The Bridges at Toko-Ri

 

 

The Bridges at Toko-Ri – by James Michener

It’s a bit ironic that James Michener is known for his many 1,000+ page epics, as this particular novel is probably the shortest “novel” that I’ve ever read.  A whopping 85 pages.  Maybe when this book was released (1953) a book this size was more of the norm.  Buying it almost 70 years later, I can honestly say that I sure am glad that I bought it at a discounted price.  Paying regular price for this thing would have been quite the rip off.  Not only was the story short, but I really didn’t think it was that good either.

Although I’ve never seen the movie that was based on the book, I can see where such a movie around this story would be a hit; but only if the movie had been released sometime in the 1950s.  This was the time when war movies weren’t particularly realistic, and they seemed more intent on telling a sappy love story.  This is the case with this novel.  I can see a movie executive picking this book up and immediately setting the wheels in motion to make a cookie-cutter Hollywood love story in the middle of guns, planes, soldiers, and explosions.

The hero’s name is Brubaker.  The opening of the book really just serves to mainly “set the stage” of the character in the story. Nothing that happens is really relevant to the story other than to make us feel a certain way for Brubaker.  This isn’t that unusual with novels (and movies), but the problem is that when the entire story is only 85 pages in length, a 30-page “introduction” is really too much.    Brubaker is a pilot in the Korean War. He crashes into the icy waters. He almost dies.  He’s rescued.  It’s a good thing because he has a wife and two kids back home.  Such is war.

So then we move on to the “real” story. Brubaker is recuperating in neighboring Japan when his wife and kids show up for a visit.  How they manage to accomplish this in the middle of a war is a miracle, and it seems a bit silly.  She’s mainly there so we can have it sink deeper the reality of war and how brutal it is for soldiers to risk death every day when they have young families back home.  We also learn about the “big” mission he is to fly – to bomb the bridges at Toko-Ri.

This sets up the final act where said event occurs.  I won’t give away the ending, although with a story this short, I really don’t think I would be spoiling anything.  I’m awfully glad Michener didn’t try to stretch this thing into 200 or 300 pages.  In fact, this book really belongs in a companion of short stories as opposed to a standalone novel.  To be fair, though, had that been the case I don’t really think I would have enjoyed it any better.

I can forgive the fact that this was maybe more of the norm back in the early 1950s, but all of these years later, I would highly recommend you spend no more than a few dollars on this thing.  Otherwise you might just feel a bit letdown once you’ve finished this extremely short book.