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Cargando... Mister Roberts (1946)por Thomas Heggen
Books about World War II (153) Cargando...
Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. The story of a navy supply vessel during WWII and the crew aboard. I thought I would enjoy this, as I like reading about sea adventures and WWII, but something about the tone and delivery of this story didn't click with me. I remember enjoying the movie made from the book. Perhaps I didn't give it enough time, but I read fifty pages and it made me want to do anything but pick up my book and read, so I quit. Others may like it. Probably all of us have seen the classic Mister Roberts play or movie. The book is better. It captures the mind-numbing tedium much better, and the humor is scorched with irony and paradoxical pain. The hero, Mr. Roberts, spends his time on board trying to leave the safety of his cargo transport's milk-runs, filing one transfer request after another, seeking the action of a war-ship. The author, Thomas Heggens, was discovered drowned in his bathroom in 1949, an apparent suicide, despite, or perhaps because of, the huge financial success of the book and play. The Reluctant was a cargo ship engaged to carry trucks and toothpaste on a regular run "from Tedium to Apathy and back; about five days each way. It makes an occasional trip to Monotony, and once it made a run all the way to Ennui, a distance of about two thousand miles from Tedium." It's staffed with wonderful characters. Ensign Keith, the Boston bluenose, believes the Navy commandments he learned in boot camp about officers being gentlemen, and he sing1ehandedly tries to remake the crew into something resembling a regulation Navy vessel- until the famous jungle juice incident. Lieutenant Roberts is a born leader, able to move easily among the enlisted men as well as the officers; competent, he wants nothing more than to get out of this phantom Navy and into the real war. He is hated by the captain for his ability. He is the instigator of many of the famous practical jokes played on the captain. The doctor is simultaneously a great medico and a loony quack, which would depend on the quantity of grain alcohol he had imbibed the night before. He might or might not prescribe aspirin for athlete's foot. The book has several humorous moments: the discovery by one of the visiting nurses that she and her colleagues have been surreptitiously spied on by men on the Reluctant using the powerful range finder telescopes; the accidental firing of a live shell that nearly took the mast off a friendly ship after a party that somehow got a little out of hand; and the question whether throwing the captain's palm tree s over the side would result in their replacements being squared or doubled (figure that one out). But war is overwhelmingly tragic and Roberts gets his wish. He is transferred to a destroyer. His former shipmates learn of his death during a Kamikaze attack just before the announcement of the end of the war. It wipes the smile right off your face. I read this book after having seen the movie several times. So I found it difficult to read the book without envisioning the actors in the movie and the characterizations given them on film. But those difficulties do not seem to have harmed the stories in the book as they are very similar to those in the movie. Both the book and the movie give you a relatively quiet, sidelong, and somewhat humerous view of war. If there is an anti-war message in either the movie or the book, I missed it. But that's not to say that there are no lessons to be learned. There are several, though more in the book than in the movie. This is one of those rare instances in which I could not say which I prefer more: the movie or the book. Both are excellent and highly-recommended. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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The novel, Mister Roberts, was an instant hit after being published in 1946 and was quickly adapted for the stage and screen. The title character, a Lieutenant Junior Grade naval officer, defends his crew against the petty tyranny of the ship's commanding officer during World War II. Nearly all action takes place on a backwater cargo ship, the USS Reluctant, that sails, as written in the play, "from apathy to tedium with occasional side trips to monotony and ennui." This irreverent, often hilarious story about the crew of the Reluctant has enjoyed wide and enduring popularity. Heggen based his novel on his experiences aboard the USS Virgo in the South Pacific during World War II, and began as a collection of short stories. It was subsequently adapted as a play, a feature film, a television series, and a television movie. The film version with Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon is one of the most well-known movies of WWII. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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I read the pb edition pictured here, a yellowing, tattered copy from 1966, found in a pile of old books in the house of a recently deceased neighbor. I'm glad I finally read the original print version. Still funny, but with some darkness in there too, especially in hindsight so many years later. Very highly recommended. (And RIP, Mister Heggen.)
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )