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Summary: Gripping Story of Men Calmly Going About Danger
Review: This is a naval story set during World War II. That should put off no one. Monserrat is a trul fine writer, who grips any reader so well with his detailed story about intelligent, able, men going about a horrific duty, taking every precaution available, grittily making plans to cope in the midst of danger, but knowing that their risks are great, and catastrophe frequent. It is truly a wonderful book - a wonderful mix of characters (and the author is as interested in character as plot). I would truly and strongly recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: Live through the war in the Atlantic - over and over again
Review: This is absolutely one of my favourite books, and I'm reading it for the 5th or 6th time right now. Based on his real wartime experinces, the author creates a fascinating story of "one ocean, two ships, and some 150 men". Living from day to day through the horrors of naval war in the North Atlantic with the wonderfully-crafted characters, one is only beginning to imagine just how terrible it must have been. You breathe with them, you fight with them, you sleep with them and you live through their good and bad times - finding yourself unwilling to put this book aside. Read this book, and Buchheim's "The Boat", and you can truly say: "Now I know what it was like!"
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Summary: A favorite from my high school days -- over 30 years ago!
Review: This is an absolutely thrilling, gripping, involving story of war at sea. I have no disagreement with those who say this is one of the best novels to come out of WWII. I've had a copy with me through the years, ever since I first read it in high school. Monsarrat has a beautiful feel of the language, made more so by his own familiarity with the subject at hand. Every time I pick up the book and reread passages, I am still enthralled by the fine writing. There is even a lovely, poignant love story in the middle of it. Here is a passage describing nothing in particular, merely the ship "Compass Rose" when the convoy was a quiet one and the men aboard her could relax a bit: "They found that some nights, especially, had a peaceful loveliness that repaid a hundred hours of strain. Sometimes in sheltered water, when the moon was full, they moved with the convoy past hills outlined against the pricking stars: slipping under the very shadow of these cliffs, their keel divided the phosphorescent water into a gleaming wake that curled away till it was caught and held in the track of the moon....Compass Rose, afloat on a calm sea, seemed to shed every attribute save a gentle assurance of refuge." (p 105, 1951 Knopf edition) There was a movie made by the British earlier on, with Jack Hawkins as Ericson, the captain. The plot obviously had to be shortened, and I think the love story was changed a bit. The novel is better, still, and I do hope that they do NOT try to make another movie of it, for surely the Hollywood treatment will only cheapen this superb piece of work.
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Summary: War in the North Atlantic
Review: This is an exciting and yet very poignant novel of naval warfare which took place in the North Atlantic during World War II. It focuses primarily on two English naval officers whose job it was to escort--with first an inadequate corvette and then a frigate--the numerous convoys that went back and forth across the Atlantic throughout the course of the war. It was a difficult job to begin with and got worse: by 1941 Allied shipping was being destroyed by German U-Boats at an alarming rate. During one memorable journey, eleven of the 21 ships they were sent to escort were sunk. This was an enormous toll, both in supplies and in lives lost. What this great book does is give us a first hand view of the action, and also the effect that it had on these men, and the lives of those around them. To be sure there is blood and gore here, but it is not sensationalized or glorified. It is simply recorded in a straightforward manner, and is all the more chilling because of it. What is really emphasized is the psychological effect. We get a clear picture of their exhaustion, their fear, their terror, and their frustration in their inability to deal effectively (at least early on), with an unseen and deadly enemy. They are at sea for months at a time and incapable of dealing with family problems on shore: philandering wives, sick mothers, far-away sons and loved ones. Their homes and villages are being bombed. They begin to feel hatred--not only of the enemy, but of the ship itself, and all that it represents: exhaustion, terror, helplessness, and death. The captain must make terrible decisions at a moment's notice. After one attack, he steams towards where he believes a U-boat to be, an area which also happens to be occupied by English survivors of an earlier wreck. He decides he must drop his depth charges, knowing for certain that these sailors will die. Later, he agonizes over whether there was a U-boat there to begin with. We get a sense of the dangerous nature of the sea itself. There is no place to go during wild Atlantic storms, and sometimes they last for days. Everything in the ship is tossed around. There is no hot food. Sleep is impossible when you are routinely thrown out of your bunk. Everybody is banged and bruised and sometimes severely injured by suddenly being heaved against a bulkhead. Of course there is also the terror of being swept overboard entirely. The only saving grace was that, during a storm, the U-boats didn't attack. The book covers this aspect of the war, and covers it thoroughly, from 1939, which is chapter one, to 1945, which is chapter seven. It is written from the perspective of adult men and women we learn to know well and come to care about deeply. We are saddened when they are wounded, or killed. And the termination of the love affair between the first mate and his "Wren" was nothing less than heart-wrenching. This is a great novel, and belongs on the shelf with perhaps the half-dozen or so of the greatest novels of World War II.
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Summary: A splendid and moving masterpiece of naval fiction.
Review: This is no ordinary blood-and-glory sea story, with a ship full of heroes who can do no wrong. Here is real life - the misery of North Atlantic weather, in a small ship rolling constantly in the tremendous swell. An untried and amateur crew aboard a newly built ship are pitted against an omnipresent and invisible enemy below the waves, who is able to mark ships and sailors for death seemingly at will. In perhaps the most bitter fight of WW II, the crew adapt and learn, making Compass Rose a highly effective weapon against the German U-Boats. Written in 1951, Monsarrat bases his story on his own experience as first officer of a corvette on convoy escort duty. He clearly identifies with his primary character, Lockhart, who joins HMS Compass Rose in 1939 as a very junior Sub Lieutenant. The people and ships are fictional, but this is nevertheless a true and moving story. A brilliant story, totally unforgettable!
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Summary: The best sea storie I will ever read
Review: This is the best book I have ver read I loved it and you will too
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Summary: Danger, excitement and romance: it's got it all!
Review: This movie I've watched perhaps 15 times. I was in the US Navy and never saw action like this. One comes to actually hate the First Leftenant and his "snorkers, good-oh" and the leading lady she was, well, lovely and graceful and good. Virtue is big in this movie. The drive of its heroes is endless. The black and white gives the mood and the sound of the blaring horns gives the expediency. I have the book but can't seem to "wade" my way through it. This movie is thrilling and satisfying.
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Summary: A truly great novel about WW11
Review: This novel has stayed with me for 45 years, and I still find myself recommending it to people that they read it if they want to read a book that tells us all about the war at sea.It was highly entertaining while making sure we recognized the sheer lunacy and horror of war. I wonder if it is still recommended in school-I consider it one of the great ones.
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