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Customer Reviews of The Thin Red Line

The novel details the adventures of C Company as they arrive on transports and engage in two battles. At the outset of the action Guadalcanal has already been invaded and the men of C Company are part of a force that will mop up remaining Japanese forces on the island. There is a cast of dozens of characters that is too long to detail here. Most are well-formed individuals. Jones takes us into the thoughts of each man. We read each mans inner dialogue as he is forced into life or death combat situations. All are scared, some rise to the occasion, some find they enjoy killing, some go mad and many are killed or wounded. Just like real life. They do not spend their time contemplating lizards and jungle foliage as is in the movie.

The characters go through a transition from scared untested troops to battle hardened veterans all in the course of a two-day battle for a hill called the Dancing Elephant. Jones describes how they acquire the "thousand yard stare" along with a mental numbness that inures them from horrors of battle.

After the first battle the men are given a week off which they spend getting drunk. Their too-cautious Captain Stein in relieved of command and his exec, First Lieutenant Band takes over. Band is eager to prove himself and volunteers his company to lead the next assault, the battle of the Great Boiled Shrimp.
This battle is a success and the Japanese are completely defeated. Unfortunately Band is judged to be too reckless by his superiors and he too is relieved.

With these two battles behind them, a new company commander is appointed. Captain Bosche is a stranger to the men, having been transferred from another division. Many of the veterans are promoted to fill ranks thinned out by casualties. Many others find that they can talk the army doctors into transferring them away for medical care, even though some aren't very sick or disabled. The novel ends with C Company climbing into another transport to be taken to fight for another island.

Unlike many other war novels, The Thin Red Line does not have a single overarching message. In this book, war is hell but it is also fun. Killing is bad but it also exhilarating. Heroism is a complex issue here. No man is purely heroic but many do behave heroically. Some do so because they don't want to be thought cowards by their buddies, others because they are hungry for glory, medals and promotions. One soldier, "Big Un," volunteers for a dangerous mission because he's upset that the Japanese are killing captured Americans. During that mission he himself kills several Japanese who are trying to surrender, screaming at them that this will teach them not kill captured Americans.

There are a few stylistic issues that I found annoying. Jones gives every man a monosyllabic name. He insists on unnaturally referring to the company as C-for-Charlie every time he mentions it. Other companies, such a B-for-Baker, are named similarly. Natural speech would of course abbreviate familiar names. There are other similar stylistics excesses. An officer is referred to a "pickle nosed, mean and mean-looking" every time he appears. Jones probably thought he was quite the artiste in doing this but I found it annoying and distracting

These minor points aside, The Thin Red Line is enjoyable, exciting and well worth reading.

A book that describes war as it is...
What struck me about this book was the lack of a "message." Jones simply tells a war story without making any judgments about it. Those looking for an anti-war or pro-war message will be disappointed.

This book can be read on two levels. One can read it for its hard-hitting descriptions of combat. The fighting scenes on the various hills of Guadalcanal are somewhat tedious to read through the first time, but become clearer with a further reading. The raw impressions of the members of Charlie Company (with curses and all) are also particularly effective.

On another level, Jones seeks to describe the human (as opposed to the mechanized) element of war. He describes the raw feelings of the men of Charlie Company. Some can't wait to kill the enemy. Others want to get out at any cost. Most are just resigned to their fate. Shining examples of heroism are also to be found. Jones also discusses the nature of leadership, as well as the opportunism and politics that thrives in any military organization. Jones makes sure that we never forget that an army is first and foremost an organization of people, and that it is these human relationships that shape the war.

"The Thin Red Line" is one of the masterpieces of American war literature. If you like "The Thin Red Line", I also recommend Jones's earlier novel, "From Here to Eternity."

THE Best Infantry Novel of WWII ever Written...
This is the best combat novel of World War II infantry ever written. The second of an autobiographical trilogy planned by Jones (with "From Here to Eternity" being the first, and "Whistle" planned to finish the storyline) it covers the shortest span of time, and it is also the shortest. But it is probably the most intense and I think, the most gripping. Avoid Terrence Malick's cinematic version which I think missed Jones' vision by a mile.

In this novel, we see "C for Charlie" company's struggle for some fictional territory on Guadalcanal in late 1942. It carries some of the most intense sequences of infantry combat ever committed to paper (one of the most harrowing is the company clerk, Bead and his run-in with a roving Japanese soldier while attempting to relieve himself is particularly effecting to make it all the more remarkable, it's based on Jones' own personal experience).

I can't recommend this masterpiece highly enough. Jones has captured for all time, the sights and smells of infantry combat better than anyone before or since. Read it. You won't be disappointed.