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.

Trouble in Mind

 

 

Trouble in Mind – Jeffery Deaver

As much as I enjoy Jeffery Deaver’s novels (I’ve probably read about 30), at times he seems much more cut out to write short stories.  This book is his third collection of short stories.  I’ve enjoyed them all.  I think part of the reason I feel this way is that the bulk of Deaver’s novels focus either on protagonist Lincoln Rhyme or Katherine Dance, and when you read about the same people in novel after novel, it can get a bit tiresome regardless with how well written the book is.

In fact, Dance and Rhyme each appear in two or three of these short stories, so maybe the author just can’t quite cut the umbilical cord.  To my recollection, there were about 10 stories or so contained in this volume, with the last one being what I would call a full-fledged novella.  It was this last one that was probably my favorite in the collection.

The title of this book comes across as a bit witty and ironic.  I’m not sure exactly what Deaver was referring to, but I can’t help but think he was drawing some sort of picture of the type of person (i.e. himself) who would actually write stories such as this.  You have to wonder if he looks at himself as someone who is slightly off his rocker. This isn’t a bad thing, mind you.  Deaver’s stories are always a tad creepy. They don’t have the bizarro effect of someone like a Stephen King, but his stories are always a tad dark.  What all of his fans know, however, is that Deaver’s real gift is the “surprise ending”.  None of his books end the way you think they will.  Sometimes, though, this is almost seems a detriment.  It almost feels like Deaver won’t ever allow himself to tell a linear tale with a predictable ending since he somehow feels obligated to add his trademark to each and every story.   Consider the (above mentioned) novella titled “Forever”.  It was a beautifully told story (again, odd though) and I thought the “twist” at the end was a bit unnecessary. Fortunately it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the story, but the same can’t be said for all of these stories.  I recall one story about a traveling salesman who visits a town where he grew up.  Let’s just say the ending didn’t work for me, and there’s nothing quite so unenjoyable as a greatly told story with a subpar ending.

Overall, though, I would highly recommend this one as I would all of his books.  The man definitely has several gifts when it comes to writing, and he rarely puts out a mediocre piece of work.

In Mortal Combat: Korea, 1950-1953

 

In Mortal Combat: Korea, 1950 – 1953 by John Toland

A book about the entire Korean War; about 800 pages.  I’ve read several books on this particular conflict.  Whereas this one was good overall, I have to honestly say it was probably my least favorite.  Whenever a history book is written about a war, the author can choose to approach the tough subject  from many angles.  Some choose to focus only on the politics and the maneuvering of the leaders of the respected countries.  Others put you in the thick of the battle focusing on particular soldiers and their recollections.  While others, still, prefer to give you detailed events of every battle; including troop movement, detailed accounts of weapons used, and plenty of named locations and directions in which everything seems to be moving.

This book actually does all of the above, yet I never felt like any of it was quite as good as it could have been.  One example is the tumultuous relationship between Harry Truman and Douglas MacArthur.  Now, to be fair, entire books have been written about these two adversaries during the early 1950s, so I’m not suggesting a detailed rehash, yet I simply felt that not enough emphasis was being placed on the relationship and how it affected not only the war, but the sentiments of the United States at the time.  Then, when the author spends a meticulous amount of page space of the intricacies of the battles being fought, I confess I was bored most of the time.  Then again, these kind of details in a book about war don’t go over well for me.  I prefer to view the action from 30,000 feet as opposed to, say, 500 feet. If you prefer the opposite, you might enjoy this book a bit better than I did.

The Korean War was a bit of an odd conflict; although it does seem a bit of an oxymoron to call a war “normal”.  In June 1950, Communist North Korea invaded Democratic South Korea.  Harry Truman and the United Nations threw themselves into the battle, and managed to not only expel North Korea, but drive them all the way up to the Chinese border.  Then, China entered the war, pushed the U.N. backed South Korea back to the dividing line (the 38^th parallel) which was essentially where both sides were when the fighting began.  This all happened within the first six months of the war.  The war then dragged on for 2 ½ more years while the powers that be negotiated truce talks.  Neither side ever picked up much ground while their leaders were haggling, and it seemed like an awful lot of people died in this war for no good reason.

So about 65-70% of this book is the first six months of the conflict since this was where most of the movement was.  Once the fighting was in a stalemate, so to speak, more focus is made on the key leaders, the motives, and the reasons for delayed peace.  As I’ve already mentioned, I personally prefer reading about these type of events as opposed to detail after detail of particular battles.

Don’t misunderstand, this wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t my favorite.  Two other books on The Korean War that I would recommend over this one are T.R. Fehrenbach’s “This Kind of War” and “Brothers at War” by Sheila Miyoshi Jager.  For a good account of the animosities between Truman and MacArthur, I would recommend H.W. Brands’ “The General vs. the President”.  All of these books were slightly better, and somewhat shorter in terms of page length as well.