Mister Roberts

After recently watching Mister Roberts again on DVD, I was checking the credits and decided to finally track down this book. It turns out it was just the screenplay (with a list of props and scene designs included to help stage the play). While I was at first surprised, I was not disappointed. This makes an excellent addition to my film library. A great screenplay of a great film. Got any fulminate of mercury?

One of the (If not the best war plays). Touching and humourous. Truly a maaaad play.

Mister Roberts had the right amount of amusement and sadness, which is the main reason I really liked it. At first I was not sure how I was going to enjoy it. The first chapter started out fairly slow, but this was just because it was an introduction of characters. The rest of the book was much clearer with this introduction. Throughout the entire novel there was a lot of humor. It was a fast read with all this comedy. I really admire Heggen's writing style because he incorporated wit with war. Heggen gave a more amusing account of the war than other factual book could have.

This is a fabulous story. Heggen expertly captures the monotony, the cynicism, the bravado and depression of life at sea. The story ranges from hilarious to heartbreaking, and it's sad Heggen ended his own life before writing again. I find it amazing that this book is not on the CNO's professional reading list.

Like many stories, Mister Roberts is best known as a movie, starring Henry Fonda, however, the book on which the movie is based is the far superior of the two. It gives more detail into what makes all the characters tick, and is a little less "sanitized" then the movie. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who appreciates military humor.