From Here to Eternity

In many ways 'From Here to Eternity' is a novel about people figuring things out: their world, their lives, their feelings, and their relationships. James Jones creates characters who live and think and suffer in the most believable (often distressingly believable) ways, and what drives the reader through this mammoth book is the desire to track the journey of these very real (real both psychologically and phsyically) people.Although Prewitt and Warden (whose stories are too great and too nuanced to be recounted here) are the primary focus, this is a book with a big cast of characters. From the green Privates through to the Company Commander (and his wife), Jones familiarises us with an entire military society. And every aspect recieves the same precise, detailed treatment, whether the unpleasant contents of officers' garbage or the harsh environment of the stockade.Emotionally intelligent and startlingly honest, this weighty classic rewards the reader amply. It may be big and sprawling in that very American way (at times you forget it was written by one single man), but in a novel so very much about what it is to be an American, it couldn't really be any other way.