Helpful Score: 1
Way back in 1970, shortly before I joined the U.S. Air Force, I belonged to a mail order book club. As part of the offers from the club, I obtained a set of three WWII novels: THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, and THE CAINE MUTINY. These were matching volumes with red covers.
I delayed reading these for several years mainly because I was in the military for four years and then college, etc. etc. I did finally read both NAKED AND THE DEAD and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY but put off reading CAINE MUTINY until now. Both of the other novels were really great stories of WWII but I think I delayed in reading Caine because I had seen the superb movie version of the novel starring Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg and knew the plot based on it.
In any event, I'm glad I finally got around to reading the book, an excellent novel of the Navy during WWII. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952 and in my opinion, very well-deserved. From Wikipedia: The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral and ethical decisions made at sea by ship captains and other officers. The mutiny of the title is legalistic, not violent, and takes place during Typhoon Cobra, in December 1944. The court-martial that results provides the dramatic climax to the plot. The plot revolves around Willie Keith, a Princeton graduate who joins the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. He is assigned to an out-dated, rusty ship called the Caine that is supposed to be used as a mine sweeper. A new Captain named Queeg is assigned to the ship who turns out to be a hard task master and somewhat psychotic. This eventually leads to the so-called mutiny when the second in command, Maryk, relieves Queeg from duty during a typhoon that is threatening the ship. And then a resulting court martial of Maryk. Was he justified in taking over command?
This novel was engrossing as it describes the working within the Navy during the war. The character development is great and it left me wanting more. I'm sure I'll be reading more of Wouk's novels, especially his War novels: THE WINDS OF WAR and WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. Very high recommendation for Caine!
I delayed reading these for several years mainly because I was in the military for four years and then college, etc. etc. I did finally read both NAKED AND THE DEAD and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY but put off reading CAINE MUTINY until now. Both of the other novels were really great stories of WWII but I think I delayed in reading Caine because I had seen the superb movie version of the novel starring Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg and knew the plot based on it.
In any event, I'm glad I finally got around to reading the book, an excellent novel of the Navy during WWII. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952 and in my opinion, very well-deserved. From Wikipedia: The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral and ethical decisions made at sea by ship captains and other officers. The mutiny of the title is legalistic, not violent, and takes place during Typhoon Cobra, in December 1944. The court-martial that results provides the dramatic climax to the plot. The plot revolves around Willie Keith, a Princeton graduate who joins the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. He is assigned to an out-dated, rusty ship called the Caine that is supposed to be used as a mine sweeper. A new Captain named Queeg is assigned to the ship who turns out to be a hard task master and somewhat psychotic. This eventually leads to the so-called mutiny when the second in command, Maryk, relieves Queeg from duty during a typhoon that is threatening the ship. And then a resulting court martial of Maryk. Was he justified in taking over command?
This novel was engrossing as it describes the working within the Navy during the war. The character development is great and it left me wanting more. I'm sure I'll be reading more of Wouk's novels, especially his War novels: THE WINDS OF WAR and WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. Very high recommendation for Caine!
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