Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Rosettabooks LLC (2002), Unbound
Description
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. The critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller and the basis for the Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated film starring Steve McQueen. As a spirit of nationalism inspired by Chiang Kai-shek's leadership begins to sweep through China, the river gunship San Pablo is ordered to patrol the region and to protect US citizens. Jack Holman is a machinist aboard the San Pablo, who has joined the navy in order to avoid jail time. Because he is so fiercely independent, Jake remains a relative loner and is uncomfortable with navy protocol and discipline. Holman's independent mind chafes against military hierarchy and also ensures that he does not share his shipmates' disdain for the Chinese. Instead, Holman is fascinated with the culture and the people that surround him and develops emotional bonds that prove quite thorny when the circumstances become more tumultuous and more dire. The perspective of The Sand Pebbles is therefore both panoramic as well as personal. Like Lawrence of Arabia, the tension explored here is between the self as individual against the broader spectrum of social and historical forces against which we are all measured.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
"The Sand Pebbles" was written by Richard McKenna, a career Navy sailor of no particular high rank, he was a mechanic. He was born to poor parents in 1913, a member of the "Greatest Generation", and fought in WWII in his late 20s. Before WWII he served a few years as a navy "river rat" on the
The Sand Pebbles is foremost very entertaining and a "man's man" kind of romance - lots of brawling, drinking, whoring, loving and working with big heavy machinery and guns. But it is more than just entertainment, it is a historically accurate portrayal of life in China during the Gun Boat era before China had become unified as a nation. It is a commentary on race and cultural relations between "invincible" white-men and their "coolie" servants; between lowly working-class sailors and respectable missionary citizens. It is a hero's journey of self-discovery and growth. Of China's emergence as a distinct nation. But more than anything it is reliably authentic: one really has the feeling of what it must have been life to serve on a Gun Boat in China in the 1920's.
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Yangtze River in China where he gathered first-hand experience and stories for this novel about a US "gun boat" on the Yangtze during China's 1925-27 revolution. In the 1950s he retired from the Navy and then graduated with a university literary degree and wrote this his single novel, before dieing in 1964. In some ways McKenna's life mirrors the fictional life of the hero of "The Caine Mutiny" who wanted to retire from the Navy and write the great american novel.The Sand Pebbles is foremost very entertaining and a "man's man" kind of romance - lots of brawling, drinking, whoring, loving and working with big heavy machinery and guns. But it is more than just entertainment, it is a historically accurate portrayal of life in China during the Gun Boat era before China had become unified as a nation. It is a commentary on race and cultural relations between "invincible" white-men and their "coolie" servants; between lowly working-class sailors and respectable missionary citizens. It is a hero's journey of self-discovery and growth. Of China's emergence as a distinct nation. But more than anything it is reliably authentic: one really has the feeling of what it must have been life to serve on a Gun Boat in China in the 1920's.
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
Published in 1962, The Sand Pebbles is book about the fictional U.S. Navy gunboat San Pablo, patrolling the rivers and ports of China in the 1920’s. As the story opens, protagonist Jake Holman is just arriving onboard. He is not a typical sailor – he resents the submission to authority and
Holman, as an outsider, is not popular with the crew, but eventually makes a few loyal friends. He takes one of the Chinese laborers under his wing to teach him about engines. He helps another when the friend becomes involved with a local Chinese woman. Jake keeps in touch with a female Christian missionary and teacher he met on his way to his duty station. He forms genuine friendships for the first time in his life. He does not buy into the racist attitudes toward the Chinese and becomes a sympathetic character.
The first half of the book describes shipboard and shoreside life during the era of “gunboat diplomacy” and the second shows the changes brought about by the rise of Chinese Nationalism. Themes include identity, loyalty, courage, class, and power. It is a story of a country on the verge of revolution, and the impact on the forces that previously had the upper hand.
The author vividly portrays the time and place. The first half is relatively tame compared to the volatile second half. The characters are realistic, with strengths and flaws. Jake’s character is particularly well-formed. McKenna includes representatives of the many groups involved in this complex time. The climax is expertly constructed. The reader can sense the characters’ distress in dealing with torn loyalties and painful decisions. The story includes violence and tragedy, but also tenderness and compassion. It is Jake’s story but also provides insight into this period of China’s history. This was one of my grandfather’s favorite books.
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discipline required for military duty. He has been shuffled from one ship to another due to his attitude. He excels at maintaining the ship’s engines. Holman, as an outsider, is not popular with the crew, but eventually makes a few loyal friends. He takes one of the Chinese laborers under his wing to teach him about engines. He helps another when the friend becomes involved with a local Chinese woman. Jake keeps in touch with a female Christian missionary and teacher he met on his way to his duty station. He forms genuine friendships for the first time in his life. He does not buy into the racist attitudes toward the Chinese and becomes a sympathetic character.
The first half of the book describes shipboard and shoreside life during the era of “gunboat diplomacy” and the second shows the changes brought about by the rise of Chinese Nationalism. Themes include identity, loyalty, courage, class, and power. It is a story of a country on the verge of revolution, and the impact on the forces that previously had the upper hand.
The author vividly portrays the time and place. The first half is relatively tame compared to the volatile second half. The characters are realistic, with strengths and flaws. Jake’s character is particularly well-formed. McKenna includes representatives of the many groups involved in this complex time. The climax is expertly constructed. The reader can sense the characters’ distress in dealing with torn loyalties and painful decisions. The story includes violence and tragedy, but also tenderness and compassion. It is Jake’s story but also provides insight into this period of China’s history. This was one of my grandfather’s favorite books.
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LibraryThing member usnmm2
This is another book you should treat yourself to if you liked the movie.
There is just so much more, you can really see and feel for Jake Holman as he finally finds a place and peaple to belong too.
There is just so much more, you can really see and feel for Jake Holman as he finally finds a place and peaple to belong too.
LibraryThing member jrtanworth
I found a copy of the 1962 hardback of this book in a used bookstore. What luck. From the opening "Hello, ship" to the disturbing, if anticipated conclusion, the book is beautifully written.
LibraryThing member dypaloh
“The students say Buddha came to China on a white horse and Christ came on a cannonball.”
—The Sand Pebbles
Very likely no novel ever has devoted more prose to a ship’s engines than does The Sand Pebbles. Richard McKenna’s descriptions of the naval river gunboat San Pablo and its engine
Engines obey well defined rules of repair and maintenance, rules controlling energy and forces, rules that Jake Holman finds congenial. However, the affairs of men and navy and politics, and the confusions they entail, not surprisingly prove of more matter. Rules will change. Jake, and the well portrayed commander of the gunboat, Lt. Collins, are central to how this plays out.
The “Sand Pebbles” are the men who form the official crew of the San Pablo. They are a rollicking group of navy guys with all the frictions and exuberance and tendencies to misbehavior that suggests. The San Pablo also has an unofficial crew of Chinese men who perform many of the regular duties on board normally assigned to Americans. It is a good business partnership for the Chinese crew and the interactions of the two crews catch one’s attention. Though he does less well in their portrayal, McKenna is much concerned with the Chinese, whether crew members or others. Their story is essential to everything the novel confronts.
The book’s dramatic pivot is when rules begin to change for everyone and the Sand Pebbles come to realize for the first time that the assumptions on which their military conduct is based no longer apply. The politics of China had been understood as conflicts of warlords attempting to assert control of regions and cities. When the “gearwheels” (nicknamed after the shape of a symbol on the flags carried by Chiang Kai-shek’s troops) appear, their activity is interpreted as yet another warlord struggle. It is not. The characters find themselves suddenly confronted with forces they are not positioned to understand, enmeshed in the armed revolution by which Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang sought power. The novel portrays, in a different situation, the general struggle also described in André Malraux’s Man’s Fate.
Who are these gearwheels led by Chiang Kai-shek? Command explains:
“Who are they? I’ll tell you who they are. They are more than the simple, ignorant Chinese whom they are using. They are the clever, seeing ones anywhere in the world who fear and envy America . . .
“They are the people who hate America in their hearts,” he said harshly. “They can even be Americans themselves, and those are most devilish of all.”
It is a speech, in a novel published in 1962 about events of the 1920s, which recalls the one given by George W. Bush to Congress days after 9/11:
“Americans are asking ‘Why do they hate us?’…They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
In China, though, it was not just the Americans inspiring hate. It was all the nations who were party to the Unequal Treaties that the Kuomintang opposed.
Unexpectedly, the ones who “can even be Americans…most devilish of all” include Christian missionaries at work in the Chinese countryside, the ones who have noticed the “great embarrassment…that mission-educated students were the most virulently anti-Christian”:
One of the “devilish” missionaries, the gentle Shirley Eckert, asks “Why can’t we just be citizens of the human race?”
Another “devilish” missionary, the sympathetic Gillespie, replies “Legally, no such human category is permissible.”
The “devilish” head of the Christian mission, Craddock, sums up the situation, saying “Those who put God ahead of country are all in a sense stateless persons.”
Conscience. Loyalty. Duty. These are issues at stake with no easy choices for the reverent or the profane, or for the dissident or the patriot, most especially when danger is pressing.
The author served 22 years in the navy, part of that service in China, and saw duty during World War II and in Korea. He knows his subject and must have given much thought to it. This long but well-paced novel (turned into a major motion picture) spurs the reader to think about it too.
—The Sand Pebbles
Very likely no novel ever has devoted more prose to a ship’s engines than does The Sand Pebbles. Richard McKenna’s descriptions of the naval river gunboat San Pablo and its engine
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room recall Melville’s extensive detailing of the Pequod. It gives substance to the love for machinery felt by the book’s central character, Jake Holman, the ship’s testy engineer.Engines obey well defined rules of repair and maintenance, rules controlling energy and forces, rules that Jake Holman finds congenial. However, the affairs of men and navy and politics, and the confusions they entail, not surprisingly prove of more matter. Rules will change. Jake, and the well portrayed commander of the gunboat, Lt. Collins, are central to how this plays out.
The “Sand Pebbles” are the men who form the official crew of the San Pablo. They are a rollicking group of navy guys with all the frictions and exuberance and tendencies to misbehavior that suggests. The San Pablo also has an unofficial crew of Chinese men who perform many of the regular duties on board normally assigned to Americans. It is a good business partnership for the Chinese crew and the interactions of the two crews catch one’s attention. Though he does less well in their portrayal, McKenna is much concerned with the Chinese, whether crew members or others. Their story is essential to everything the novel confronts.
The book’s dramatic pivot is when rules begin to change for everyone and the Sand Pebbles come to realize for the first time that the assumptions on which their military conduct is based no longer apply. The politics of China had been understood as conflicts of warlords attempting to assert control of regions and cities. When the “gearwheels” (nicknamed after the shape of a symbol on the flags carried by Chiang Kai-shek’s troops) appear, their activity is interpreted as yet another warlord struggle. It is not. The characters find themselves suddenly confronted with forces they are not positioned to understand, enmeshed in the armed revolution by which Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang sought power. The novel portrays, in a different situation, the general struggle also described in André Malraux’s Man’s Fate.
Who are these gearwheels led by Chiang Kai-shek? Command explains:
“Who are they? I’ll tell you who they are. They are more than the simple, ignorant Chinese whom they are using. They are the clever, seeing ones anywhere in the world who fear and envy America . . .
“They are the people who hate America in their hearts,” he said harshly. “They can even be Americans themselves, and those are most devilish of all.”
It is a speech, in a novel published in 1962 about events of the 1920s, which recalls the one given by George W. Bush to Congress days after 9/11:
“Americans are asking ‘Why do they hate us?’…They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
In China, though, it was not just the Americans inspiring hate. It was all the nations who were party to the Unequal Treaties that the Kuomintang opposed.
Unexpectedly, the ones who “can even be Americans…most devilish of all” include Christian missionaries at work in the Chinese countryside, the ones who have noticed the “great embarrassment…that mission-educated students were the most virulently anti-Christian”:
One of the “devilish” missionaries, the gentle Shirley Eckert, asks “Why can’t we just be citizens of the human race?”
Another “devilish” missionary, the sympathetic Gillespie, replies “Legally, no such human category is permissible.”
The “devilish” head of the Christian mission, Craddock, sums up the situation, saying “Those who put God ahead of country are all in a sense stateless persons.”
Conscience. Loyalty. Duty. These are issues at stake with no easy choices for the reverent or the profane, or for the dissident or the patriot, most especially when danger is pressing.
The author served 22 years in the navy, part of that service in China, and saw duty during World War II and in Korea. He knows his subject and must have given much thought to it. This long but well-paced novel (turned into a major motion picture) spurs the reader to think about it too.
Show Less
LibraryThing member breic
The pressure builds steadily, but too slowly for my taste. The second half is stronger than the first, but I was tired rather than engrossed.
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
I remember reading this when I was in high school and enjoying it very much. The novel was entertaining both due to its great characterizations, historical detail, and suspense. One of my favorite books from my teen years.
LibraryThing member kslade
Good historical adventure novel of a gunboat in China in 1920s. Good movie too with Steve McQueen.
LibraryThing member mykl-s
A good story about a US Navy gunboat on the Yangtze in the early 20c. Some of the scenes are violent and unpleasant.
Subjects
Awards
North Carolina Book Awards (Winner — Fiction — 1963)
Original publication date
1963
ISBN
0795305125 / 9780795305122