Rating: 
Summary: Is this really considered to be good writing?
Review: I won't summarize the novel here, because there are so many reviews that are already doing a fine job of that. I feel badly for giving this a bad review, because I feel like I'm attacking a respected institution, but I just couldn't get into the style. I have read a few war novels up to this point in my life--All Quiet On The Western Front, War and Peace, August 1914, Darkness at Noon, The Gulag Archipelago--but nothing from the American WWII library. I saw the film and loved it and felt it was time to start exploring James Jones, since he seems to be held in such high esteem, and especially since so many people who loved the book hated the film.
Just as a side note: if Malick had made the film like the book it would have been horrible.
James Jones doesn't allow the reader to make any judgements on his own about how characters are feeling or saying their lines, and makes some of the important characters almost cartoonish. For example, I was annoyed to the point of distraction by the adverbial abuse of the crazy sergeant and his grinning. By the midpoint of the book I went back and counted over 47 different ways that this sergeant "grinned". He was constantly grinning and we always got the description of how he grinned.
I appreciate the place this book has in the historical field of war literature, but it just seemed clumsy to me.
Rating: 
Summary: War is Hell; War is Fun
Review: The Thin Red Line is a fast paced exciting novel of combat on Guadalcanal. Forget all that you know about the dull introspective movie of the same name, the book is nothing like the movie.The novel details the adventures of C Company as they arrive on transports and engage in two battles. At the outset of the action Guadalcanal has already been invaded and the men of C Company are part of a force that will mop up remaining Japanese forces on the island. There is a cast of dozens of characters that is too long to detail here. Most are well-formed individuals. Jones takes us into the thoughts of each man. We read each mans inner dialogue as he is forced into life or death combat situations. All are scared, some rise to the occasion, some find they enjoy killing, some go mad and many are killed or wounded. Just like real life. They do not spend their time contemplating lizards and jungle foliage as is in the movie. The characters go through a transition from scared untested troops to battle hardened veterans all in the course of a two-day battle for a hill called the Dancing Elephant. Jones describes how they acquire the "thousand yard stare" along with a mental numbness that inures them from horrors of battle. After the first battle the men are given a week off which they spend getting drunk. Their too-cautious Captain Stein in relieved of command and his exec, First Lieutenant Band takes over. Band is eager to prove himself and volunteers his company to lead the next assault, the battle of the Great Boiled Shrimp.
This battle is a success and the Japanese are completely defeated. Unfortunately Band is judged to be too reckless by his superiors and he too is relieved. With these two battles behind them, a new company commander is appointed. Captain Bosche is a stranger to the men, having been transferred from another division. Many of the veterans are promoted to fill ranks thinned out by casualties. Many others find that they can talk the army doctors into transferring them away for medical care, even though some aren't very sick or disabled. The novel ends with C Company climbing into another transport to be taken to fight for another island. Unlike many other war novels, The Thin Red Line does not have a single overarching message. In this book, war is hell but it is also fun. Killing is bad but it also exhilarating. Heroism is a complex issue here. No man is purely heroic but many do behave heroically. Some do so because they don't want to be thought cowards by their buddies, others because they are hungry for glory, medals and promotions. One soldier, "Big Un," volunteers for a dangerous mission because he's upset that the Japanese are killing captured Americans. During that mission he himself kills several Japanese who are trying to surrender, screaming at them that this will teach them not kill captured Americans. There are a few stylistic issues that I found annoying. Jones gives every man a monosyllabic name. He insists on unnaturally referring to the company as C-for-Charlie every time he mentions it. Other companies, such a B-for-Baker, are named similarly. Natural speech would of course abbreviate familiar names. There are other similar stylistics excesses. An officer is referred to a "pickle nosed, mean and mean-looking" every time he appears. Jones probably thought he was quite the artiste in doing this but I found it annoying and distracting These minor points aside, The Thin Red Line is enjoyable, exciting and well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A novel worth reading.
Review: This novel is about loss on humanity during the battle of Guadalcanal (but it could be any war at any point in history). This loss occurs right from the beginning - when the U.S.soldiers are herd together in the stinking holds of the troop-ships - until the capture of a hill occupied by the Japanese. Maybe there is no really a plot but there is one very colourful character with many faces: humanity.(One thing though, the novel sometimes suffers from long-windedness).
Rating:
Summary: An American Warfare Classic
Review: The Thin Red Line is one of the few warfare novels that entertains the reader with both gripping combat descriptions and believable, developed characterizations. It is at once both adrenaline-pumping and psychologically engaging, and somehow never loses momentum, even when the action stops. James Jones' simple, vulgar, and addictive prose sucks the reader into the world of the soldier, and he'll want to come back only to reassure himself that he's at home, safe and sound. Set on the island of Guadalcanal at the beginning of WWII, the novel centers about C-for-Charlie Company, a group of soldiers thrust into combat for the first time. The soldiers do not, however, enter into combat immediately. First they must travel through the oppressive tropical jungle, getting closer and closer to the fighting as they go, all of them dreading what is to come and wondering how they, themselves will react to combat. When they do fight, very few of them react as they thought they would. Some find they are cowards, some conquer their fear and become heroes, and all the while the reader shares in their apprehension, their terror, and their exultation. Like all great books, The Thin Red Line is highly thematic. Through the soldiers' thoughts, Jones discusses a number of topical issues, from the ethical to the political to the sexual. One of the most important recurring issues is the question, "How much difference can one man make?" Others include governmental authority, homosexuality, and how men act vs. how they think. The depth of the soldiers' thoughts gives us insight into their characters and is truly what sets this novel apart. Any reader will enjoy the novel for its characterizations and the mental stimulation it provides, and the enthralling action puts icing on the cake. The Thin Red Line is truly an American warfare classic.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing descriptions...
Review: "The Thin Red Line" is one of the best books I've ever read. Even from the first pages the book took a hold of me and I could hardly put it down (eventually you've got to sleep at least a few hours...). Jones descriptions of the different persons thoughts and psychology is amazing. The only negative thing about the book was that the last part didn't really match the first 2 thirds of the book. But still it's a great book. If you enjoyed this book also take a look at "Das Boot" by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. The true story about a German submarine crew during WWII as the author experienced it first hand.
Rating:
Summary: As true to life as they get...
Review: The Thin Red Line is a book that dives deep into the minds of the men fighting on Guadalcanal. It begins by getting inside the heads of the men of C-for-Charlie Company. Through the varied personalities, the reader sees what it's like to fight against Japanese and to kill them. Men like Corporal Fife undergo a complete transformation by the end of the novel. The soldiers learn many tough lessons such as the fact that every man is replaceable. This novel is so unique when compared to other war novels because of the graphic realism it portrays. Everything I had ever believed or thought I knew about war has been completely reversed by this book. There was such a human element that made it so compelling to read. The men slowly become dehumanized as the numbness of combat sets in. I challenge anyone who enjoys learning about war to read this book. I doubt that anyone could come away from it unchanged. War becomes an aspect of life that one can only understand if they experience it. This novel proves once and for all that no one should want to experience it... only read about it to gain a new appreciation for the men that fight for freedom. "One day one of their number would write a book about all this, but none of them would believe it, because none of them would remember it that way."
Rating:
Summary: attention to detail
Review: Several Reviewers have missed the point that Charlie Company is composed of the peacetime army regulars. I would view Charlie Company as an oufit that had been garrisoned at Schoffied Barracks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thus the mindset and the motivation of these men as professional infantry is quite different than the draftees who came into the army after Pearl Harbor. Moreover, James Jones is the first novelist I know who describes the phenomenon of the Pacific Theatre "slit trench". Particulary the reluctance of soldiers to dig a slit trench that would serve as protection against Japanese bomber planes. However when Charlie Comapany suffers a night air raid. The next morning all the soldiers are out digging their trench. I have heard about this reluctance to dig trenches and the alacrity in digging them the next morning from several south pacific veterans Another nice touch is the cost of whiskey in the South Pacific theatre. A hundred years from know how many historians will know that a bottle of whiskey could cost up to $50.00, except from a novel like The thin Red Line. It is the small details that give this book its authenticity. I also suspect that James Jones probably understated some of the brutality of this campaign, simply because he knew many readers would never believe the truth about Guadalcanal. Likewise, it is only the lunatics who stay in the combat infantry. At the end of the book all the sane soldiers manage to get themselves evacuated out of the combat zone. Only lunatics like Welsh refuse the opportunity to leave the war. Jones implies if you are engaging in war you are either insane or you will go insane.
Rating:
Summary: The Thin Red Line between bravey and cowardice
Review: James Jones writes of war as few novelists can. The chararcters in The Thin Red Line could be any man in any given war. There is no black and white or right and wrong in this novel. Here is a book that examines the lack of distinctions that exist when we exit the safety of our homes and throw our lives into the ugly trough that is warfare. One of the most compelling themes in this novel is the exploration of cowardice and bravey. Through the use of internal monologue the reader discovers that all of these men question their courage, fear the stigma of cowardice, and must contend with their self doubt as they face a reality more frightening than anything faced before in their lives. What we learn from James Jones is a simple lesson that no man should forget....there are NO cowards in war. There are men who are frightened and there are men who pretend not to be frightened. But cowardice is ridiculous. Each soldier has only his own life in his own hands and must decide how to conduct himself given his dire circumstances. This is a novel in which the anatgonist is not the soldier who turns and runs when faced with combat, but instead is the entire revolting circumstance that was the Pacific Theater. This is a lesson that only a master storyteller and WWII veteran can teach.
Rating:
Summary: Powerhouse of a novel
Review: First off, this is my favorite novel because of Jones' plain-spokenness and natural feel for the speech and behavior and motivation of ordinary men thrown into war. The book, unlike similar attempts by better remembered authors, keeps its ambitions simple, and thus more attainable: documentation of the state of mind of individuals in battle. And it pulls it off royally with a wealth of memorable characters with wildly varying reactions and motivations. One unusual and overlooked aspect of it is the comedy. Not a "black comedy" of "military absurdity" of the "anti-war" literary strain, but hilarious looks at the idiosyncracies and drives of men - Jones had a feel for the little things that we can't stand about ourselves and others that madden us like no other writer I've run across, and it's on prime display in this book: Don Doll's goofy dalliance with a subordinate and his struggle to become a "man", with all the display it entails; Fife's inability to suppress his terror and the subsequent self-loathing; Witt's twisting in the winds of his own vicissitudes and clumsy idealism; Welsh's putting on the face of a sociopath to guard himself from the horror of slaughter and the psychically disastrous proposition of caring for others in the wartime infantry. Nobody is spared - Jones puts each character's psyche under the microscope like no one else could. Jealousy and callousness rear their ugly heads. In this realm, Bell is perhaps the only character a reader can sympathyze with (though, this being Jones, he has his faults) - he's a solid soldier who's conscious of and repelled by his own automatization and the brutality of what's going on around and within him. His opposite is the seemingly inhuman Charlie Dale, who relishes in becoming a savage and as such excels. The battle scenes are riveting and often heartbreaking, but the internal battles are what matter most here. You'd also be amazed at how funny it is when a character is described as "long picklenosed, mean, and meanlooking" before each mention of his name in the narrative. All told, this is probably the best, most genuinely impassioned, most devoid of cheap sentiment and haughty "intellectual"/political horsecrap work of fiction I've read. Distilled humanity and wrenching verisimilitude - THE enduring combat novel of WWII.
Rating: 
Summary: Psychobabble
Review: I couldn't finish this book. It did nothing for me. I was bored from the start. No insights into the human psychic in my opinion, nothing of any value about men at war. The Movie was even worse. Compared to Saving Private Ryan, it couldn't hold a candle. You can show the stark reality of warfare and still maintain the dignity of the men who fought and died. It's distasteful to diminish the memory of these men because of acts of savagery. In Warfare men fight to survive, you can't hold that against them. Humanity is the missing factor when forced to kill or be killed. I do not recommend this book or the Movie unless you like psychobabble. Although the Movie version of 'From Here to Eternity' is certainly one of the finest. (Probably because of the acting talent.)
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