Rating: 
Summary: A great book about real human beings in combat...
Review: This book is like an old friend to me. I've read it several times, the first when I was just about the same age as the men in the book. I love the way this book is unashamed to reveal those most private and human thoughts, things that we sometimes feel but never admit. Placed against the backdrop of horror, monotony, and enormous discomfort that was the battle for Guadalcanal, the story brings the humanity of the characters, with all their virtues and faults, into sharp focus. This book shows a love for the soldiers life, as did "From Here to Eternity" but is never afraid to laugh at the paradoxes and indignities that sometimes come with living the Army life. I have recently seen the Fox movie, and I felt that the director changed key elements and added others for his own purposes in such a way as to obliterate the feeling the book had for soldiering, the Army, and the Guadalcanal campaign. The book is grounded in reality and written with immediacy and clarity. The movie is obscure and unsure of itself, and by comparison, desperately dull. My advice: Read the book, skip the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A classic of America literature
Review: Ever wonder what it might be like to be in battle? Here's the story of the men of C-for-Charlie Company. There are no heroes in this book, at least not in any traditional sense. The charcaters created by James Jones are men with the foibles that make each of us what we are. Within pages the reader can smell the sweat of fear. What writing! I read this book when it first came out and only re-read again. It hold up to the test of time. The Thin Red Line is truly compelling American literature.
Rating:
Summary: A book that describes war as it is...
Review: What struck me about this book was the lack of a "message." Jones simply tells a war story without making any judgments about it. Those looking for an anti-war or pro-war message will be disappointed.This book can be read on two levels. One can read it for its hard-hitting descriptions of combat. The fighting scenes on the various hills of Guadalcanal are somewhat tedious to read through the first time, but become clearer with a further reading. The raw impressions of the members of Charlie Company (with curses and all) are also particularly effective. On another level, Jones seeks to describe the human (as opposed to the mechanized) element of war. He describes the raw feelings of the men of Charlie Company. Some can't wait to kill the enemy. Others want to get out at any cost. Most are just resigned to their fate. Shining examples of heroism are also to be found. Jones also discusses the nature of leadership, as well as the opportunism and politics that thrives in any military organization. Jones makes sure that we never forget that an army is first and foremost an organization of people, and that it is these human relationships that shape the war. "The Thin Red Line" is one of the masterpieces of American war literature. If you like "The Thin Red Line", I also recommend Jones's earlier novel, "From Here to Eternity."
Rating:
Summary: Fiction?
Review: It's difficult to write a book about soldiers at war. There are always many characters, the ranks are confusing, the description of the battles must be very accurate otherwise the reader will be lost. If it's fiction, the author must be very careful not to, unwillingly, transform his book in a re-telling of other, more commonly known battle events. James Webb managed to write a very good book about soldiers at war, "Fields of fire". Cornelius Ryan wrote a series of excellent non-fiction books about the second World War in its European Theatre.
"The thin red line" is about the battle of Guadalcanal, an island of the Solomons chain and an important base in the south Pacific Ocean, between the american and the japanese troops.
"The thin red line", by author and ex-combatent James Jones, was brought under the spotlights once again more recently after cult director Terrence Mallik transposed it to the big screen, for the second time, in 1998 (the first time was in 1964). The movie is visually beautiful, long, and insightful, with extraordinary development of its main characters. The book does not have visual resources, but Jones' fast prose, moving from character to character, from battle scenes to the long nights spent in the open, all this makes the reader "watch" what is happening with his or her mind, just like it was a movie.
Jones knows what he is writing about. He was there, he did that. And he is intelligent. War battles are not much different, one from another (except if you are actually there, of course). So, Jones technic is to write unusually long chapters, to make the reader feel involved with the environment, with the people of C-for-Charlie Company. All the characters, with no exception, have, contrary to the chapters, unusually short names - four or five letters at most. Witt, Fife, Bell, Dale, Stein, Tall, Bosch, Bead, Gaff, just one syllabe, they are easy to remember and their sonority makes the reader instantly recognize the person associated to the name. Also, the brevity of the names reminds us of the brevity of the lives of his characters, fighting unexpected death at every moment.
"The thin red line" is fiction, but barely. The last sentence of the book gives Jones away. It's fiction in the sense of characters ann their development, and building atmosphere. It is very good fiction, really a masterpiece. And it's a true account on the horrors of war. Fiction and truth, ballanced. Enjoy both parts.
Grade 9.0/10
Rating: 
Summary: The Thin Red Line, Decent But No Masterpiece.
Review: The Thin Red Line brings us back to the battles at Guadalcanal during WWII. The book follows various soldiers in Charlie Company. The book depicts war very well, getting quite graphic at times. The author focuses on the pain of those wounded, describing the gruesome wounds very thoroughly. This really gets the theme of the book across; war is hell. Besides this there are a quite a few things I didn't like about how the book was written. The author is constantly switching to different characters. This is good in a way but doesn't allow the reader to fully meet or feel for a certain character. For instance, in a week I won't be able to recall a the character's name very easily. Another thing I didn't like was the author's constant focus on battle strategy. It was over the top with strategic references, constantly filled with dialogue between officers talking about flanking, etc. This can get confusing for the average reader. I also was disappointed in the description of the setting. I would have liked to learn more about what the island looked and felt like so I could picture myself being there.
Besides this I do admire James Jones for writing this book. He shows us how horrible war is through this book. More particularly, he shows us the war in the Pacific, which isn't as focused on in the media as the war in Europe. I especially wanted to learn about Guadalcanal since my grandfather was on the frontline there. James Jones was successful in showing us Guadalcanal, but did an average job.
Rating:
Summary: An Important War Novel
Review:
This is the sort of book that you "live" more than you read. It really takes you in. I recommend to see the movie beforehand (the latter is very different from the book in some respect but both are major works of art).
Rating: 
Summary: A war novel for intellectuals
Review: "The Thin Red Line" is not your average war novel. I've read books like "Battle Cry" and "The 13th Valley", and while they explored the feelings and experiences of soldiers in combat, neither of those books - or any similar novels I've read - discussed war in terms used in your average college course. "The Thin Red Line" discusses war in the terms of an intellectual exercise, although there's also plenty of action throughout the novel. This does not make it a bad novel, but it does make it into a different type of war story than you may be used to reading. You need to understand that going into this book, or you may not want to keep reading it.
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