From Here to Eternity
by James Jones

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Book Reviews of From Here to Eternity

Book Review: an epic study of masculinity
Summary: 5 Stars

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 . . .

Summary of From Here to Eternity

World War II Books

• Subjects > History > Military > World War II
• Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Men's Adventure
• War