From Sept. 11 to Eternity (Peggy Noonan Says You MUST Read "From Here To Eternity")

Well Street Journal ^ | December 7, 2001 | Peggy Noonan

[PJ-Comix]

For America for Christmas this year there's only one gift, a history book. And we should all get busy writing it.

Today is the 60th anniversary of "the day that will live in infamy," the sneak attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. We know a lot about what happened on Dec. 7, 1941, but not enough. Some of the best of what we know came from a work of fiction, James Jones's great classic novel, "From Here to Eternity." Jones had been there that day, a young enlisted man at Hawaii's Scofield barracks, a nascent novelist looking for experience. He got it. He wrote the great novel of World War II. It is amazing to realize that unlike the great novels of World War I, "From Here to Eternity" hinges on the day the war began, at least for America, and never touches upon the war's execution or ending--and it was published near the end of the era in which novels really, truly mattered, when they were seen not as a tributary off the great river of American literature but the river itself.

[PJ-Comix]

I just assigned From Here To Eternity as the next Freeper Reading Club book assignment (due January 15). Anyway, I did a little bit of research on that book just now and found this great article by Peggy Noonan about why From Here To Eternity is an IMPORTANT book to read. It is also the BEST American novel ever written.

If you want to join the Freeper Reading Club (almost 100 members strong) just let me know and I'll put you on the Freeper Reading Club Ping List.

[gunnyg]

Outstanding!

See Below

CLICK-HERE!!!!!

[TxBec]

add me?

[TXBubba]

Put me on. I didn't know we had a reading club.

[jonno]

I just ordered a used copy from Amazon.

Please add me to your Ping list!

Regards,

[PJ-Comix]

SIGH! As I just mentioned over on the Freeper Reading Club, there was a movie that went by the name of From Here To Eternity that had some of the same character names and was set in Hawaii but that is where the similarities pretty much end. If you only saw the movie, From Here To Eternity, you can't really appreciate what a MONUMENTAL work the novel was. BTW, after I read the novel, I saw the movie version again and was astonished by how diminished it seemed in comparison to the novel. So do yourself a favor and READ the novel.

[Miss Marple]

Put me on the list, PJ! I am going hunting for that book tomorrow!

[Joe Bonforte]

Actually, I nominate Herman Wouk's Winds of War and War and Remembrance instead of or in addition to From Here to Eternity. They are superb. Starts in the mid-thirties in the build-up to the war, and goes all the way to the end. The mini-series was good, but did not do the novels justice.

And they are still in print and available on Amazon.

[PJ-Comix]

You're on the Ping List now..... And I GUARANTEE that you will be ASTOUNDED by From Here To Eternity.

[Miss Marple]

By the way, PJ, do you ever get the feeling that Peggy knows something? She seems to be warning us and trying to get us ready. I don't know if someone has talked to her, or if it is the Irish Sixth Sense, but she really seems to be trying earnestly to get us prepared.

[PJ-Comix]

Ping!

[PJ-Comix]

Ping!

[ventana]

Gee PJ, who knew! Please add me to your reading club list. V's wife.

[PJ-Comix]

Actually, I nominate Herman Wouk's Winds of War and War and Remembrance instead of or in addition to From Here to Eternity.

Winds of War and Remembrance were good novels but they were more like novelized textbooks about the events of WWII. The characters were secondary to the events. From Here To Eternity is just the opposite. The characters are of prime importance with the attack on Pearl Harbor being almost just one more incident in the vast texture of the novel. Also as to writing skills, James Jones was far above Wouk although I thought Wouk's Caine Mutiny was terrific.

[PJ-Comix]

Ping!

[Utah Girl]

Please add me to the list!!! I love to read and didn't know there was a FReeper book club. I've been looking for one for awhile, I got tired of the online ones, they're mostly liberals...

And I highly recommend From Here to Eternity. I read it a couple of years ago.

[Utah Girl]

Ping for the FReeper book club.

[nicksaunt]

PJ, please add me to the list. Thanks so much.

[PJ-Comix]

Ping!

And I highly recommend From Here to Eternity. I read it a couple of years ago.

Terrific, wasn't it?

[PJ-Comix]

Ping!

And now we are just a few members shy of a HUNDRED members in the Freeper Reading Club!!!