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The Thin Red Line

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 3,487 ratings · 103 reviews

"When compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that he might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Life was pointless. Whether he looked at a tree or not was pointless. It just didn't make any difference. It was pointless to the tree, it was point...more

Paperback, 475 pages

Published May 7th 1998 by Sceptre (first published 1962)

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World War II Fiction

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All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

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Oct 29, 2011 mark monday rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alpha-team, into-the-past

A true masterpiece and one of my favorite novels. Although it has all the realistic, gritty detailing that any novel recounting World War 2 Guadalcanal should have, it is so much more. The reader will indeed learn which gun is which and which rank is which. They will understand what needs to happen to take a hill. They will know what a crowded ship full of men will smell like. They will come to understand the practical intricacies of making war. But, as anyone who viewed the recent version of th...more A true masterpiece and one of my favorite novels. Although it has all the realistic, gritty detailing that any novel recounting World War 2 Guadalcanal should have, it is so much more. The reader will indeed learn which gun is which and which rank is which. They will understand what needs to happen to take a hill. They will know what a crowded ship full of men will smell like. They will come to understand the practical intricacies of making war. But, as anyone who viewed the recent version of the film will know, the story is not one based on narrative but one based on a specific philosophy: we are all, as humans, forever destined to never truly understand one another, we are forever destined to never truly achieve the kind of empathetic meeting of heart & mind & soul that we may yearn for - a yearning we may not understand or even recognize. War is, if it is anything, an insane metaphor for that lack of understanding, that true lack of connection, and to be a part of that metaphor is to be, in a way, as insane.

This is a novel of many voices, each individualized and each specifically unique and amusingly detailed. And yet there is a similarity to the themes that emerge from the thoughts of each of the characters, whether they are trying to understand their brothers, their girls back home, their commanders, their enemy, their next target, or the war itself: the feeling of distance. It is a melancholy and confusing feeling. Each one blunders through his life in his own way, barely grasping what is happening around him, barely grasping what is happening inside himself as well. The novel is epic in its depiction of war, but it is intimate in its depiction of the levels of mystery within each of us and between us as well.

It is surprisingly funny at times. James Jones has a mordant voice and he knows the ridiculousness of men, how amusing our little concerns and irritations and idiosyncrasies can be when depicted at times gently but more often pointedly. He also knows that throwing dozens upon dozens of characters in the narrative will confuse and annoy the lazy reader – but how else to illustrate the confusion of wartime? The coming and going of bodies, of places, of times that all blur together. Jones himself was a WW2 veteran, and so the details are impressively laid out – but what is even more impressive is the poetic, sorrowful mourning that is suffused throughout the novel, one that builds and builds and builds. It is hard to imagine the number of his fellows he saw slain, and how it impacted him. But beyond that, to see the melancholy within the man, not just the soldier, not just the circumstance? He is the rare author I would love to have known, and yet the idea of his experience and his sadness is so intimidating, it makes me feel like less of a grown man when thinking of the person who could write all of this down. What have I done in my life in comparison?

It is interesting to compare the film with the novel. The theme of the distance between humans is there, as is the idea of many narrative voices recounting many different things but all ending in despair over our lack of ability to truly understand ourselves, the world, each other. But Malick widens the melancholy even further by including his usual theme of man’s distance from nature as well. It works beautifully. Two character differences stand out: Pvt Witt and Cpl Fife.

In the film, Pvt Witt is played by James Caviezel as a beatific savior of men, spiritually connected to nature and prone to daring displays of bravery. In the novel, Witt is a spiteful hick, also prone to daring displays of bravery, but also an unrepentant racist towards all non-whites, and is filled to the brim with petty contempt towards all forms of authority. I like both portraits, but the novel’s Witt seems so much more human, so much more real. You don’t have to be a saint or even particularly likeable to be brave, to save lives, to accomplish daring deeds, to be loveable. He is a hero, ignorant redneck and all, precisely because he is not particularly heroic in thought – only in deed. He comes through, again and again.

In the film, Cpl Fife is reduced to a couple cameos by Adrien Brody, standing distraught by a soldier’s corpse or looking terrified during a river crossing. In the novel, he is so much more: a dissection of the falseness of the concept of “cowardice” during war. He is full of fear, he calls himself a coward, each path he chooses is one that has self-protection at its core; and yet his depiction is entirely sympathetic and rational: what sane man isn’t a coward when it comes to the insanity of war? Who wants it, who wants to be in it? It is not something to run to, it is something to run from. Fife is the secret hero of The Thin Red Line, the rational man not understanding the irrational world around him, and rejecting any attempt to bend him to that irrational world’s rules. I can see how that character would not translate successfully to audiences yearning for heroes, and so Fife in his entirety barely makes it to the screen.

The book’s great success may not just be in its depiction of the distance between humans, but in the illustration of war as the ultimate insanity. As we all know, World War 2 was the Good War, the one in which we all should be proud, the one with truly golden heroes and truly evil villains, the one we all are glad was fought and would have fought in if we could. We had the right reasons after all; at least that is my own perspective. But a good war is still war, and war entails the deaths of the young, the destruction of lives and of love, of cities and of countryside, of innocence, of tradition, of everything. So why do we love it so?(less)

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Apr 16, 2013 John Alt rated it 4 of 5 stars

When James Jones died the Army lost one of its own. Here was a soldier, a man with an abiding regard for things military. Many novelists treat war and the Army but only with a passing interest. They write one book and get it out of their systems. For Jones, From Here to Eternity was the start of a lifelong study of what it means to be a soldier. To the day he died he thought like a soldier. Other writers delve into high society or family life or la vie boheme. Jones was at his best when he explo...more When James Jones died the Army lost one of its own. Here was a soldier, a man with an abiding regard for things military. Many novelists treat war and the Army but only with a passing interest. They write one book and get it out of their systems. For Jones, From Here to Eternity was the start of a lifelong study of what it means to be a soldier. To the day he died he thought like a soldier. Other writers delve into high society or family life or la vie boheme. Jones was at his best when he explored the mind of an enlisted man. He was not career Army but he made the Army his career. It had its name on everything he wrote.

The Pineapple Army was what he knew best. The modern, relatively democratized Army was alien to him. He would appreciate the tremendous improvements in the life of the enlisted man. We must look across decades to imagine what his life was like. He himself was an EM. Then, enlisted men were poorly paid, harshly disciplined, often humiliated, and rarely listened to. But the time was the Great Depression and opportunity outside was nil. The Army gave a man three square meals a day and a roof over his head. Jones, like so many others, was a refugee from the bread line.

Enlisting in 1939, he left a stormy home life. He could not stand his mother; his father committed suicide. He was at Hickam Field in Honolulu on December 7, 1941. From Here to Eternity contains a memorable account of that day: it is a lazy Sunday morning breakfast until the mess dishes begin to rattle. The men wonder why gunnery practice is so close and so early. The calm sweeps into frenzy. The barracks are raked by diving Zeros. Men running across the quadrant are stitched in their tracks as machine gun bullets walk over them, kicking up dust Jones survived the Sunday Morning Massacre only to get his in the South Pacific.

He was a belly-in-the-mud jungle fighter on Guadalcanal. The Thin Red Line is based on that combat. He vividly describes the white-hot bloody battles for hills with numbers. History has forgotten the numbers. Jones never forgot the courage and the cowardice of men under fire. The novel is almost a textbook of battle. It has remarkably close and accurate descriptions of men at war. Couple this with a precise memory, a keen eye for detail, an acute ear for soldier-speak, and a first-rate style emerges. Most of all, he depicts battle with the intense vision of a man striving to be objective. All is in perspective; no one is blamed. The weaknesses and strengths of men are facts to be accepted.

Jones’ men become soldiers only as they face up to death. Seeing dead men all around, they must realize that a bullet will catch up with them, if not on this campaign, then on the next island. If not on the next, then the one after, for the war will last longer than their luck will. Physical agony is all around in The Thin Red Line. A man ripped open, clutching his purple intestines spilling into the dirt beneath him, screams for help, while slowly, too slowly, he dies. Another man, going days without rest, under continual fire, about to break, receives a dear john. His wife tells him that she wants to marry a man she has been bedding.

These men, doomed men, are the stuff of Jones’ stories. They are often the outcasts of society but they find dignity on the battlefield. Jones had faith that the average joe will come through, spirit intact. In From Here to Eternity Robert E. Lee Prewitt, or Prew, has left the coal mines of Harlan County, Kentucky. Like so many others during the Depression—and like Jones—he joins the Regular Army. While others wait for the job market to open, he finds his place in the Army. He can find nothing prouder than to be a Thirty Year Man. The Army gives him his dignity. He proves himself a good boxer and a superb bugilist. After a punch blinded his opponent, he turns from boxing to the sense of beauty he can find in the mournful notes of Taps. He finds a calling and is thankful to the Army that his life has purpose. Like his childhood guitar-playing, the bugle makes him feel that “pain might not be pointless” if it can be turned into music. Pain is indeed his lot. Jones shows that the same Army, the Pineapple Army, which gives Prew his music, is pitted against him.

The Army becomes symbolic of the machinery of Jones’ 1930s society, which grinds individuals into cogs. Prew must accept his assert his individual worth against social pressure. He refuses to box because he blinded a buddy, Dixie Wells, and he will not bugle because he will not play politics. So he transfers to an infantry outfit. There, he gets “the treatment.” The company commander is also regimental boxing coach. The noncoms, all boxers, relentlessly torment him to join the boxing team. Prew won’t break.

He will not play the game. The novel also has another Thirty Year Man, a decent type who successfully plays the game. First Sergeant Milt Warden and Prewitt understand one another, even warily respect one another, but they can never agree. Warden calls Prewitt a hardhead. To Prewitt the matter is simple. “He had to leave the Bugle Corps because he was a bugler.” Red, a buddy, “did not have to leave it. But he had to leave because most of all he wanted to stay.” This is Prewitt’s kind of integrity. If you do something well, he believes, then you must give it your utmost. There can be no compromise. If politics force compromise, then get out of the Bugle Corps.

Jones himself chose an unconventional life. After recovery time in military hospitals he was mustered out in 1944. But he took the Army home with him and, like Prewitt, remained a Thirty Year Man for the rest of his life. He chose a hard road in civilian life. While in the hospital he decided to become a writer. His first novel was rejected by Scribners in 1945. The next six years were impoverished and difficult until From Here to Eternity. It became an immediate success in 1951. Established as a writer, and royalties flowing in, he wrote other novels, including Some Came Running and The Merry Month o May.

Prewitt played the bugle. Jones wrote his books. Jones sang of valor and tragedy, comradeship and hatred, barbarity and kindness. He pulled no punches. His characters are without halos. Some of them perform unspeakable cruelties in the name of civilization. Nonetheless, Jones shows these men as occasionally noble, heroic, self-sacrificing. They are real-life men, or composites of them—soldiers he fought with, ate with, drank with.

He is gone. His words remain. They are a gift from him to us. He had a poem by Yeats read at his graveside. The poem, “Sailing to Byzantium,” has some telling lines in it: “That is no country for old men. The young/ in one another’s arms, birds in the trees,/ . . . fish, flesh, and fowl, commend all summer long,/ whatever is begotten, born, and dies . . . And therefore I have sailed the seas and come/ To the holy city of Byzantium.” He has crossed the seas. He wrote much about what men needed for the voyage. They need bravery and dignity. And so he is in Byzantium and we still have our summers and birds in the trees. Now his stories belong to soldiers living and soldiers yet to be born. Hence, he will live on. So long as there is an Army there will always be a James Jones.
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Nov 07, 2012 Eric rated it 1 of 5 stars

Full disclosure - I've not read this.

I've seen the movie, and was sorely disappointed. One of my friends is a huge fan of this story, so I decided to pick up the book.

I merely read the dedication, and know that this book is written by someone who does not understand, nor honors in any acceptable manner, those who have ever fought in any war.

Here is the dedication:

This book is cheerfully dedicated to those greatest and most heroic of all human endeavors, WAR and WARFARE; may they never cease t...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Jake rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best military books I have ever read. It is very rare to find something in this genre that could also be considered literature, and this is certainly the real thing in both regards. Just finished rereading it for the third time, and each new reading brings out new thoughts that bounce around my head for days. The characterization is simply remarkable, particularly the extremely dynamic nature of the personalities and how they deal with various challenges. In the latest reading...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Matt Turner rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'm going to just put this out there from the start, the first 50-60 pages of this book are really long and boring. However, once you get past these pages you'll find yourself enticed by how descriptive and detailed there journey is into the island of Gaudalcanal.For example, when they first step foot on the island they go into the jungle where "From a distance they made a funny sight: groups of wet men in the rain, moving skitishly up and down the jungle edge..." (pg. 61) This quote is from the...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Thanks to Coxy for the lend of this one. A brilliant, affecting novel about the utter misery, solitude, terror, and existential and bodily agony of infantry combat. It combines rather detailed and technical descriptions of unit manoeuvres and tactical engagements with passages of prose that are almost ‘beat’ in their rhythms. In my mind the Second World War was always a step on from the apocalyptic trench warfare of the First World War, tactically evolved, a tiny step towards the insulated and c...more

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Sep 01, 2011 manuti rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Otro más, que cae.
Supongo que a todo el mundo le sonarán las películas De aquí a la eternidad y La delgada línea roja, pues además debería sonarnos también que el autor de la dos novelas en que se basan es el mismo, James Jones. Aún no he visto la película, pero sé que tiene fama de dura, pero la novela no es para menos. Creo que es la aproximación más real a lo que pasa por la cabeza de alguien cuando se encuentra en esas situaciones extremas de combate, y también las preguntas que uno se hace...more

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Feb 28, 2011 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: war

I guess reading Matterhorn has me on a war novel kick. The Thin Red Line is a look at a fictional Army rifle company during the battle for Guadalcanal in World War II. It's also been made into a movie that I remember as "the other World War II movie around when Saving Private Ryan came out". It's similar to the novel mentioned in that the narrative flows smoothly through perspectives all throughout the company. It's different in that the majority of the focus is on enlisted non-coms rather than...more I guess reading Matterhorn has me on a war novel kick. The Thin Red Line is a look at a fictional Army rifle company during the battle for Guadalcanal in World War II. It's also been made into a movie that I remember as "the other World War II movie around when Saving Private Ryan came out". It's similar to the novel mentioned in that the narrative flows smoothly through perspectives all throughout the company. It's different in that the majority of the focus is on enlisted non-coms rather than officers.

As well, there is a lot more that takes place in the heads of given characters as they ruminate on what the war is, to them, in ways that allow for unique personalities beyond the usual war movie/book archetypes to show through. Ones I will single out here are Fife (who grapples in his head with being a coward), Witt (a yo-yo), Storm (a cook who does some time on the front line) and Bell (the ex-officer). These guys and others bring different looks on the more familiar conflicts of enlisted vs. officers, men vs. the enemy, etc. There's a lot more cynicism than romantic heroism, and yet there's heroism by necessity too. It's also very strong in painting a picture of the hectic combat and how different tactical choices cause certain outcomes. In that sense, I can see why it was easy to adapt into a movie, because the steps to show on the battle scenes are well-documented in the book.

This turned out to be less of a gut punch than I expected. Tension is maintained in that you don't know who might get killed next, but it ends up with less of a body count than you might think. For all that so many characters spend time thinking on how pointless life would have turned out to be if they die in that jungle, the principals mostly escape in good health. This is a good thing because I didn't need to read a completely depressing book right now.

There are some stylistic things that annoyed me in reading this, and I'm not sure how much was a function of my reading it on the Nook and how much was a deliberate choice by the author. The one that stands out the most for me is where something is described as having a "bronzegreen" odor, which is like... what? There are a few other of these word mashups here and there. I'm not going to knock the whole book over it, though.

In fact, The Thin Red Line holds strong where a lot of books, even ones I think are good, fail, in that its pacing stays strong and follows through to a logical conclusion. Maybe the last paragraph is just a tiny bit meta, but I like that it's consistent with the message of the rest of the book.(less)

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Jul 26, 2009 Alan Marchant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, fiction, historical

mission accomplished

James Jones draws the title of this book from the "thin red line between the sane and the mad." But the subtitle gives a clearer sense of the theme - "every man fights his own war."

On the surface, The Thin Red Line is strikingly similar to The Naked and the Dead. Each novel tell the stories of a group of inexperienced soldiers sent as cannonfodder to fight the Japanese on a lonely Pacific island.

But under the surface, the novels could not be more different. Norman Mailer's no...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

James Jones writes a gripping account of life as a WWII infantry man on the Pacific Front. One of the most impressive things about this book is how deftly and smoothly James switches between characters. My favorite thing about reading this book was that I read it so quickly. I think this definately went a long way to heighten the battle scenes. The detail and violence of which (particularly the battle for the Elephant) left me sharing a sense of exhaustion with the characters. I don't think the...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Steve Woods rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: great-novels, second-world-war

This book is a tour de force! If you are looking for a controilled sequentiial narrative this is not it, but as someone who has seen combat the exploration of the function ofmen's minds in those circumstances is right on the knocker. Given my own experiences and conversations in the field and often afterwards the themes Jones outlines turn up time after time, often wryly in retrospect with a dash of embarrassed humour but there. The book has an essential American flavour, and much of the interna...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Alexander Lawson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel is a hard boiled exposition of the realities of war and its effect on men.

In contrast to conventional war narratives, looking at the political leadership of warring nations, Jones takes the viewpoint of the individual soldier. He considers the enlisted man to be alone, capable of extreme savagery motivated by peer pressure and military structure, and to develop a self-awareness of these processes after combat, if he survives.

In combat he describes the blood lust and savagery that desc...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Coxy rated it 5 of 5 stars

The quote for this book on Goodreads sums it up really:

"When compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that he might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Life was pointless. Whether he looked at a tree or not was pointless. It just didn't make any difference."

Whilst certainly recalling the fantastic film by Malick, there is a lot more to this book besides comparing it t...more

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Jan 06, 2012 Chris Chester rated it 3 of 5 stars

Somehow I was expecting more of this book after having watched the Terrence Malick film based on it.

I really enjoyed the setup, through the taking of the Big Dancing Elephant. The characters felt like genuine portrayals of the kind of men you would expect to find under fire, in WWII or maybe even today in Afghanistan. Their personalities spoke directly to the way they coped with fighting a war for the first time -- whether it was a 'fake it til you make it' strategy, ruthless glory hunting, or...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Ursula rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii, fiction

I saw the 1998 movie version of this book in theaters when it came out. I remember that I was completely mesmerized and transported by it. It was a movie about war unlike any I'd ever seen before - it was mostly quiet and internal. Walking out of the theater, I found out I was pretty much alone in my enjoyment of it - people all around me said it was slow, boring, pointless. I mention this because I think the movie version prepared me for the book, which is probably just as divisive.

The story fl...more I saw the 1998 movie version of this book in theaters when it came out. I remember that I was completely mesmerized and transported by it. It was a movie about war unlike any I'd ever seen before - it was mostly quiet and internal. Walking out of the theater, I found out I was pretty much alone in my enjoyment of it - people all around me said it was slow, boring, pointless. I mention this because I think the movie version prepared me for the book, which is probably just as divisive.

The story floats among a wide cast of characters as they arrive on Guadalcanal. (A special note at the beginning of the book points out that the terrain and battles contained in the book are fictitious, but that Jones placed the imaginary battles on Guadalcanal because of the emotion the island evoked.) You meet Pfc Doll, Cpl Fife, Sgt Welsh ... just about everyone has a simple, one-syllable name which is also a word: Band, Queen, Tall, Bell, Dale, Witt, Field, Cash, Beck. At the beginning, they're green recruits who miss the relative comforts of army life in a non-combat zone (and one where it's not constantly raining), apprehensive about what lies ahead. Shortly, as they're thrust into the thick of fighting, they become battle-tested veterans. How they react to their experiences is varied, and we are privy to each man's thoughts, reactions and self-assessments. The inability to ever really know what's going on in someone else's head is a theme visited frequently. You often see things from more than one point of view - what caused someone to act like they did, or what they were trying to convey, and how it was viewed by someone else.

I think that you have to just surrender yourself to the experience of the book. Jones' terrain may be fictional, but he is absolutely certain about how it looks and feels. He transports you to the humid, muddy island, its jungles and rocky hills. The progress made toward the next target is often slow, then suddenly shots are fired and you're thrown into confusion. People act heroically for the wrong reasons, cowardly for the right ones, and the reverse of both of those as well. The soldiers are frustratingly human, and occasionally disturbingly inhuman.

If you're looking for Band of Brothers, this isn't the war experience you want to read about. The men of C-for-Charlie company aren't members of Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation," they're just scared young men wondering how they can keep their fear from showing. They fight because there's no way to get out of it. The book explores the idea that a war is fought by an army, but the army is made up of individuals who are each fighting their own war. They all have go through the same things, and yet no one experiences them the same way. Through a number of different characters, Jones repeats the idea that "many more people were going to live through this war than got killed in it," and you realize its value as a mantra when you're in a life-and-death situation that often seems to be a lottery.

Recommended for: fans of Catch-22 and/or The Things They Carried, anyone looking for an antidote to the romanticizing of war, people who know better than to get too attached to characters in a war zone.

Quote: "It was easy to see, when you looked at it from one point of view, that all prisoners were not locked up behind bars in a stone quadrangle. Your government could just as easily imprison you on, say, a jungled island in the South Seas until you had done to its satisfaction what your government had sent you there to do."(less)

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Oct 14, 2011 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

I first picked up this book more than 12 years ago, shortly after the movie came out. I put it down before delving too deeply into it, and never had an interest to return. Recently I picked it up again on a lark and decided to give it one more try. This time around I found it fascinating. Generally in media American soldiers are regarded as heroes. They defeated the German and Japanese soldiers and did so against great odds, facing their charge with great courage. Portrayals of Americans in WWII...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Cv Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, mainstream

I don't really know how this is fiction. It's quite obviously the account of the author's time in the battle for Guadalcanal. It was a brutal fight measured hill by hill for control of one of the most strategic Pacific bases in World War II. The characters were all real - by equal measure scared, brave, cruel, and introspective.

There's been a lot written about this novel and I will try to avoid repeating others. What really struck me about the novel aside from the normal reactions was that Jone...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, world-war-2, military

Outstanding account of hill battle at Guadalcanal, the first step in taking back Pacific islands from the Japanese in World War 2. The 1964 book, which was the basis of the great Terrence Malick movie in 1998, was founded on Jones' experience as a veteran of the battle. The portrayal of a company of green soldiers from all walks of life becoming transformed by the horrors and challenges of war and their courage and cowardice into an effective fighting force is very moving. There is much life and...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this fictional account of the battle to capture Guadalcanal during World War II, Jones puts on view the range of emotions and responses of the men in a single infantry company (C-for-Charlie) during the assault on a Japanese fortress island. The Thin Red Line plods along for the first few pages getting the reader used to the slow pace and high level of detail James Jones mines for the rest of the book. Once settled in though, the reader begins to appreciate the comprehensive view painted of a...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Yair Bezalel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An incredible book, a few minor issues here and there, but for the most part a great read. James Jones, as Norman Mailer did in his The Naked and the Dead, paints an unflattering but very real portrait of american soldiers at war in the pacific campaign of world war 2. Specifically the taking of Guadalcanal. But where Mailer's work hold its own as a vision of almost unfathomable power and bravado, Jones' work beats it out as a more nuanced and varied look at the psyches of those americans lost i...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Jennifer added it · review of another edition

One of my all-time favorite books. The way Jones wrote it draws you in from the first page. You are inside the heads of about twenty soldiers facing their first battle experience, from the time they're waiting to leave their ships upon arrival at Guadalcanal. Some are wounded, some killed, many are promoted, all get malaria to one degree or another, some get relieved of duty and some are awarded medals for valor, all are afraid they're more cowardly than their comrades. IMHO, this book is far su...more

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Sep 10, 2012 John Nevola rated it 3 of 5 stars

James Jones is a talented writer with great insights and perspectives but I just could not connect with The Thin Red Line.
I loved From Here To Eternity but I found The Thin Red Line to be somewhat slow and laboring. Perhaps it was the use of fictional settings on a real island (Guadalcanal) that threw me off but I look for, and value, historical accuracy in historical novels. The War was long over when he published this book so national security could not have been the reason for the fictitious...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Mariah rated it 4 of 5 stars

War is hell!!! Ok, I guess I already knew that somewhere inside, but this book illustrated that so perfectly. I loved getting inside of the everyday men (more of them just boys) to hear their thoughts and fears as they stood out on a harsh jungle land facing death. The questions they raised were so real. Why does one man die while another lives? Why the fuck are we fighting this war anyway? Will I be brave or will I run away? What makes a great leader on the field and off? After passing the "lin...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Gunnar Newland rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Thin Red Line is a story of two battles on Guadalcanal, and the adventures of C for Charlie company. Throughout the novel the status quo alters, leaving behind a changed C for Charlie. The novel is unusual due to the lack of a main character. Instead, the book delves into the thoughts of over a dozen prominent characters, including Doll, Bell, Fife, Welsh, Stein, Witt, Storm, Bead, Band, Queen, Mazzi, Gaff and even more. The characters face the challenges of war alone, since no matter where...more The Thin Red Line is a story of two battles on Guadalcanal, and the adventures of C for Charlie company. Throughout the novel the status quo alters, leaving behind a changed C for Charlie. The novel is unusual due to the lack of a main character. Instead, the book delves into the thoughts of over a dozen prominent characters, including Doll, Bell, Fife, Welsh, Stein, Witt, Storm, Bead, Band, Queen, Mazzi, Gaff and even more. The characters face the challenges of war alone, since no matter where they look they cannot seem to find a person who can offer any help. Most do not want the help of others facing their problems anyway. John Bell, realizing his wife is most likely having an affair at home while he is fighting in the war, confronts the issue face to face when he finally receives the letter confessing the adultery, and requesting for a divorce. Fife learns to be brave despite his cowardly personality, and learns to confront his cowardice alone. He seeks someone else's intervention in dealing with his fear by starting an awkward homosexual relationship with Bead, even though he isn't homosexual. Later he then tries to let Doll be his mentor. Fife is transformed into a brave coward, after beating up the man who steals his job when he is wounded, Weld, in a drunken brawl. Welsh watches as everything around him supports his theory that war is all for property. Queen learns to drop his sentiments for C for Charlie after he returns form being wounded, once he realizes the company is a completely different entity, with most of the prominent members have moved on. The book pays attention to the awkward, pathetic, strange, unnatural, and painful aspects of a soldier's life on the front lines. The slow pace of the novel gives it enough length to fully flesh out every character. The author obviously intended for the novel to tell the more realistic and painful side of war, to exhibit the psychological impact of war while it is happening, and display how each soldier has to face their challenges on there own.(less)

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Jan 12, 2013 Lauma Lapa rated it 5 of 5 stars

it is strange, how books of war do not resemble one another.
i picked this one up because of the film, and because i generally tend to read books about wars. real and imagined, thinking that it will be 'one more of those books'. it was not.
the seemingly simple narrative attacks the memory and the senses of the reader like a sledge hammer. the mixture of reported speech and report of the events create exactly that - a feeling of madness and impossibility to separate thought from action, feeling f...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Andreas Andersen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

En meget troverdig skildring av livet i et amerikansk infanterikompani under andre verdenskrig. De ulike karakterenes reaksjoner på krigens redsler er levende og interessante, men uten noen egentlig hovedperson mangler boken et sentralt plot. Mange av karakterene blir for skisseaktige til å engasjere, og de som skildres inngående har ingen egentlig utvikling - de glir på begivenhetene og kastes rundt temmelig tilfeldig. Og kanskje er dette det sterkeste inntrykket fra boken - og muligens også de...more

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Apr 11, 2013 thegift rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: unitedstateslit, war, xlong-over-100kwords, historifiction

this is an unusual book, an unusual history of reading: i read this after seeing it as one of my favourite films, so i cannot tell if it has strong images as all i see are scenes from the movie. characters played by certain actors, tropics played by certain islands, actions as presented, edited, perspectives, shooting, sound etc., all as the movie.

this might be a good thing, though it is not so clearly a joint work as 2001 by Kubrick/Clarke, it does fill in the characters. what is surprising is...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Laurent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-books

A gritty insight into the minds of soldiers before, during and after battle

I highly recommend The Thin Red Line because it provides an excellent insight into soldiering and what compels normal, scared and rational human beings to enter and keep moving forward in battle, where imminent and immediate mortal danger is likely and random. I was originally attracted to TTRL because it had a psychological slant to it: looking at what goes through men's minds as they are thrust into the horrors of battl...more A gritty insight into the minds of soldiers before, during and after battle

I highly recommend The Thin Red Line because it provides an excellent insight into soldiering and what compels normal, scared and rational human beings to enter and keep moving forward in battle, where imminent and immediate mortal danger is likely and random. I was originally attracted to TTRL because it had a psychological slant to it: looking at what goes through men's minds as they are thrust into the horrors of battle and what keeps them from simply making a 180 degree turn and getting the hell out of there. On this count Jones' book was excellent and thoroughly engrossing. The reason for continuing to fight was a bit of a surprise to me: largely peer pressure and a sense of not wanting to appear to be weak (along with notions of supporting your side) meant that men who've never been more scared in their lives, and are witnessing the death of their mates all around them, simply keep moving forward on attack.

A real grittiness and palpable tension runs throughout this book. Because of the nature of war, soldiers become beasts with the enemy and amongst themselves. I thought it was excellent how Jones followed on Company (C-for-Charlie) throughout an entire campaign; this allowed readers to fully witness the range of challenges and hurdles soldiers face, from the tension and terror of the days and nights leading up to the first battles, right through to the end of the book, where the Company have become battle-hardened veterans who suffer from combat numbness.

Overall, I would give this book 4.5 stars rather than five. I've docked a little for two reasons: first is that I did find it dragged a little in the last quarter of the book. Second, although I liked that the battles weren't the main focus I didn't really get a sense for what the battles where like. This might just be that I couldn't visualise the descriptions made by the author but I think I missed something somewhere along the line with regards to the scale of the operations.

This aside, TTRL is an excellent war novel and I'd highly recommend it.(less)

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Sep 13, 2012 Erin O'Riordan rated it 5 of 5 stars

The 1998 movie version focused on Pvt. Bob Witt as a main character, but the book is much more about the evolution of Cpl. Geoffrey Fife (a minor character, played by Adrien Brody, in the movie). Fife starts out a coward, but gets battle-hardened and emerges a fighter. He even considers starting a fight with Witt at the end - but the stubborn, proud Kentuckian Witt is in a good mood, and Fife has no excuse to pick a fight. Internal struggles abound in the mosquito-infested jungles of Guadalcanal...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Chortle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: history buffs, LGBT, 60's, 70's

Shelves: war-stories, fiction, lgbt, battle-tactics

Longest book I've read.

Not one of my favorites because I'm not interested in tactics of which hill they decided to go on, didn't care about the hills. Wish more time had been spent on certain characters. There were too many characters and I wanted there to be more focus on a few. Liked the various responses to combat. But it seemed that there was too much of a list of all the types of things that would happen to people while in combat. Lots of where's my next drink, which was probably honest but...more Longest book I've read.

Not one of my favorites because I'm not interested in tactics of which hill they decided to go on, didn't care about the hills. Wish more time had been spent on certain characters. There were too many characters and I wanted there to be more focus on a few. Liked the various responses to combat. But it seemed that there was too much of a list of all the types of things that would happen to people while in combat. Lots of where's my next drink, which was probably honest but sad, and the lengths they would go to get alcohol was also sad. Lots of prisoner abuse and maybe too much stuff you'd expect. So, I did run out of energy reading the story but took notes and got some very good quotes about people being actors and about courage.

It gets 4 stars because it is honest. It is bloody, but not so much that you will have nightmares. It makes the point of how brutal and cruel one can be in a battle situation. It does not get 5 stars because it's not my style and I didn't want to get into the Hill number this, hill number that tactics. I do read war novels and probably would appreciate Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" he's more mellifluous and better with imagery and deeper with emotion in his style I tend to think and have plenty of others on my list.

I never thought of Malaria and illness, lack of water, the heat, and the loss of glasses, theft of arms, crap food and other hardships they would have to go through. I like the various reactions people would have to combat and who would thrive and who would not thrive and the fact that James Jones was able to represent many different types of characters reactions.

It did not get 3 stars, even though it felt too long and tedious in parts, but not that tedious because I read roughly 100 pages towards the end very quickly, because it is controversial, honest and some of it was unique. Also, I feel that it's just that this particular book might just not be for me, but great for others who are interested in the tactics of battle. I've seen or heard so much about battle situations that some of the scenes wereb to be expected.

Glad he put in stuff about homosexuality in war and that there is a rerelease of "From Here to Eternity" which includes content from his original draft of that book which was deleted by his editors which includes homosexuality. I intend to read that book in part because he has shown himself to be respectful in his treatment of the topic.(less)

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About James Jones

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James Ramon Jones was an American author known for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath.

His wartime experiences inspired some of his most famous works. He witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to his first published novel, From Here to Eterni ...more

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Quotes from The Thin Red Line

“If I never meet you
In this life
Let me feel the lack
A glance from your eyes
Then my life
Will be yours” — 44 people liked it

“War don't ennoble men, it turns 'em into dogs. It poisons the soul.” — 8 people liked it

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