Synopses & Reviews
4 cassettes / 6 hours
Read by critically acclaimed actor Joe Mantegna
"...a powerful, moving novel that probes the heart of man's most heartless activity--war."
--Clay Gowran in the Chicago Sunday Tribune
"I also learned that in spite of all the training you get and precautions you take to keep yourself alive, its largely a matter of luck that decided whether or not you get killed. It doesn't make any difference who you are, how tough you are, how nice a guy you might be, or how much you may know, if you happen to be at a certain spot at a certain time, you get it."
--James Jones, letter to his brother, Jeff Jones, from Guadalcanal, January 28,
1943
"So this is Guadalcanal," a man at the rail said, and spat tobacco juice over the side.
"What the f' you think it was? F'ing Tahiti?"
The classic World War II novel and basis for the major motion picture directed by Terrence Malick and starring Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, and John C. Riley.
These are the men of C-for-Charlie Company - "Mad" 1st/Sgt. Eddie Welsh, S/Sgt.
Don Doll, Pvt. John Bell, Capt. James stein, Cpl. Fife, and dozens more just like them - infantrymen in "this man's army" who are about to land grim and white-faced on an atoll in the Pacific called Guadalcanal. This is their story, a shatteringly realistic walk into hell and back.
In the days ahead some well earn medals; others will do anything they can to get
evacuated before they land in a muddy grave. But they will all discover the thin red
line that divided the sane from the mad . . . and the living from the dead . . in this
unforgettable, brutal portrait that captures for all time the total experience of men at war.
About the Author
James Jones (1921-1977), one of the major novelists of his generation,
is known primarily as the author of fiction that probes the effects of World War II on the individual soldier. Born in Robinson, Illinois, Jones entered the U.S. Army and
had the distinction of being the only individual who would become a major
writer to witness the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. A member of
the 27th U.S. Infantry Regiment, Jones was wounded at Guadalcanal and returned to
Robinson, where he started to write about his experiences. After shelving his
unpublished first novel, "They Shall Inherit the Laughter," Jones completed the
critically acclaimed international bestseller From Here to Eternity (1951).
Jones's other novels are Some Came Running (1957), The Pistol (1959),
The Thin Red Line (1962), Go to theWidow-Maker (1967), The Merry Month of
May (1971), A Touch of Danger (1973), and Whistle (1978). Jones published an
acclaimed short-story collection, The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories
(1968), a nonfictional history of World War II from the viewpoint of the soldier, World
War II (1975), and a book of essays, Viet Journal (1975).
About the Reader
Joe Mantegna has starred in the feature films House on Games, Homicide, Godfather III, Bugsy, Up Close and Personal, and Searching for Bobby Fischer. He has starred on Broadway in David Mamet's Speed the Plow, and Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won the Tony Award.