From Here to Eternity

It is almost a pity that the movie From Here to Eternity was one of the greatest movies ever made. This is because not only will fewer people read the book, but because it is so rich in character, mood and plot that you could make five movies without duplicating any scene. The only problem is that Sgt. Warden would be a key actor in each movie and there are no actors like Burt Lancaster in Hollywood today. One reviewer criticized the book for its pacing: there are slow sections and faster moving chapters, but this is an accurate reflection of military life, where you will have boredom alternating with intense excitement. So Jones just reflects the world he depicts in his pacing. There are only two crucial works of fiction about World War II which must be read: From Here to Eternity and James Gould Cozzens' Guard of Honor. The action is minimal in both (non-existent in Guard of Honor: it all takes place on a Florida airbase over the course of a weekend) but both capture the times like no other book. They complement each other, too, with Jones capturing the life of enlisted men and Cozzens doing the same for officers. One word of warning, however. If you are of a mind to read Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (not that I recommend it), read Mailer first. Once you've read Jones, you will not be able to wade through Mailers' sophomoric, tedious, preachy tome. At the end of 900 pages of From Here to Eternity, I was sorry to see the book end. After 50 pages of The Naked and the Dead, I feared that it never would.

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

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

"From Here to Eternity" is an epic about life in the Army at Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii, in the months preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Jones portrays the Army as a system in which enlisted men are like pawns in a political chess game played by the officers. The everyday drudgery of Army life contrasts sharply with the promise of high adventure advertised by the recruiting posters. A common peacetime practice is rewarding soldiers for athletic prowess that has little to do with their military training, and boxing is a popular pastime. Private Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt, having grown up dirt poor in eastern Kentucky and spent much of his adolescence as a vagrant, does not have many options in life and serves in the Infantry with the intention of being a career soldier. When the novel begins, he has just transferred into G Company where, much to the chagrin of his superior officers First Sergeant Milton Warden and company commander Captain Holmes, he is unwilling to join the boxing team despite the fact that he is a champion welterweight. His superiors try to break him by putting him through systematic psychological intimidation they call "The Treatment." Prew is wise to their motives, but accepts it with cynical indifference. Meanwhile, Warden is having a clandestine affair with Holmes's wife Karen, whose promiscuity is a rebellion against her imposed domestic lifestyle as an Army wife. Prew also has a love interest, a prostitute named Lorene, who provides sanctuary when he gets into trouble.The climactic incident of Prew's "treatment" occurs when he gets in a scuffle with a sergeant named Old Ike (who, oddly enough, talks like Yoda). Prew is sentenced to the Stockade, where he must endure swinging a sledgehammer on a rockpile, solitary confinement in the "Hole", and sadistic guards who wield a reign of terror through physical abuse. When one of the guards beats an inmate to death, Prew vows revenge, and making good on it is yet another step in his downward spiral. And here I think it's worth mentioning that Jones writes some of the best fight scenes ever. What I liked most about "From Here to Eternity" is that, for a military novel, it avoids formulas of jingoism and contrived heroism in order to tell realistic stories about soldiers who are not necessarily honorably dedicated to fighting for their country, and are doing so more out of being in the wrong place at the wrong time than out of patriotism. This is reflected in Prew, who lives for the Army and ultimately is destroyed by it in more ways than one, and the several other disparate characters Jones introduces to emphasize the Army's internal conflicts. And the most indelible memory this novel leaves me is Jones's succinct and brilliant description of a suicide victim's final thoughts in the split second after pulling the trigger of the rifle lodged in his mouth.

Easily one of the top 100 books of the century. Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt and 1st Sergeant Milton Warden were more interesting than any two characters from any book that I can remember. Each with their own code that occassionally jives with the Army code. Jones has a sharp mind and his characters do much philosophizing. Prewitt spends his time looking for the answers and living up to his own code. He never makes it easy on himself. He always takes the tough way. Warden, who seems more in control than any character in the book, will occassionaly take a dangerous risk just out of boredom. An earlier review stated that Prewitt was too smart for his education, but it struck me odd that Warden had read most of the books on Prewitt's "to read" list. Where does a First Sergeant get that much time to read? The relation between men and women in this book was also quite interesting. As is the relationship between the soldiers themselves.Give it a look. I'm moving onto The Thin Red Line.