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The World War II Trilogy #3
Whistle
The crowning novel of James Jones's trilogy brings to life the men who fought and died in the war and the wounded who survived, living to carry the madness home.
496 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1978
137 people are currently reading
1677 people want to read
About the author
James Jones
48 books251 followersJames Jones was an American novelist best known for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath. His debut novel, From Here to Eternity (1951), won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. The novel, along with The Thin Red Line (1962) and Whistle (published posthumously in 1978), formed his acclaimed war trilogy, drawing from his personal experiences in the military.
Born and raised in Robinson, Illinois, Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1939 and served in the 25th Infantry Division. He was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where he witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor, and later fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, where he was wounded. His military service deeply influenced his writing, shaping his unflinching portrayals of soldiers and war.
Following his discharge, Jones pursued writing and became involved with the Handy Writers' Colony in Illinois, a project led by his former mentor and lover, Lowney Handy. His second novel, Some Came Running (1957), was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. Over the years, he experimented with different literary styles but remained committed to exploring themes of war, masculinity, and the American experience.
Jones later moved to France with his wife, actress Gloria Mosolino, before settling in the United States. He also worked as a journalist covering the Vietnam War and wrote several non-fiction works, including Viet Journal (1974). His final novel, Whistle, was completed based on his notes after his death. In later years, his daughter Kaylie Jones helped revive interest in his work, including publishing an uncensored edition of From Here to Eternity.
Jones passed away from congestive heart failure in 1977, leaving behind a body of work that remains influential in American war literature.
Born and raised in Robinson, Illinois, Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1939 and served in the 25th Infantry Division. He was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where he witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor, and later fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, where he was wounded. His military service deeply influenced his writing, shaping his unflinching portrayals of soldiers and war.
Following his discharge, Jones pursued writing and became involved with the Handy Writers' Colony in Illinois, a project led by his former mentor and lover, Lowney Handy. His second novel, Some Came Running (1957), was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. Over the years, he experimented with different literary styles but remained committed to exploring themes of war, masculinity, and the American experience.
Jones later moved to France with his wife, actress Gloria Mosolino, before settling in the United States. He also worked as a journalist covering the Vietnam War and wrote several non-fiction works, including Viet Journal (1974). His final novel, Whistle, was completed based on his notes after his death. In later years, his daughter Kaylie Jones helped revive interest in his work, including publishing an uncensored edition of From Here to Eternity.
Jones passed away from congestive heart failure in 1977, leaving behind a body of work that remains influential in American war literature.
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June 18, 2023
На русском языке этот роман выпущен под названием "Только позови".
Этот роман остался недописан, но задумки автора и полную сюжетную линию довел и сохранил для читателей его друг Вилли Моррис.
Действие происходит в 1943 году, во время Второй мировой войны, в США, куда прибывает транспортный корабль, доставивший раненых с тихоокеанских фронтов сначала в Сан-Франциско, а затем в вымышленный город Люксор где-то на юге США.
Среди обилия героев выделяются судьбы четырех солдат, все из одной роты.
В романе нет активных военных действий, не разрываются снаряды, не свистят пули, это осталось позади.
Но война продолжает убивать.
Март Уинч был первым сержантом, старшиной в роте. Джон Стрейндж — начальником кухни-столовой, Марион Лэндерс — ротным писарем. Бобби Прелла два раза разжаловали из сержантов, самый упрямый и отчаянный, - главные герои романа, хотя второстепенных героев очень много - раненые солдаты, офицеры, госпитальные врачи, жены и подружки солдат.
Героями романа являются все, кто пережил ад войны, недаром в посвящении Джонс пишет: "Посвящается каждому, кто во время второй мировой войны служил в Вооруженных силах США, — независимо от того, выжил он или нет, нажился или нет, сражался или не сражался, отсидел срок или не отсидел, спятил после всего этого или нет."
Наша четверка героев - Уинч, Стрейндж, Прелл и Лэндерс каждый по своему спятил, они просто не могли жить. Война оставила неизлечиваемые раны, в первую очередь, в их психике, в их мировосприятии, доверии к миру и людям. Война изменила ценности - после ухода жены, нашедшей себе отставного летчика, для Стрейнджа становятся неважными мечты о собственном ресторане, на который он с женой копил деньги. Он с лёгкостью тратит все накопленное на пьянки-гулянки, снимая номер в роскошной гостинице. Их всех мучают кошмары, почти одинаковые. Они боролись, чтобы сохранить ногу или восстановить работоспособность руки, но с лёгкостью расстались с жизнью. Сегодня это бы назвали пост-травматический синдром.
Это роман и о том, как война делит мир на тех, кто был на передовой или хотя бы на фронте, и теми, кто оставался в тылу - какая непреодолимая пропасть выросла между ними, пропасть непонимания. Военная бюрократия, так же как и любая другая бюрократия, легко перемалывает судьбы солдат и офицеров. По недосмотру и халатности раненого могли записать годным к строевой службе и отправить на фронт в пехоту. Эта книга о поддержке и взаимовыручке, о предательстве и долге, о войне и мире. И, конечно, бесконечно жаль, что роман недописан.
Этот роман остался недописан, но задумки автора и полную сюжетную линию довел и сохранил для читателей его друг Вилли Моррис.
Действие происходит в 1943 году, во время Второй мировой войны, в США, куда прибывает транспортный корабль, доставивший раненых с тихоокеанских фронтов сначала в Сан-Франциско, а затем в вымышленный город Люксор где-то на юге США.
Среди обилия героев выделяются судьбы четырех солдат, все из одной роты.
В романе нет активных военных действий, не разрываются снаряды, не свистят пули, это осталось позади.
Но война продолжает убивать.
Март Уинч был первым сержантом, старшиной в роте. Джон Стрейндж — начальником кухни-столовой, Марион Лэндерс — ротным писарем. Бобби Прелла два раза разжаловали из сержантов, самый упрямый и отчаянный, - главные герои романа, хотя второстепенных героев очень много - раненые солдаты, офицеры, госпитальные врачи, жены и подружки солдат.
Героями романа являются все, кто пережил ад войны, недаром в посвящении Джонс пишет: "Посвящается каждому, кто во время второй мировой войны служил в Вооруженных силах США, — независимо от того, выжил он или нет, нажился или нет, сражался или не сражался, отсидел срок или не отсидел, спятил после всего этого или нет."
Наша четверка героев - Уинч, Стрейндж, Прелл и Лэндерс каждый по своему спятил, они просто не могли жить. Война оставила неизлечиваемые раны, в первую очередь, в их психике, в их мировосприятии, доверии к миру и людям. Война изменила ценности - после ухода жены, нашедшей себе отставного летчика, для Стрейнджа становятся неважными мечты о собственном ресторане, на который он с женой копил деньги. Он с лёгкостью тратит все накопленное на пьянки-гулянки, снимая номер в роскошной гостинице. Их всех мучают кошмары, почти одинаковые. Они боролись, чтобы сохранить ногу или восстановить работоспособность руки, но с лёгкостью расстались с жизнью. Сегодня это бы назвали пост-травматический синдром.
Это роман и о том, как война делит мир на тех, кто был на передовой или хотя бы на фронте, и теми, кто оставался в тылу - какая непреодолимая пропасть выросла между ними, пропасть непонимания. Военная бюрократия, так же как и любая другая бюрократия, легко перемалывает судьбы солдат и офицеров. По недосмотру и халатности раненого могли записать годным к строевой службе и отправить на фронт в пехоту. Эта книга о поддержке и взаимовыручке, о предательстве и долге, о войне и мире. И, конечно, бесконечно жаль, что роман недописан.
November 30, 2018
Landers grinned. “I'm already in serious trouble. I'm going to get killed in this war. I'm futureless."
"Think beyond that. Think about after the war."
"I can't."
"You don't want to get into trouble with the Army and wind up with a dishonorable discharge that will dog you the rest of your life."
"I can't think about after," Landers said again. "There's no after there. There's nothing. A blank wall. A curtain of fog, that I can't see beyond."
Whistle by James Jones was published posthumously in 1978 as the final novel of the WWII Trilogy. I was again gobsmacked by his writing in Whistle just as I was upon reading 'From Here to Eternity' and 'The Thin Red Line'. His narrative is very realistic, non-stylistic, incredibly visceral and autobiographical to a heavy degree. He desperately wanted his readers to feel what it was like to be in the military and in battle. He counted among his friends William Styron and Norman Mailer who were both in awe of him. Mailer even said that 'From Here to Eternity' was a better book than his own 'Naked and The Dead'. Jones is so perceptive in drawing scenes and characters. As a reader you feel that you are there. His novels are lengthy but he seemed reluctant to waste any paragraphs admiring his own writing.
Whistle, at 447 pages, is largely set near a hospital in Memphis Tennessee in 1944 following the Battle of Guadalcanal. The story follows four soldiers who were wounded at Guadalcanal, and were shipped home and transported to the hospital. The character names are changed from the prior books but Whistle is a fully contained novel. There really is no need to read either of the prior books but they are two of the best war novels ever written so why not read them too.
Landers, Prell, Winch and Strange are the four soldiers at the center of the novel. Winch, the sergeant, recovers first and after he recuperates from his minor injuries he gets promoted. He still looks after Landers, Prell and Strange but he largely acts as an invisible hand from a distance and some of the men resent him for it. Prell is the most seriously injured of the three as his legs were shattered in Guadalcanal. He is a medal of honor winner. When the doctors want to amputate his leg, he refuses and he has some leverage as a medal winner. Landers is probably the most disturbed of the four individuals and while a brave man he continuously gets into serious fights with officers, navy men and anyone who doesn’t show him the proper respect. He suffers from extreme PTSD and nightmares. Strange is the man least experienced with the wider world and when his wealthy wife leaves him for a colonel she gives him seven thousand dollars to essentially make him go away. He accepts the money and decides to rent out a $100/night suite for two months near the hosptial so that he and his friends can drink themselves to oblivion while recuperating and use the suite for continous one-night stands.
The rules for the recovering soldiers state they have to return in the morning for reveille at the hospital but the rules are routinely violated to the extent that many of the soldiers are technically AWOL. So a lack of discipline, the PTSD, the injuries, the fights and the thought of returning to combat leads several of the soldiers down very dark paths. Strange is so traumatized that he can’t stand to be alone or even take a taxi by himself. This takes us through the first part of the book.
I won’t give away the rest of the plot here. The narrative and dialogue between the men themselves, their indifferent responses to the military, their callousness regarding their own lives and their superficial relationship with women all seem very realistic. Reading the novel is like watching a runaway train of dysfunction heading toward a crowd of people. You know bad things are going to happen but you don’t quite know to whom or exactly when.
Jones exercised full freedom to tell about the actual horrors of PTSD, self medicating through sexual escapades and alcoholism, AWOL soldiers and ultimately the suicidal thoughts and suicidal actions of these wounded young vets. He succeeded as this book is more explicit and graphic than The Thin Red Line, even though it does not involve any warfare other than flashbacks.
The last note I’ll make is a cautionary one. Jones was evidently still rankled that so many of the sex scenes in From Here to Eternity had to be removed before he could publish it. As a result in Whistle, he may have over-compensated. There is an excessive amount of explicit content dedicated to the soldiers’ sexual dalliances. Acknowledging that the sexual behavior described was probably true to many young men in their situation, I feel that if most of the explicit and graphic nature was removed Whistle might have been a five star novel. With that big caveat, this is quite a remarkable book
4 Stars
"Think beyond that. Think about after the war."
"I can't."
"You don't want to get into trouble with the Army and wind up with a dishonorable discharge that will dog you the rest of your life."
"I can't think about after," Landers said again. "There's no after there. There's nothing. A blank wall. A curtain of fog, that I can't see beyond."
Whistle by James Jones was published posthumously in 1978 as the final novel of the WWII Trilogy. I was again gobsmacked by his writing in Whistle just as I was upon reading 'From Here to Eternity' and 'The Thin Red Line'. His narrative is very realistic, non-stylistic, incredibly visceral and autobiographical to a heavy degree. He desperately wanted his readers to feel what it was like to be in the military and in battle. He counted among his friends William Styron and Norman Mailer who were both in awe of him. Mailer even said that 'From Here to Eternity' was a better book than his own 'Naked and The Dead'. Jones is so perceptive in drawing scenes and characters. As a reader you feel that you are there. His novels are lengthy but he seemed reluctant to waste any paragraphs admiring his own writing.
Whistle, at 447 pages, is largely set near a hospital in Memphis Tennessee in 1944 following the Battle of Guadalcanal. The story follows four soldiers who were wounded at Guadalcanal, and were shipped home and transported to the hospital. The character names are changed from the prior books but Whistle is a fully contained novel. There really is no need to read either of the prior books but they are two of the best war novels ever written so why not read them too.
Landers, Prell, Winch and Strange are the four soldiers at the center of the novel. Winch, the sergeant, recovers first and after he recuperates from his minor injuries he gets promoted. He still looks after Landers, Prell and Strange but he largely acts as an invisible hand from a distance and some of the men resent him for it. Prell is the most seriously injured of the three as his legs were shattered in Guadalcanal. He is a medal of honor winner. When the doctors want to amputate his leg, he refuses and he has some leverage as a medal winner. Landers is probably the most disturbed of the four individuals and while a brave man he continuously gets into serious fights with officers, navy men and anyone who doesn’t show him the proper respect. He suffers from extreme PTSD and nightmares. Strange is the man least experienced with the wider world and when his wealthy wife leaves him for a colonel she gives him seven thousand dollars to essentially make him go away. He accepts the money and decides to rent out a $100/night suite for two months near the hosptial so that he and his friends can drink themselves to oblivion while recuperating and use the suite for continous one-night stands.
The rules for the recovering soldiers state they have to return in the morning for reveille at the hospital but the rules are routinely violated to the extent that many of the soldiers are technically AWOL. So a lack of discipline, the PTSD, the injuries, the fights and the thought of returning to combat leads several of the soldiers down very dark paths. Strange is so traumatized that he can’t stand to be alone or even take a taxi by himself. This takes us through the first part of the book.
I won’t give away the rest of the plot here. The narrative and dialogue between the men themselves, their indifferent responses to the military, their callousness regarding their own lives and their superficial relationship with women all seem very realistic. Reading the novel is like watching a runaway train of dysfunction heading toward a crowd of people. You know bad things are going to happen but you don’t quite know to whom or exactly when.
Jones exercised full freedom to tell about the actual horrors of PTSD, self medicating through sexual escapades and alcoholism, AWOL soldiers and ultimately the suicidal thoughts and suicidal actions of these wounded young vets. He succeeded as this book is more explicit and graphic than The Thin Red Line, even though it does not involve any warfare other than flashbacks.
The last note I’ll make is a cautionary one. Jones was evidently still rankled that so many of the sex scenes in From Here to Eternity had to be removed before he could publish it. As a result in Whistle, he may have over-compensated. There is an excessive amount of explicit content dedicated to the soldiers’ sexual dalliances. Acknowledging that the sexual behavior described was probably true to many young men in their situation, I feel that if most of the explicit and graphic nature was removed Whistle might have been a five star novel. With that big caveat, this is quite a remarkable book
4 Stars
January 15, 2022
A fine read indeed. The third and final of Jones soldier trilogy. I was not expecting this to reach the heights of From Here to Eternity, few novels can, but this was certainly up there with The Thin Red Line.
Anyone that writes a suicide that makes the hairs stand on end knows how to write. This is not a book for the faint hearted and as one gets through the story of the 4 protagonists one senses that their life of, by some standards, depraved sexual needs, booze culture, their endless nightmares of things that they as young men (and old) should not see is sending them over the edge.
The death of the author prior to finishing the final three chapters is obviously disappointing but I for one am not a critic of the publisher for the overview that was written from the Jones descriptions of what he intended prior to his passing. Why should anyone attempt to write in his style anyway. This would have made the book a false record of what he had to say about post traumatic stress disorder anyway.
Anyone that writes a suicide that makes the hairs stand on end knows how to write. This is not a book for the faint hearted and as one gets through the story of the 4 protagonists one senses that their life of, by some standards, depraved sexual needs, booze culture, their endless nightmares of things that they as young men (and old) should not see is sending them over the edge.
The death of the author prior to finishing the final three chapters is obviously disappointing but I for one am not a critic of the publisher for the overview that was written from the Jones descriptions of what he intended prior to his passing. Why should anyone attempt to write in his style anyway. This would have made the book a false record of what he had to say about post traumatic stress disorder anyway.
October 19, 2007
A great book about returning from war. The Viet vets (me included) thought that rejection, depression, and scorn was only for them. This WW II book tells pretty much the same story. Everyone didn't get the parade down Main Street.
July 4, 2018
Već treću godinu nosim na odmor štivo koje nikako nije za chill uz more...no, ovaj put mi se štivo bar dopalo i čitala sam ga sa zadovoljstvom.
Jednom sam navela da nisam ljubitelj ratne tematike, tako da nisam sigurna da li ću pročitati prve dve knjige iz trilogije...ali, imajući u vidu koliko mi se treća svidela, ništa nije isključeno :)
Elem, ova se ne bavi dešavanjima na frontu, nego u fokus stavlja posledice koje rat ostavlja na one manje sretne, koji iz njega izađu živi. Traume, frustracije, košmare i još sijaset nuspojava "posleratne psihe".
S druge strane, obiluje emocijama, istina, vešto prikrivenim i šturo iskazivanim..jer akteri su muškarci, oficiri, borci...kojima nisu dozvoljeni znaci slabosti i ostale "ženske stvari".
Kad smo kod lepšeg pola...ima i njih. I obilje sexa. Čak sam pročitala i par recenzija u kojima je po autoru osuto drvlje i kamenje jer zaboga "ne zna ništa o ženama" ili "matori pervert, piše o tome kako bi voleo da se žene ponašaju"... Sorry, ali nisam uopšte stekla takav utisak. Prvenstveno, ne smatram da je okaljao ženski rod, a, na kraju, mislim i da je to u celoj priči krajnje nebitno.
Mene je očarao dijalozima, međuljudskim odnosima, neraskidivim vezama kojima je isprepletao živote glavnih likova. Da ne citiram, na par mesta i sam pisac navodi kako su njih četvorica jedino što im je preostalo u životima. I to na kraju knjige dolazi u prvi plan.
Budući da Jones nije dočekao da svoje delo i završi, u poslednjih par poglavlja čitamo uglavnom beleške i kratki pregled onoga što je tek trebalo biti napisano. Ko zna, da je poživeo, možda bi sve razvukao na još mnogo stranica, razvodnio radnju, ublažio kraj. Ovako sažet, na mene je ostavio izuzetno snažan utisak.. i iako sam najpre mislila da dam 4*, pišući ove redove (tipkam na telefonu, toliko sam hype) sam se definitivno odlučila za peticu.
Čitala sam na engleskom, uglavnom na plaži, u kavani, uz pivo...sigurno nisam propratila svaki detalj niti razumela svaku reč, ali suština je jasna. I oduševila me.
Jednom sam navela da nisam ljubitelj ratne tematike, tako da nisam sigurna da li ću pročitati prve dve knjige iz trilogije...ali, imajući u vidu koliko mi se treća svidela, ništa nije isključeno :)
Elem, ova se ne bavi dešavanjima na frontu, nego u fokus stavlja posledice koje rat ostavlja na one manje sretne, koji iz njega izađu živi. Traume, frustracije, košmare i još sijaset nuspojava "posleratne psihe".
S druge strane, obiluje emocijama, istina, vešto prikrivenim i šturo iskazivanim..jer akteri su muškarci, oficiri, borci...kojima nisu dozvoljeni znaci slabosti i ostale "ženske stvari".
Kad smo kod lepšeg pola...ima i njih. I obilje sexa. Čak sam pročitala i par recenzija u kojima je po autoru osuto drvlje i kamenje jer zaboga "ne zna ništa o ženama" ili "matori pervert, piše o tome kako bi voleo da se žene ponašaju"... Sorry, ali nisam uopšte stekla takav utisak. Prvenstveno, ne smatram da je okaljao ženski rod, a, na kraju, mislim i da je to u celoj priči krajnje nebitno.
Mene je očarao dijalozima, međuljudskim odnosima, neraskidivim vezama kojima je isprepletao živote glavnih likova. Da ne citiram, na par mesta i sam pisac navodi kako su njih četvorica jedino što im je preostalo u životima. I to na kraju knjige dolazi u prvi plan.
Budući da Jones nije dočekao da svoje delo i završi, u poslednjih par poglavlja čitamo uglavnom beleške i kratki pregled onoga što je tek trebalo biti napisano. Ko zna, da je poživeo, možda bi sve razvukao na još mnogo stranica, razvodnio radnju, ublažio kraj. Ovako sažet, na mene je ostavio izuzetno snažan utisak.. i iako sam najpre mislila da dam 4*, pišući ove redove (tipkam na telefonu, toliko sam hype) sam se definitivno odlučila za peticu.
Čitala sam na engleskom, uglavnom na plaži, u kavani, uz pivo...sigurno nisam propratila svaki detalj niti razumela svaku reč, ali suština je jasna. I oduševila me.
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June 9, 2021
The third and last in James Jones World War II books. The first two were From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line. This last book shows the brutal and awful consequences of war.
February 20, 2013
This author has less a clue about women than even Hemingway. Unfortunately he's not near as good a writer though, so it's a book full of non-redeeming characters without a value system, but there's none of the starkly beautiful romanticism found in a Hemingway. Interesting insight into injured and wounded WWII soldier's environment and the era itself, though. But something tells me there's a whole other side to this story though, if told by someone with more moral maturity.
March 9, 2013
Ah, James Jones, you and I are old friends, aren't we? I remember when I first heard your name when I saw the film adaptation of your book "The Thin Red Line". An incredible movie on all fronts, far better than its apparent rival Saving Private Ryan (afraid I'm in 'that' camp) that completely changed how I looked at not only film but also at how a story could be told and told well, even profoundly so.
Fast forward a couple years from that and I finally got around to reading the source text, your novel James, and it was damn good. Wow, remembering now I'm amazed my eyes didn't bleed out completely from all the burn out texts I was running on (Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, among others) along with yours, Jim. Sorry, you knew I was a philandering bibliophile when we met. In fact I actually remember reading Thin Red not long after reading Norman Mailer's, your friend (as much as Mailer could or did have 'friends' in the traditional sense of that word) "The Naked and The Dead" (it's been three/maybe four years already?) which was a similar novel to yours in setting though different in execution and voice.
I rated Mailer a bit higher, sorry Jim, due to the bombastic and even Icarus-like ambition of the text, to me at least, that simultaneously showed Mailer's brilliance matched and weighed down, slightly, by his flaws (those flaws binged and fattened with Mailer's ensuing career but that's for another piece...) but your book left an incredible impression nonetheless. Not only for the starkness of the Pacific war setting but also for the brutally honest depiction of men at war where patriotism, propaganda, and sloganeering have no febrile minds in which to take root. And all that's left is the business of war and what it does to those people quite literally caught up and lost in it. Mailer's book was the feast and your book, Jim, well, that was the meditation, two counterpoints I'm thankful for reading so close to one another.
Another year or so later I began the project of reading your first and most well known and most successful novel From Here to Eternity. I remember starting your book while working at an AMC Movie Theater near Beverly Hills (bad job, weak hours, I certainly felt like a damn dogface with an even worse uniform) then continuing, along with other books, as a QA tester at a video game company (better job, terrible hours, with dreams of Israeli Military Service consuming my minds eye and snapping at my heels) and finally finishing the book a few long months into my long attempted stay in Israel. It was at a doctor's office in Jerusalem that I finally put the last word of your 800+ page tome behind me. And yeah, James, it was a tome. As an aspiring, forget it, as a writer, I weigh my words as best I can.
I loved it, Jim.
The book put in my mind now as it did then Melville's Moby Dick. Specifically, that it's a text where you like Mr. Melville threw every last bit of yourself, heart, mind, and body, into the long and exhausting task of mapping out his experiences so thoroughly, and in such a long and all encompassing form, that we can only stand back in appreciation and growing awe as we begin to realize what we're seeing. And that is the human soul being laid bare, and the metaphorical curtain being pulled back, just momentarily, so that we can see its inner workings, and know something of it, even if only slightly, but to know it definitely. Melville had his whaling industry. Mr. Jones, you had your World War II Pacific Theater Campaign. More than one way to reach the goal, you know?
And now here we are once again. I received "Whistle" from my parents when I was in Israel and it remained on the backlog while I a.) read other books and b.) tried to eke out some kind of existence in the apparent homeland, the former was a success, the latter not quite as much. I started reading the book en route from Estonia to New York and back again to old Los Angeles which made it's opening passage, wherein the wounded soldiers from the American Pacific campaign on a hospital ship catch their first glimpse of California and America after months and years long absences, resonate more than a little jarringly. Don't think I didn't pick up on that James, the irony was thick enough it left a taste in my mouth.
I read your book intermittently, James. I hope you don't take that as a slight. Your style is deceptively simple, being like a fuller, more satisfying Hemingway with some working man's Faulkner thrown in for spice and gravitas. But it still took me a while. You write simply but you write fully and truly, and this can require a lot from a reader, least of all time, and most of all commitment. It would seem that the book was too much for you in the end though, that you had to commission fellow writer Willie Morris to write the last few sections of the book (with your copious notes as a basis) in a truncated and even summarized fashion, definitely stings. But even reduced, your message is clear. War is not only hell but it's a living hell, it's a waking hell, it's a living breathing entity that stays with men long after any surrender or victory or treaty. Fuck 'the greatest generation'. Fuck this idea of the just war. Necessary? Yes. Just? Just towards whom? To the soldiers? To those men and boys? The four soldiers, three of whom (spoiler) die, two, possibly three by their own hand, and the fourth, maybe the most intelligent one, driven mad by his own survival, what do you think they would have to say about this saccharine cottage industry that's sprung up around America's involvement in World War II and the idea of 'the greatest generation'?
Now, James, you've been accused of propagating sexism. And I have to say I definitely see it. Partly I see it as based in reality, and partly as something not sexism. It felt more like a combination mass debauch and coping mechanism. Men and women wrestling with something they hadn't ever experienced, a World War and near total mobilization and the promise of death behind it all, and doing all they could to alleviate the pain and make something of their time and even plan for a future. Justified? Of course not. But life it seems can be often explained but only occasionally justified.
Overall the book, your book James, is a punch to the gut, a rubbing of dirt in the mind's eye and a grimly realistic story of what war leaves behind. And scaling back, to take in the greater picture you were trying to make, or in your words regarding your war trilogy as a whole and how it would say "Just about everything I have ever had to say, or will ever have to say, on the human condition of war.", I can't say if you accomplished that James. But I can say you accomplished something wrenching but necessary, you've shone a light on the wounds that may never heal but need to be seen, need to be known, if we as a species on this planet stand any chance of surviving or even of salvation. And that James, is an achievement that could be called grand, at the very least.
Fast forward a couple years from that and I finally got around to reading the source text, your novel James, and it was damn good. Wow, remembering now I'm amazed my eyes didn't bleed out completely from all the burn out texts I was running on (Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, among others) along with yours, Jim. Sorry, you knew I was a philandering bibliophile when we met. In fact I actually remember reading Thin Red not long after reading Norman Mailer's, your friend (as much as Mailer could or did have 'friends' in the traditional sense of that word) "The Naked and The Dead" (it's been three/maybe four years already?) which was a similar novel to yours in setting though different in execution and voice.
I rated Mailer a bit higher, sorry Jim, due to the bombastic and even Icarus-like ambition of the text, to me at least, that simultaneously showed Mailer's brilliance matched and weighed down, slightly, by his flaws (those flaws binged and fattened with Mailer's ensuing career but that's for another piece...) but your book left an incredible impression nonetheless. Not only for the starkness of the Pacific war setting but also for the brutally honest depiction of men at war where patriotism, propaganda, and sloganeering have no febrile minds in which to take root. And all that's left is the business of war and what it does to those people quite literally caught up and lost in it. Mailer's book was the feast and your book, Jim, well, that was the meditation, two counterpoints I'm thankful for reading so close to one another.
Another year or so later I began the project of reading your first and most well known and most successful novel From Here to Eternity. I remember starting your book while working at an AMC Movie Theater near Beverly Hills (bad job, weak hours, I certainly felt like a damn dogface with an even worse uniform) then continuing, along with other books, as a QA tester at a video game company (better job, terrible hours, with dreams of Israeli Military Service consuming my minds eye and snapping at my heels) and finally finishing the book a few long months into my long attempted stay in Israel. It was at a doctor's office in Jerusalem that I finally put the last word of your 800+ page tome behind me. And yeah, James, it was a tome. As an aspiring, forget it, as a writer, I weigh my words as best I can.
I loved it, Jim.
The book put in my mind now as it did then Melville's Moby Dick. Specifically, that it's a text where you like Mr. Melville threw every last bit of yourself, heart, mind, and body, into the long and exhausting task of mapping out his experiences so thoroughly, and in such a long and all encompassing form, that we can only stand back in appreciation and growing awe as we begin to realize what we're seeing. And that is the human soul being laid bare, and the metaphorical curtain being pulled back, just momentarily, so that we can see its inner workings, and know something of it, even if only slightly, but to know it definitely. Melville had his whaling industry. Mr. Jones, you had your World War II Pacific Theater Campaign. More than one way to reach the goal, you know?
And now here we are once again. I received "Whistle" from my parents when I was in Israel and it remained on the backlog while I a.) read other books and b.) tried to eke out some kind of existence in the apparent homeland, the former was a success, the latter not quite as much. I started reading the book en route from Estonia to New York and back again to old Los Angeles which made it's opening passage, wherein the wounded soldiers from the American Pacific campaign on a hospital ship catch their first glimpse of California and America after months and years long absences, resonate more than a little jarringly. Don't think I didn't pick up on that James, the irony was thick enough it left a taste in my mouth.
I read your book intermittently, James. I hope you don't take that as a slight. Your style is deceptively simple, being like a fuller, more satisfying Hemingway with some working man's Faulkner thrown in for spice and gravitas. But it still took me a while. You write simply but you write fully and truly, and this can require a lot from a reader, least of all time, and most of all commitment. It would seem that the book was too much for you in the end though, that you had to commission fellow writer Willie Morris to write the last few sections of the book (with your copious notes as a basis) in a truncated and even summarized fashion, definitely stings. But even reduced, your message is clear. War is not only hell but it's a living hell, it's a waking hell, it's a living breathing entity that stays with men long after any surrender or victory or treaty. Fuck 'the greatest generation'. Fuck this idea of the just war. Necessary? Yes. Just? Just towards whom? To the soldiers? To those men and boys? The four soldiers, three of whom (spoiler) die, two, possibly three by their own hand, and the fourth, maybe the most intelligent one, driven mad by his own survival, what do you think they would have to say about this saccharine cottage industry that's sprung up around America's involvement in World War II and the idea of 'the greatest generation'?
Now, James, you've been accused of propagating sexism. And I have to say I definitely see it. Partly I see it as based in reality, and partly as something not sexism. It felt more like a combination mass debauch and coping mechanism. Men and women wrestling with something they hadn't ever experienced, a World War and near total mobilization and the promise of death behind it all, and doing all they could to alleviate the pain and make something of their time and even plan for a future. Justified? Of course not. But life it seems can be often explained but only occasionally justified.
Overall the book, your book James, is a punch to the gut, a rubbing of dirt in the mind's eye and a grimly realistic story of what war leaves behind. And scaling back, to take in the greater picture you were trying to make, or in your words regarding your war trilogy as a whole and how it would say "Just about everything I have ever had to say, or will ever have to say, on the human condition of war.", I can't say if you accomplished that James. But I can say you accomplished something wrenching but necessary, you've shone a light on the wounds that may never heal but need to be seen, need to be known, if we as a species on this planet stand any chance of surviving or even of salvation. And that James, is an achievement that could be called grand, at the very least.
November 9, 2024
Los traumas de la posguerra. Buen fin para la trilogía.
June 11, 2012
BIG DISAPPOINTMENT.
But for the possible message, “To be avoided at all cost,” the themes of aimlessness, futility and despair hold no moral, social or entertainment value for me. Unfortunately these are the major themes of ‘Whistle,’ by James Jones.
Recommendation: No.
“It was all such a goddamned game. Everything was. Bravado. Bravery. Fear. Pride, humiliation, dignity, decency, viciousness. And yet it was serious. Even panic started out as a game, before it got serious.” –page 151
Adobe Digital Edition [ePub] on loan from the Country of Los Angeles Public Library at: http://overdrive.colapublib.org/ 432 pages
But for the possible message, “To be avoided at all cost,” the themes of aimlessness, futility and despair hold no moral, social or entertainment value for me. Unfortunately these are the major themes of ‘Whistle,’ by James Jones.
Recommendation: No.
“It was all such a goddamned game. Everything was. Bravado. Bravery. Fear. Pride, humiliation, dignity, decency, viciousness. And yet it was serious. Even panic started out as a game, before it got serious.” –page 151
Adobe Digital Edition [ePub] on loan from the Country of Los Angeles Public Library at: http://overdrive.colapublib.org/ 432 pages
July 22, 2013
This is the third and final book in Jones's war trilogy. Published posthumously after Jones's death of congestive heart failure at the age of fifty-five, Whistle along with its companions From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line, provides what Jones claims is "just about everything I have ever had to say, or will ever have to say, on the human condition of war and what it means to us, as against what we claim it means to us" (xxi). It is not a joyous account. Frankly, it's pretty depressing. Here we have the return of wounded soldiers to hospitals in the United States where they're patched up to be redeployed or discharged from duty. Based as it was on Jones's own experience in WWII, this book highlights the return of four soldiers from the Pacific arena (specifically the Guadalcanal and New Georgia campaigns) to a US that is preparing for D-day. Of the four characters featured in this concluding novel, three commit suicide in some form or another and the fourth goes crazy. In the time in between their arrival home as "heroes" and their end in suicide or insanity, there's a lot of alcohol and sex to take their minds off the horrors of battle, the fear of killing and being killed, the manufactured production of "war heroes," and the ever-present nightmares. And that's what Jones wants to say on the "human condition of war and what it means to us, as against what we claim it means to us" -- the experience of modern, mechanized war is a whole lot different than the constructed heroic use to which society puts it.
The writing is coarse and raw. It will be offensive to many, but I expect that too was Jones's purpose -- to offend readers in order to draw attention to the realities of warfare. This is Jones's political philosophy, forged in the fire of battle and modern war. Consider this example, from the point of view of the character Landers who is facing imminent redeployment:
Jones gives us none of the valour and honour of war memorialized in our monuments of war. The production of these qualities in the war bonds tour onto which Prell was dispatched makes that crystal clear. The cynicism that permeates the narrative does not mean readers do not encounter courage and heroism. Caught in the melee of gunfire, readers should draw a lesson from the expectations society places on those we ask to kill and die for us. Jones's describes the complex spectrum of emotions experienced by soldiers in combat.
Jones wants to say a lot about war and warfare and what we make of it. In this, his final work, he reminds us that the burden we ask combat soldiers to bear is immense, and it seems to be harshest for those who survive to tell its sordid tale.
The writing is coarse and raw. It will be offensive to many, but I expect that too was Jones's purpose -- to offend readers in order to draw attention to the realities of warfare. This is Jones's political philosophy, forged in the fire of battle and modern war. Consider this example, from the point of view of the character Landers who is facing imminent redeployment:
Their time together was running out. Their common interests changed. He would be alone, when he went back into the fire. As they all would be. If they went back at all to it. ... It was funny but in each case it was a woman who had pulled them away. Females. Pussy. Cunt. Had split the common male interest. Cunt had broken the centripetal intensity of the hermetic force which sealed them together in so incestuous a way. Their combat. Cunt vs combat. In his cups Landers decided he had discovered quite by accident the basic prevailing equation of the universe. If the universe represented by a floating compass, and the cock is a sliver of iron rubbed on a magnet, it will always point due North to cunt. Always. No matter what. This was the equation modern man had broken, to his peril, with this creation and introduction of mechanized, social, group combat, for some fucking damned cause or another (312).
Jones gives us none of the valour and honour of war memorialized in our monuments of war. The production of these qualities in the war bonds tour onto which Prell was dispatched makes that crystal clear. The cynicism that permeates the narrative does not mean readers do not encounter courage and heroism. Caught in the melee of gunfire, readers should draw a lesson from the expectations society places on those we ask to kill and die for us. Jones's describes the complex spectrum of emotions experienced by soldiers in combat.
Anguish. Love, And hate. And happiness. The anguish was for himself. And every poor slob like him, who had ever suffered fear, and terror, and injury at the hands of other men. The love, he didn't know who the love was for. For himself and everybody. For all the sad members of this flawed, misgotten, miscreated race of valuable creatures, which was trying and failing with such ruptured effort to haul itself up out of the mud and dross and drouth of its crippled heritage. And the hate, implacable, unyielding, was for himself and every other who had ever, in the name of whatever good, maimed or injured or killed another man. The happiness? The happiness was the least, and best, and most important, because the most ironic. The happiness was from those few moments in the fight, when the bars were down, when the weight of responsibility lifted, and he and every man could go in, and destroy and be destroyed, without fear of consequences, with no thought of debt. In short, do all the things they shouldn't and couldn't want to do, or want others to do, when they were responsible. What a melange. All tossed up in the air and churned around until one element was indistinguishalbe from another, and the steam from the whole boiling stew seethed and billowed until its pressure forced a safety crack in even the strongest self-control (245).
Jones wants to say a lot about war and warfare and what we make of it. In this, his final work, he reminds us that the burden we ask combat soldiers to bear is immense, and it seems to be harshest for those who survive to tell its sordid tale.
March 23, 2016
The final part of Jones’ WWII trilogy. Jones died before he finished the book and the last few chapters are based on his notes and verbal recordings.
This time the four main characters have returned to the US wounded and are sent to a hospital in Luxor (based on Memphis) for surgery and recovery.
All four men struggle with their memories of Guadalcanal, with their physical injuries and illnesses as well as the inadequacy they feel once they are removed from their old Company. Very powerful tales around these issues as well as their guilt for surviving and their self destruction and feeling of hopelessness. Two commit suicide, one died in a bar fight and the last is sent to a Mental Institute. For these men, their war did not end in their return to the US.
A lot of booze and sex. Jones gets fixated about fellatio which deviates the story – or maybe it showed just how human these men were.
This time the four main characters have returned to the US wounded and are sent to a hospital in Luxor (based on Memphis) for surgery and recovery.
All four men struggle with their memories of Guadalcanal, with their physical injuries and illnesses as well as the inadequacy they feel once they are removed from their old Company. Very powerful tales around these issues as well as their guilt for surviving and their self destruction and feeling of hopelessness. Two commit suicide, one died in a bar fight and the last is sent to a Mental Institute. For these men, their war did not end in their return to the US.
A lot of booze and sex. Jones gets fixated about fellatio which deviates the story – or maybe it showed just how human these men were.
May 3, 2011
The novel was getting interesting when the author died several chapters from the end. Instead of bringing in an experienced writer to complete the novel (which I'm guessing would be done today), the publisher simply provided a narrative outline based on the author's intentions for the ending of the novel. Not a wise option. Made for an unrewarding ending for the reader (and likely would have disappointed the author as well).
February 11, 2013
The best book ever written on the subject of post-traumatic stress disorder. Ignore at your own peril.
December 17, 2019
REREAD.
June 28, 2020
It's amazing what you'll pick up and read to avoid turning another page of The Mirror And The Light. In this case, what I picked up is an aimless, clumsy, misfiring third part of a distinguished trilogy, so I really might as well have stayed with Hilary Mantel's example of the genre.
This awful slog follows a cast of American soldiers returning to civilian life at the end of the Second World War, heavily emphasising their disillusion and loss of purpose - it often reads a bit like The Best Years Of Our Lives novelised by Norman Mailer in its relentless macho crudity mixed with sentimentality and pretentiousness. It's also horribly dated; I don't think the author actually hates women, but he certainly has some very strange ideas indeed about them. If you're looking for sex scenes so badly-written that they almost shade over into surrealism, then this is definitely the book for you.
I've given it three stars, though, because it contains some genuinely brilliant passages, chiefly ones where the main character suffers the symptoms of progressive heart failure - the illness which killed Jones before he finished the book. In these passages you can feel the author's horror at the failing state of his body in the most visceral way, giving you the sense of a man writing his own death in a thinly-fictionalised form. It's affecting and authentic in these moments, and that goes some way towards making up for the boredom and bemusement that the rest of this peculiar book will provoke.
This awful slog follows a cast of American soldiers returning to civilian life at the end of the Second World War, heavily emphasising their disillusion and loss of purpose - it often reads a bit like The Best Years Of Our Lives novelised by Norman Mailer in its relentless macho crudity mixed with sentimentality and pretentiousness. It's also horribly dated; I don't think the author actually hates women, but he certainly has some very strange ideas indeed about them. If you're looking for sex scenes so badly-written that they almost shade over into surrealism, then this is definitely the book for you.
I've given it three stars, though, because it contains some genuinely brilliant passages, chiefly ones where the main character suffers the symptoms of progressive heart failure - the illness which killed Jones before he finished the book. In these passages you can feel the author's horror at the failing state of his body in the most visceral way, giving you the sense of a man writing his own death in a thinly-fictionalised form. It's affecting and authentic in these moments, and that goes some way towards making up for the boredom and bemusement that the rest of this peculiar book will provoke.
July 30, 2020
Read in 1980. Story of four wounded South Pacific soldiers and their stay at a veterans hospital in Tennessee. Book 3 of his World War 2 saga.
February 12, 2016
This is such a sad tale. Four WWII vets, all wounded or sick are returned to the U.S. and eventually sent to a hospital in Kentucky. There they either grow as human beings, discovering much about their masculinity and sex or they simply dissemble into what seems to be terrible depression and what now would be called PTSD. Reading this story makes me feel even more strongly than ever before about the needs of veterans who return from war, whether they come home as heroes or goats. They all need all the help they can get.
I do not recommend this book for anyone in teen years below eighteen. It is highly sexual. And it contains highly graphic sexual content. I think this is a book for adults. But I recommend it highly to all who would know of the mental suffering that veterans feel. A truly well written book with very well drawn characters of depth. I give it five stars because it deserves the same. I do not love the story. It is too painful to love. But it is a good read
I do not recommend this book for anyone in teen years below eighteen. It is highly sexual. And it contains highly graphic sexual content. I think this is a book for adults. But I recommend it highly to all who would know of the mental suffering that veterans feel. A truly well written book with very well drawn characters of depth. I give it five stars because it deserves the same. I do not love the story. It is too painful to love. But it is a good read
March 11, 2024
Whistle (1978) by James Jones is the third part of his WWII trilogy with From Here to Eternity (1951) and The Thin Red Line (1962). Jones died in 1977 before finishing the final three chapters, which were completed by Willie Morris based on taped conversations with the author and extensive notes he had already written. Here we see Mart Winch, Bobby Prell, Marion Landers, and Johnny Strange as Welsh, Witt, Fife, and Storm in The Thin Red Line brought back wounded to a military hospital in Landers, Tennessee. Thus, this book is more concerned with the after effects of war and how its affects men's psyches and how they try to re-integrate into "normal" society after witnessing the horrors of war. The characters are mainly dealing with PTSD, which at the time was not diagnosed or it was merely described as "combat fatigue." It was a fitting conclusion to the trilogy that says a lot about the American men who fought in WWII.
March 8, 2021
2.5 stars. This was book was as expected, which is to say, disappointing. I haven't really enjoyed the other two and I wasn't expecting this book to be much different. While these are well-written, these really just haven't been compelling to me. There isn't really a plot, this is more a fictionalized memoir.
Also, there was A LOT of sex in this book, and I found it to be more distracting and unnecessary than actually assisting with the narrative. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I truly couldn't understand why sex featured so highly in this book. It felt like there was a lack of content and this was a gap-filler, but this is me.
I suppose I would recommend this to fans of the series, but I'm not sure who else to recommend this to. This is really no my favorite.
Also, there was A LOT of sex in this book, and I found it to be more distracting and unnecessary than actually assisting with the narrative. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I truly couldn't understand why sex featured so highly in this book. It felt like there was a lack of content and this was a gap-filler, but this is me.
I suppose I would recommend this to fans of the series, but I'm not sure who else to recommend this to. This is really no my favorite.
April 8, 2021
In my opinion better than The Thin Red Line. More intense. More sex too, but that was necesary for the novel. The ending was of course just a summary of what was yet to come. Pity because, when this would have been worked out in detail by Jones, it would have been a GREAT novel.
Still very much worth reading.
Still very much worth reading.
April 10, 2007
Again there are moments in this book that moved me profoundly. Overall not amazing, but with some amazing moments.
January 1, 2013
This is the last of the WW II trilogy; From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line, and Whistle. Does a great job with his characters.
February 5, 2018
Old man's fantasies about how he wants women to behave. Awful.
July 19, 2021
Book for Veterans
Book captures quite well the mindset of veterans. Quite realistic and bold for its time. Not an action thriller, more a psychological study
Book captures quite well the mindset of veterans. Quite realistic and bold for its time. Not an action thriller, more a psychological study
September 15, 2021
Some time ago, I read that James Jones had written a third novel about World War II, a companion piece to “From Here to Eternity” and “The Thin Red Line.” “Whistle” looks at four soldiers returning to America from the war in the South Pacific. The year is 1943, and all four soldiers are war casualties, destined for hospitalization, evaluation, and either return to duty or medical discharge. The four soldiers, Winch, Prell, Strange, and Landers, find themselves assigned to the same Army general hospital in Luxor, Tennessee (Luxor being Jones' literary mashup of Memphis and Nashville). Each man copes as best he can while there, thanks to plenty of liquor and agreeable women. However, the booze and the sex can never erase each man's nightmares of their combat experiences. Each of the four men seeks some sense of purpose within the framework of the Army, yet know that if found fit for duty, they have no real say in what happens to them next. If lucky, they might be able to stay stateside. If not, England and then France will be their next stop... “Whistle” was Jones' final work, as he was ill with congestive heart failure and died in 1977. Yet his illness did not diminish the power of his writing, and “Whistle” is a worthwhile addition to his body of work.
June 15, 2022
Entertaining tale, and the third installment in James Jones' World War II trilogy. The narrative concerns four servicemen who ship back to the States on a hospital ship after participating in the war in the Pacific - months before the Normandy Landing in Europe. It is a tale of four guys returning, each with some form of PTSD. We see their adjustment or lack thereof on coming home. My main complaint is that the author seemed to fill the pages with sexual encounters ... many gratuitous. I suspect a lot of returning servicemen actually might have had a thought of something other than booze and sex, but apparently not in "Whistle."
James Jones never finished this book, passing away before it was complete ... but he left detailed notes and recordings and someone finished it for him. It is entertaining and the pages turn easily. When the tale sticks to the PTSD of the veterans and their adjustment, it is engrossing and sad.
James Jones never finished this book, passing away before it was complete ... but he left detailed notes and recordings and someone finished it for him. It is entertaining and the pages turn easily. When the tale sticks to the PTSD of the veterans and their adjustment, it is engrossing and sad.
November 4, 2023
The third of the trilogy which also includes From Here To Eternity and The Thin Red Line, Jones' writing (this book was his last; he died leaving it unfinished, to be completed from notes and conversations on his death bed, by his friend Willie Morris)had deteriorated badly. The war theme is repeatedly intruded upon by Jones' crudity, a staple in his writing throughout his life. Some chapters seem to have been written with the express purpose of paying homage to oral sex. There are no chapters in the book in which the details of oral sex are unexplored. The story of the old soldiers really gets lost in this mess of a book. Critics hated it when it was published in 1978, and there is no reason to feel otherwise. If Jones hadn't had a history of success behind him, it is doubtful that this book would have been published.
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August 2, 2025The tersely titled “Whistle” is the third novel in the World War II trilogy by James Jones, following “The Thin Red Line” and “From Here to Eternity,” both of which I’ve read more than once. Jones is not a graceful stylist, to put it mildly, and “Whistle” has a fair amount of ungainly prose. Ditto for the concluding portions, written by Willie Morris when Jones died before the book was quite finished. Beyond that, the sprawling plot is overstuffed with sex – were the ‘40s truly that much wilder than he ‘60s? could there really have been such a steady stream of nonstop screwing? why don’t the women ever seem to get knocked up? – but the accounts of injury, convalescence, and medical treatment are quite interesting, and for me they make the novel well worth reading. Recommended with reservations.
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