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The Sand Pebbles: A Novel, by Richard McKenna
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A gripping novel of adventure set in China in the 1920s.
- Sales Rank: #6330065 in Books
- Published on: 1963-06
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
An unknown facet of the US Navy comes to light and life.
By Paul Sayles
The Sand Pebbles is the story of a small ship, on a small river deep in the heart of China. Unknown by most of the rest of the world but home to the crew of the ship. McKenna, a former Asiatic Fleet Sailor, describes life in the river gunboats of the 1920s with an accuracy and authenticity that is amazing. I could almost feel the heat of the engines and the aromas from the galley.
The book is a study of men in the Navy. They are far from the public eye, doing a job deemed essential by someone in Washington. They are essentially feared by the Chinese and despised by the American missionaries they come into contact with. It must have been a brutal emotional duty to carry out. Yet many men loved it. They spent their careers on the rivers and retired there when their time was up in the Navy.
Jake Holman, the central figure, is not better or worse than most other Sailors of that time. His motivation for joining the Navy were "...Army, Navy or reform school..." and so into the Navy he went. He is a competent machinest mate but has few real people skills. He is a loner on the outskirts of the Navy world. He has bounced from ship to ship and has now reached the end of the line. But even Holman makes friends in the ship as he tries to adapt to his surroundings.
It is an interesting look at the gunboat navy. The crew did military duties and drills but the day to day ship's husbandry were done by Chinese men. Is it any wonder the crew loved China duty once they got there.
One might say that the conclusion of the book is confusing and leaves you feeling troubled. Well it fits with the mission of the gunboat sailors and I think is perfect. Antiimperialists may condem the book and the subject but it was a real part of the American Navy and deserves to be remembered and respected.
74 of 77 people found the following review helpful.
A Classic
By Ray Acosta
This is one of my favor novels, one that I would want on the proverbial desert island. I re-read it about once every ten years, and it's always fresh. This is a novel that can be enjoyed on many levels. It is an historical action-adventure story, with lots of pushing, shoving and fighting. It's a historical romance, in the tradition of Sir Walter Scott: a hero in an exotic foreign land, a long time past, fighting for what's right. It's a novel about Navy life, with lots of Navy procedures and protocol.
But to me it's more than that. It's a philosophic novel that asks the question, `Who's life is this?' I believe that in all our lives, there is a tension between what we would like to do, what we would like to be, and what the rest of the world tells us what we ought to do, indeed, what we will do. Our family pushes and pulls us in one direction, our employer in another direction, our community in another direction. Where does my own autonomy fit with the countless demands everybody else is making on me?
This is the essence of `The Sand Pebbles,' with the Navy acting a surrogate for society. The protagonist of this book, Jake Holeman is a misfit in life, forced into the Navy to avoid reform school, he drifts through the Navy without meaning or purpose until he learns to work on the ship's engines. It is only while he works on the engines that he finds fulfillment. Jake is not an anti-hero, he is smart and likable but he chafes at the many impositions society and the Navy place in his way. Everything in life is something he has to endure, except working on the engines.
Like an unappreciated artist who must paint or write, Jake Holeman must work on machinery. Machinery doesn't care who a man is, where he was born, or how good his manners are. Unlike the rest of the world, machinery can't be flattered, cajoled or ordered. It only cares how much you know. If you know how it works, it will perform wonders; if you don't, if you try to con it, it could kill you. At first it appears Jake has found the perfect ship, a small gunboat patrolling some obscure river in an obscure part of China. Jake is the senior engineer, and as long as he keeps the ship running, life will be perfect. But no man can live is he chooses, there are always others who will tell you what you will do.
So what happens to when you decide to live life on their own terms, to answer only to your own conscience? The world strikes back, and the results are tragic. Yet the tension remains, if we are to live life instead of just exist in it, we have to, by our own nature, push and shove back. Everybody dies, but few actually live. It would be a shame if they book were forgotten.
This book was made into a great movie with Steve McQueen playing the lead character, but the books offers so much more detail. If you enjoyed the movie, you will be delighted with the book. Buy the book and re-read it every ten years to see how your life is going.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Suzan D Reed
I saw the movie and I have always loved it and I love the book too.
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