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A review by erin_oriordan_is_reading_again
From Here to Eternity by James Jones
5.0
Oh, Prew, you big idiot. Why did you ever listen to Maggio? Maggio's just a dumb kid. You shouldn't have let him talk you into getting put in the hole and moved to the second bunkhouse. But it was inevitable, I suppose.
I keep wanting to compare this book to [b:Gone With the Wind|18405|Gone With the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328025229s/18405.jpg|3358283], but that's really an apples-to-oranges comparison. GWTW is a sweeping epic that follows Scarlet O'Hara from the age of sixteen up into her 30s, while FHTE all takes place in 1941 and January 1942. Even though it spans only a year, though, it feels like a big, sweeping epic. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor doesn't come in until the last 200 pages or so, but since we're reading it through the lens of history, Pearl Harbor looms over the whole novel.
The heroes, Robert E. Lee Prewitt and Milton Warden, are both flawed, but by the end, we love them, flaws and all. The women - Lorene and Karen - are also flawed, but all they really want is to be in love without being pushed around by love. One might surmise that James Jones took too pessimistic a view of love, and harbored an uncalled-for sympathy for alcoholics. Still, his story rings incredibly true. Like GWTW, this is an imperfect novel that will stay with me long after I've closed the back cover.
Now, on to the sequel, [b:The Thin Red Line|92417|The Thin Red Line|James Jones|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171247310s/92417.jpg|994495]. Prew and Warden will be reincarnated as Witt and Welsh.
I keep wanting to compare this book to [b:Gone With the Wind|18405|Gone With the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328025229s/18405.jpg|3358283], but that's really an apples-to-oranges comparison. GWTW is a sweeping epic that follows Scarlet O'Hara from the age of sixteen up into her 30s, while FHTE all takes place in 1941 and January 1942. Even though it spans only a year, though, it feels like a big, sweeping epic. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor doesn't come in until the last 200 pages or so, but since we're reading it through the lens of history, Pearl Harbor looms over the whole novel.
The heroes, Robert E. Lee Prewitt and Milton Warden, are both flawed, but by the end, we love them, flaws and all. The women - Lorene and Karen - are also flawed, but all they really want is to be in love without being pushed around by love. One might surmise that James Jones took too pessimistic a view of love, and harbored an uncalled-for sympathy for alcoholics. Still, his story rings incredibly true. Like GWTW, this is an imperfect novel that will stay with me long after I've closed the back cover.
Now, on to the sequel, [b:The Thin Red Line|92417|The Thin Red Line|James Jones|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171247310s/92417.jpg|994495]. Prew and Warden will be reincarnated as Witt and Welsh.