.
Great character creation, interesting episodes, not a lot of fluency between stories.
*I always tell students if they bring me a copy of their favorite book, I will read it. This is one of those books.
Great character creation, interesting episodes, not a lot of fluency between stories.
*I always tell students if they bring me a copy of their favorite book, I will read it. This is one of those books.
Most of the time I was reading this I was thinking it was a solid 3 stars, while wincing at the undoubtedly authentic use of racist and sexist slurs. But I do take authenticity into account, and am primarily relieved that it was kept to a bare minimum. (Asian only, no gratuitous n-wording.) It became more relateable near the end, at least for me , and when I put it down I felt like I'd read something special.
Even if all of the men are jovial rutting pigs and should be ashamed. Trapper John had two little girls and I can't imagine him hoping they marry men like him. (GET THAT NATIVE POON!) But who knows? Maybe they'll really enjoy meeting their Korean siblings one day.
Spoiler
when Hawkeye and Trapper rotate home, knowing the thing that made them friends is overEven if all of the men are jovial rutting pigs and should be ashamed. Trapper John had two little girls and I can't imagine him hoping they marry men like him. (GET THAT NATIVE POON!) But who knows? Maybe they'll really enjoy meeting their Korean siblings one day.
I read and enjoyed this in high school, though even then I knew the guys were kind of sexist. Not as fast-paced as it might have been, but fun overall.
Haven't read this one for over 20 years, but it still retains the magic of humour in adverse situations, although a lot of the language is racist, it is made clear that the characters are not.