[PJ-Comix]

When Jones was first stationed in the Army in Hawaii he took an aptitude test and scored the highest marks ever seen on writing ability. He took a writing course at a college in Hawaii and wrote a number of unpublished short stories. Many of those stories became the basis for From Here To Eternity. Most of his characters were based on real people. For some reason, Jones heatedly denied that he ever based a character on himself but that was obviously not true if one is familiar with Jones. A character based on him (and not a very flattering character) runs in his trilogy. Also later in Go To The Widowmaker, the character of Ron Grant is definitely based on Jones and Lucky, his wife, is based on Jones' real life wife.

What was stunning about From Here To Eternity was the combination of incredible writing skill with complex characters and a realistic (often unflattering) look at Hawaiian society and the Army. When the movie came out, they had to tone down his harsh look at the pre-war Army. Jones also portrayed the life of soldiers off-base which of course included drinking and hookers. There was also a storyline about Hawaiian homos that tried to prey on the soldiers. And there was a brutal look at the army brig which included a prisoner (not in the movie) who was a Wobbly (member of the International Workers of the World). Obviously Jones had met a Wobbly while in the army because of the interesting information he provided on this. The Wobbly was quite a fascinating character. Oh, and there is MUCH for you Django Rhinehardt fans out there to like in this book. Jones was utterly mesmerized by Rhinehardt's music.

In a way, my description of the book is quite inadequate because there are many stories running in this book (although the main story centers on Robert E. Lee Prewitt).

[Argh]

Thank you.