Diamond Head, Hawaii, 1941.Β Β Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt is a champion welterweight and a fine bugler.Β Β But when he refuses to join the company's boxing team, he gets "the treatment" that may break him or kill him.Β Β First Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden knows how to soldier better than almost anyone, yet he's risking his career to have an affair with the commanding officer's wife.Β Β Both Warden and Prewitt are bound by a common bond:Β Β the Army is their heart and blood . . .and, possibly, their death.
In this magnificent but brutal classic of a soldier's life, James Jones portrays the courage, violence and passions of men and women who live by unspoken codes and with unutterable despair. . .in the most important American novel to come out of World War II, a masterpiece that captures as no ther the honor and savagery of men.
© 2003-2026