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King Rat

(Asian Saga: Chronological Order #4)

James Clavell

4.15 · Rating details · 34,036 ratings · 943 reviews

The time is World War II. The place is a brutal prison camp deep in Japanese-occupied territory. Here, within the seething mass of humanity, one man, an American corporal, seeks dominance over both captives and captors alike. His weapons are human courage, unblinking understanding of human weaknesses, and total willingness to exploit every opportunity to enlarge his power ...more

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Paperback, 368 pages

Published May 19th 2009 by Delta (first published 1962)

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Jun 22, 2009 Agnieszka rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-a-copy, friends-of-my-youth, japan, reviewed, 2017, i-saw-the-movie-too

Changi was set like a pearl on the eastern tip of Singapore Island, iridescent under the bowl of tropical skies. It stood on a slight rise and around it was a belt of green, and farther off the green gave way to the blue-green seas and the seas to infinity of horizon.

This beautiful opening line is like a promise of fantastic adventure, exotic trip, it evokes some delightful place, a mystery island you always dreamt about but it is anything but it. Changi was the inhuman Japanese camp for the
Changi was set like a pearl on the eastern tip of Singapore Island, iridescent under the bowl of tropical skies. It stood on a slight rise and around it was a belt of green, and farther off the green gave way to the blue-green seas and the seas to infinity of horizon.

This beautiful opening line is like a promise of fantastic adventure, exotic trip, it evokes some delightful place, a mystery island you always dreamt about but it is anything but it. Changi was the inhuman Japanese camp for the war prisoners, for people whom the only sin was that they lost their war and didn't die.

I had read some camp stories already but mostly European, and though my knowledge of the war on the Pacific is only basic this one felt very reliable to me. Not only because it is based on facts from Clavell’s life who himself was a prisoner of Changi camp in Singapore and thanks to it the whole story, being still the work of fiction, gained air of realism and credibility; not only because it is a gripping, well paced reading, also because it reads as an excellent study of characters and morality in extreme situations. And is pretty damn well written.

The two main characters of the novel are the men representing totally different approach to life: pragmatic and smart, self-made American named the King and Peter Marlowe, somewhat uptight English guy, well-educated and brought up in the family with military traditions. Both in readers and other prisoners the King arouses mixed feelings. Disgust, sympathy, antipathy, open hostility and then again admiration. For his cleverness, business sense and good fortune he’s the object of jealousy and hatred but the King is not a thief. He just has a flair for organizing his life easier and seize any opportunity to gain some money and money will give him the rest. The food, medicaments, cigarettes and something less tangible: sense of power.

Though set in particular time and place it's a fictional account but I think Clavell did fine work here not only showing animosities between ordinary soldiers and officers, confrontation between the King and other prisoners, especially rivetingly is shown conflict with provost marshall Grey, but also indicating different attitudes and class differences of three main national groups of prisoners: British, Australians and Americans. King Rat is a clash of personalities, a display of cynicism, lack of scruples and ability to adjust to any situation in the camp. But also an extraordinary courage, solidarity and commitment. It's about a price you are willing to pay to survive and principles you could sacrifice to make it. There is no easy explicitness here, no distinct line between that what you can accept and not feel irretrievably corrupted. It teaches you that to outlast the camp, like on the outside in fact, you need to be a part at least a small group, that the camp is not a place for a lone wolf. But it’s also about a fear what life would be alike after Changi since no one escaped the camp unchanged, that place made them, then reshaped and destroyed, and how one can forget about atrocities prisoners were subjected to.

King Rat has a whole bunch finely drawn figures but it’s the King and Marlowe that have our interest. I liked the dynamics between them, the way their relationship developed, what they went through and lessons they learnt from themselves. And though I’d like to see them leaving Changi and arm in arm going towards setting sun I somewhat felt the ending, sad as it was, to be more true.

And if someone prefers more concise review, please, here it is. Of rats and men. ...more

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Jul 29, 2007 John Wiswell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: History readers, WW2 readers, literary readers, culture clash readers

The beginning of Clavell's truly epic series of culture clash novels is a curiously autobiographical book. King Rat takes us to Changi, a Japanese prison camp during World War 2, where British and American soldiers are held in dire conditions. We watch as people cling to honor, duty and any semblance of structure for their own mental health and survival. Every observation about humanity in these conditions is more interesting because Clavell himself was held in a Japanese prison camp during the ...more

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Jan 08, 2015 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, 3series, 2sortof_nonfiction, 1audio

I read this once decades ago, but Mom & I were talking about it one morning. When she got her hair cut later that day, she found a copy in their free book rack & loved it. My library has it in an audio edition, so I listened to it. It's a great fictionalized account of American, British, & Australians in Changi, a Japanese POW camp during WWII.

This audio edition has extra material from the original manuscript that's never been published before including an introduction written by Clavell's son. ...more

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Jan 03, 2009 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: japanese

It's not cool to praise James Clavell - and indeed, Shogun is extremely silly. I recall a couple of Japanese people cringing when I once was foolish enough to mention it (I believe they showed the series on Japanese TV).

But this book, which is based on Clavell's own experiences as a World War II prisoner of war, is pretty damn good. There's something universal about his description of camp life. He doesn't try and draw any moral, and there are no obvious symbolic associations, but at the end I ...more

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Dec 03, 2007 Katie rated it it was amazing

This is the first volume in Clavell's "Asian Saga," and was written about the Japanese prison camp of Changi located in Singapore, where the author himself was held as a POW during the late stages of World War II. "The King" is a successful wheeling and dealing American. Using capitalistic initiative, he concocts many money-making schemes, the most shocking of which, involves breeding rats to sell as "rabbit" meat. He generates feelings of hatred or envy in others, but everyone wants to be close ...more

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Nov 12, 2018 W rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, library

A tale of survival under brutal conditions in a prisoners of war camp,during World War II.Not too impressed with Clavell's other books,but this one is his best. ...more

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Dec 21, 2018 Yigal Zur rated it really liked it

a real good story teller. not easy to be a master.

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Oct 06, 2011 Karla rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: lovers of gritty ambiguous food for thought stories

Shelves: dead-tree

(4.5 stars) After a stretch of the book crankies, this one finally broke the bad luck. That's probably due in no small part to the fact that the 1965 movie "King Rat," with George Segal and James Fox, is tremendously awesome and one of the best war or prison pictures I've ever seen. It's the complete flip side to the jaunty and fun "The Great Escape" (the screenplay of which, oddly enough, was penned by Clavell.)

Clavell's style here isn't exactly my cup of tea: so many run-on sentences, and I th ...more

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May 21, 2019 Dax rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, 3-stars

This was Clavell’s first novel, and it shows a little bit. A step or two below ‘Shogun’ and ‘Taipan’, but that’s an awfully high bar to set. Loosely based off of Clavell’s personal experiences in Changi POW camp during WWII, ‘King Rat’ is slower paced than you might expect. Nevertheless, it is entertaining with solid character development. The conclusion is a bit muted and surprisingly introspective, but I think Clavell was looking for an accurate depiction of his experiences in Changi, rather t ...more

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Jul 04, 2007 Mr. Person rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone

In King Rat, James Clavell succeeds in doing what countless other authors usually fail at: taken actual experiences from his life and distilled them into a gripping dramatic narrative.

And this praise is perhaps the most damnable understatement the book can receive -- Clavell isn't writing about "experiences," he is writing about the cauldron from which he was "reborn" -- his time in Changi, a Japanese POW camp in Malaysia during WWII.

And yet, the book is mostly comedic -- filled with the hopefu ...more

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Oct 15, 2016 Jen from Quebec :0) rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

I thought his novel was just fantastic! (However, the entire saga of the King and the diamond was a lot of build up for a lot of nothing in the end, wasn't it?) ...more

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Oct 29, 2007 Paul rated it it was amazing

A brutally realistic account of soldier's survival in a Japanese WWII prison camp.

Clavell doing what he does best; making history come to life with very interesting and entertaining fiction.

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i just found out that King Rat is in part autobiographical. Clavell was apparently a POW himself. That explains are great deal. i was very much awed that a fictional book could be so incredibly detailed and convey the day to day struggle of the characters so well. JC was writing from experienc ...more

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May 07, 2013 Mel Bossa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 0012-to-buy, 0008-fiction

This book was apparently written by Clavell in six weeks during a screenwriters strike in 1963. The story feels rushed and is messy at times with this sort of disconnected feel to it, but yet, I absolutely loved it. Maybe it's Clavell's urgency to tell the tale that gripped me.

This book is not as macho as I thought it would be. There's actually a lot of tolerance and genuine emotion in all of the characters. I was moved by them and I wasn't expecting that. I've read Shogun and Taipan, and thoug ...more

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Sep 02, 2007 Mark rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

Clavell is better known for his later Shogun and other Japanese history novels, but this earlier novel about the lives of Americans and British POWs in a Japanese prisoner of war camp is a classic. The title character is an American with a true gift for survival in the underground economy of the camp, and the book raises many questions about what the most ethical road is to take in an impossible moral situation.

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Nov 30, 2010 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it really liked it

The story takes place in an enclosed small wartime POW camp with imprisoned English, Australians, and some Americans. Japanese soldiers guard the camp which is surrounded by jungle and Malay villages.

There is not much food, no medicine, incredible heat and biting insects. Soap is rare, privacy almost nonexistent. Men die every day from disease and despair. Clothes have rotted away and sarongs and rags are all that's available so rank is made known only by arm bands and a slight difference in li The story takes place in an enclosed small wartime POW camp with imprisoned English, Australians, and some Americans. Japanese soldiers guard the camp which is surrounded by jungle and Malay villages.

There is not much food, no medicine, incredible heat and biting insects. Soap is rare, privacy almost nonexistent. Men die every day from disease and despair. Clothes have rotted away and sarongs and rags are all that's available so rank is made known only by arm bands and a slight difference in living huts. Rank and class are important to the British who try to maintain discipline but there is corruption and theft of food.

The Americans are under the thumb of a superb entrepreneur who manages to have nice clothes, lots of food and Japanese money through great risk-taking in black market trading of food, soap and medicine. He is called the King and the other men are for forced to do his bidding such as light his cigarettes and tolerate his cooking of rare delicacies such as fried eggs while they starve, hoping for his table scraps in exchange for deals with labor, watches, lighters, and rings.

The King works hard in getting the deal, forging unholy alliances with villagers, Japanese and Korean guards as well as the allied prisoners. People survive longer because of him if they have something to trade. Although he is only a corporal, he is really the king of the camp. However, almost everyone dislikes him to some degree. Staying alive is difficult for all including the King, but he has way more comforts than the others. While the King and his operations are in the center ring throughout this compact book, there are several sideshow plot arcs which illustrate the horror of an imprisoned society of men forced to compete for few resources.

Attempts are made to conduct educational classes which quickly fail. They also try to have religious services regularly. Most of the men are morally compromised to some degree after almost four years as prisoners. Most are fearful of the future, not sure if wives and children survived or waited for them as letters are almost never sent or received through the Japanese.

All in all, a suspenseful story on the top layer, but also a deeper layered exploration of human desperation and survival in a deformed, temporary, artificially civil society. However, the novel is still a quick interesting read. The author was clearly aware of the bad taste left behind when character and morality are tested by suffering, death and uncertainty. ...more

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Aug 30, 2014 Benoit Lelièvre rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I wish every first novels had such ambition, scope and gusto. KING RAT is about the manliest, most violently existential novel south of Hemingway. It's full of dudes lost without the structure and the social status that normal life usually provides and completely adrift, not knowing the faith of the free world during WWII. KING RAT depicts the microcosm that was formed by all this doubt and confusion and follows the faith of men who used to live by the rules and the men who decided to create the ...more

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Feb 07, 2017 Bodosika Bodosika rated it really liked it

Shelves: war, singapore

A Novel about prisoners of war in Asia that was wonderfully narrated.

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Jun 10, 2012 Philip rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-stars, filmed, re-read, 1960s, fiction, world-war-ll, foreign-fiction, southeast-asia, prisoner, malaysia-singapore

(UPDATE): Thought I'd read this again now that I'm living in Singapore for the next year. Still great, still one of the very few well-known books set in Singapore, (which is understandable if you've ever been here). And could still be 50-100 pages shorter - although I believe this is already Clavell's shortest work.

As good as most of them (and I'm looking at you Gai-Jin), it's almost a shame that Clavell today is known exclusively for his "Asian Saga," as he had quite a successful earlier career ...more

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Feb 22, 2018 Hasham Rasool marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, fiction, historical-fiction, james-clavell

The Asian Saga: survival in a Japanese pow camp.

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Dec 20, 2019 Ron Wroblewski rated it liked it

Shelves: james-clavell, early-far-east-fiction

The book surprised me. I thought it was about how the Japanese persecuted their POWs on Singapore.
But the Japanese had little to do in the book. It was about how Americans, Australian and British POWs interacted, traded, . treated each other and survived imprisonment. Wonder how much of this was based on fact.

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Feb 28, 2013 Harv Griffin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, own

At one time or another I've read most or all of James Clavell's novels. KING RAT is by far my favorite. I've lost count of the number of times I've read this novel. I also own the movie version of the story on DVD; and yes, I've lost count of the number of times I've watched the movie. I like the book better.

Clavell survived as a POW in WWII. The sub-story is that the Peter Marlowe character in KING RAT is a fictionalized version of James Clavell and that the Corporal King character is a fictio ...more

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Aug 12, 2017 David Lucero rated it really liked it

Saw the movie and had to read the book. Got it in a Used Bookstore where they had classic books available. Unfortunately the bookstore is gone thanks to online retailers, but at least I got my copy (an original hardback).

In the Far East during WWII an American corporal named King is determined not to 'rot' in the brutal prison camp run by the Japanese. He barters anything of value to keep alive, and he does this with the prison guards as well as British, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, and Am ...more

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Mar 26, 2017 Judy rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-from-1962, historical-fiction, 20th-century-fiction

At last, the final book on my 1962 reading list. I read this a long time ago before I was keeping my reading log, so sometime in the 1980s. It was my first experience with what I now call Prison Camp Lit. The dirt, the starving, the dysentery, etc. Ugh.

I remember it as a shorter book. The reprint I got from my local library contains sections left out of the original publication in 1962, giving a look at some of the wives and girlfriends of the prisoners and what they were going through while th ...more

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Oct 18, 2019 Ken Hammond rated it it was amazing

Shelves: military, actual-books, fiction, read-in-2019, fiction-military

King Rat by James Clavell. "And in no time at all they were arguing and swearing and no one was listening and each had a very firm opinion and each opinion was right". Clavell's debut novel based loosely on his own life spent in Japanese prisoner of war camp Changi, Story centres around 2 fictional characters an American "King" who is a very successful black marketeer, and British RAF pilot Peter Marlowe whose language skills forthrightness endears him to King.
Story is basically of these two in ...more

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Nov 03, 2013 T.A. Uner rated it it was amazing

Shelves: timeless-books

As an Author myself I trace my roots on why I wanted to write back to "King Rat." After "Shogun" this is probably my favorite Clavell story, and rightfully so, as this was written based on Clavell's own experiences in a POW camp in WW II.

What I take most from this book is that it directly inspired me to pursue writing, not for writing's sake, but to leave something worthwhile behind to inspire future generations. ...more

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Apr 09, 2018 David Highton rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Set in 1945 in Changi prison towards the end of the war, a story of men imprisoned on poor rations for months and years, and the growing relationship between a young British RAF officer and an American corporal, King. King is the best and cleverest black marketeer and operator in Changi. The desperation of all the camp inhabitants is all the more real when you know the author was in Changi himself for 4 years - this was his first novel, published in 1962.

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May 25, 2020 Ron rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, history

I read this in the 90s as I was binging on Clavell's Asian Saga. (Just discovered I missed one.)

Also discovered this story is semi-auto-biographical as Clavell was actually a POW at the camp described. And have therefore added a "history" tag. ...more

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Dec 20, 2018 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-the-world-2018-2020, asian, read-the-world

After finishing Clavell's Shogun earlier this month I immediately turned to Wikipedia to read more about the author. There I learned that he had been imprisoned by the Japanese during WW2, a POW in Changi Camp, and that he later wrote King Rat about a man he knew in that camp. I was fascinated by the idea of a semi-autobiographical story in this setting as I was convinced that the story would feel more authentic. And I was correct.

The story is incredible right from the beautiful first line:

Chang After finishing Clavell's Shogun earlier this month I immediately turned to Wikipedia to read more about the author. There I learned that he had been imprisoned by the Japanese during WW2, a POW in Changi Camp, and that he later wrote King Rat about a man he knew in that camp. I was fascinated by the idea of a semi-autobiographical story in this setting as I was convinced that the story would feel more authentic. And I was correct.

The story is incredible right from the beautiful first line:

Changi was set like a pearl on the eastern tip of Singapore Island, iridescent under the bowl of tropical skies. It stood on a slight rise and around it was a belt of green, and farther off the green gave way to the blue-green seas and the seas to infinity of horizon.

It feels as though the book will be a magical and lovely tribute of sorts to an equally magical and lovely place. I found the deep irony of that to be a fantastic way to introduce a novel of war.

Clavell's writing is very good. He takes you on a journey into the POW camp where you find yourself wasting away from lack of food, and willing to do almost anything to stay alive. The story is gripping and shocking. We find ourselves living among men living in the most extreme circumstances, and we see exactly how that can cause some people to act.

The two main characters of the novel are very different from one another and yet it is believable that they forge a friendship. The man called the King is a clever, smart, young American who takes advantage of everyone. He is not likable, and operates in such a way as to inspire both fear and revulsion but also some measure of admiration. The second man is a British officer named Peter Marlowe who has always thought that the upper classes of civilian and military societies were better people than the lower classes. When Marlowe comes into contact with King and finds himself needing King's skills his views begin to change. This is where the book sings, in my opinion.

The men are courageous, brave, and have the greatest survival instincts. But they also show a lack of scruples. They are flexible which allows them to adjust to one another. What can a person do to survive the worst? What will he have to change about himself? How will he adjust when the war ends? Will he take away anything positive from the experience? Will the people he love before remain in his heart and he in theirs? This book provokes thought about all of these things and now I wish I could find a biography of the author with more insight.

4.5 stars. ...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Mary rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 19, 2018 SallyB rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-read, adventure, japanese-pow-camp, starvation, rats, military

Was googling Japanese POW camps to find more info after reading this amazing story. It's not for the faint of heart but very well done and worth your time. Just very eye opening to the deplorable conditions that prisoners lived in in that era. My grandparents lived in China during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and I remember them talking of a Japanese woman surviver that lived near them and took care of their children. Very good book!!! ...more

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About James Clavell

James Clavell

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James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell was a British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and POW. Clavell is best known for his epic Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations, along with such films as The Great Escape, The Fly and To Sir, with Love.

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James Clavell. (2007, November 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. ...more

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Quotes from King Rat

“And Adam ruled, for he was the King. Until the day his will to be King deserted him. Then he died, food for a stronger. And the strongest was always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and luck and strength together. Among the rats.” — 33 likes

“Guard yourself and your conscience no one else will and know that a bad decision at the right time can destroy you far more surely than any bullet!” — 25 likes

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