I've finally finished The Naked and The Dead. I think once I finally focused on it (and started turning off the damn television and actually reading a book in the evening rather than zoning out, inevitably watching something that makes me dumber), it went a lot more quickly.
The book tells the story of an army platoon on the island of Anopopei in the South Pacific during World War II as they try to defeat the Japanese forces who hold the island. The story is told from the perspective of the numerous different individuals in the platoon, all the way from the general to the private. It goes through the phases of landing on the island and the terror of stepping into battle, to setting up the bivouacs and lines, to conducting a reconnaissance mission from the opposite side of the island to see if there is a possibility of advancing from the opposite side of the island to come behind the Japanese lines. Throughout the book, there are individual digressions usually telling the back story of one of the men in the platoon or "choruses" which is written as dialogue between the characters.
Admittedly, I know jack squat about military ranks, maneuvers, equipment, and pretty much anything related to war whatsoever. So initially, I had to look everything up to better understand what was going on (now I know what I pup tent looks like), but even then, it was very hard for me to visualize it all. But I did enjoy learning about this. I feel as though I have a much better understanding of what actually transpires during "war".
And what I learned about what transpires during war? A lot less battle and a lot more preparations. Building roads, moving equipment, setting up camps and foxholes, and just tons and tons of coordination of these efforts. I guess I never really thought about the fact that you're essentially setting up a functional city for thousands of troops with everything that is needed to make that happen. Before the first gun is even fired, it's an astounding amount of work.
The other main things I took away from this book was the basic tenet of the armed forces: that you follow commands and don't question your superior officers. There are so many parts where the troops are described in ways that make them just cogs in a huge machine. And even when one of them die, from his closest comrade to his commander, they all just kind of shove it down inside themselves somewhere and move on. And certainly that would seem to be part of coping with the horrors that they're experiencing around them and the only way they can move on without going crazy. But it often demonstrated how insignificant each individual was.
In addition to this, Mailer did an excellent job of showing the sheer physically excruciating lengths that soldiers go through to do their job. And again, it usually has nothing to do with battle but the physically exhausting work of something like moving cannons or traversing many miles of nearly impassable terrain, or carrying an injured soldier through the jungle . The bulk of the second half of the book spent significant amounts of time describing this in elaborate detail. And while Mailer did an excellent job describing the physical and mental changes of the soldiers due to physical exhaustion, I know I can't even adequately appreciate it because I've never even remotely pushed myself to that level of exhaustion (while a marathon and half Ironman were huge challenges, it definitely wasn't to the same crazy level as described in the book).
Overall, I did like the book. It's not something I would have normally picked up in a million years, and there were parts that dragged out way too much (721 pages was a lot), but it definitely gave me a completely different perspective on what some of the battles in the South Pacific may have been like. So in the end, learning a little more about this couldn't be anything but a good thing, right?
On I move to something in honor of Halloween, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I expect this to be a quick read since I'm usually a sucker for mystery books (I just can't put them down). I also have a long plane flight this week, so hopefully I can motor through this one. I think I've turned a page (no pun intended) where I'll be reading some of these books more quickly. Again, it mostly about making the choice to turn the damn TV off.
Also, I'm aware that for the website where I house my book lists, you used to be able to open the list directly from the link here, but now you have to have a login to open it. I'm not very happy about the change, and I'm looking for alternatives, but it might take me a while to figure it out and find a better option.
Happy Sunday! 241 to go.
