Francis

by David Stern III

The debut of Francis, the Talking Mule of World War II.

The humorous and amazing adventures in the Burma jungle of a young, inexperienced second lieutenant, and Francis, the veteran Army mule who can and does talk, and who has a bucketful of common sense and oodles of ingenuity. And if you don't believe that Francis can also fly (he claims a cruising speed of 25 mph), this book has an unhappy ending.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

Reviews

[Noel Thingvall · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time read. I picked up a box set of the film series on sale on a whim, and a vintage Dell paperback of this book was surprisingly easy to get my hands on, so I went for it. The idea of setting a talking animal farce in the midst of Burma during the raging battles of WWII is just as deeply disturbing as it is amusing. It’s a fun tale of a hapless soldier who’s taken under the guidance of a gruff, experienced pack mule, who wants to do his part and help the war without becoming infamous, with little vignettes of adventures, where Japanese soldiers (yes, there is wartime racism) are overcome with rolling boulders and dummy camps, and even Nazi infiltrators in the army are outed. It’s largely light and delightful, but the episodic nature gets repetitive, especially how often our lead soldier is locked in the psych ward every time he tells the truth. The climax of Francis being outed to the public has some fun bits, but ends abruptly and anticlimactically. I’m curious to check out the films and the follow-up novel, but I’m not planning to hold onto this for a re-read.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, this ought to be a three star book because it is not about something that matters and there are certain repetitions and other authorly mistakes, but the book is so darn charming that I am going with four. Those familiar with the film series, this book is surprisingly close to the first film, but then, the author wrote the screenplay.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

I really liked this book. Now, having said that Stern, who served in the Army during WWII (U.S. Army Captain David Stern III) wrote three short stories about Francis the talking mule to Esquire magazine and after the war, 1946, turned all three into this book Francis. So, the content, one can imagine, is about fighting the Japanese shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor—in Burma. There are a lot of negative views about Japan and Japanese people in general (so, much of the book refers to Japanese in derogatory and offensive terminology). Having said this, when I randomly purchased this book at Powell's I had no idea what it was about—it said "talking mule" and it was a nice old book, so I was sold.

While reading it, it became quite awkward and uncomfortable to read the contumelious statements written about a whole race of people and the basics of what war entails. But, the history behind it, I do find interesting—how Americans wrote about and encouraged this sort of speech and violence in anything from television, newsprint, to short novellas...etc—all for "patriotism". Sadly, I believe this still resonates in the media and American speech today.

Stern's character's were really well developed, Francis especially—a witty, snarky, clever, funny, talking, flying mule. One could (if you had prior knowledge of anything war, really...terminology or otherwise, it was pretty spot on) also appreciate the history behind it.

It's true, what the synopsis said, this story does have an unhappy ending—rather disappointing, I guess. Or, one could look at the ending as an open interpretation (wh/ I hate doing) and mull it over—having as happy or unhappy ending as they wish