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Review
'A splendidly exciting and original story' (Sunday Telegraph )
'Terrifyingly exciting suspense' (Ian Fleming )
'KING RAT is the best novel in English to have come out of Japanese prisoner of war camps . . . James Clavell is a teller of stories. They are complicated and exciting, and you are desperate to know what will happen to his characters because they are like the people you know from your own life and experience, set in strange and sometimes terrible circumstances' (John Simpson )
'Terrifyingly exciting suspense' (Ian Fleming )
'KING RAT is the best novel in English to have come out of Japanese prisoner of war camps . . . James Clavell is a teller of stories. They are complicated and exciting, and you are desperate to know what will happen to his characters because they are like the people you know from your own life and experience, set in strange and sometimes terrible circumstances' (John Simpson )
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'A splendidly exciting and original story'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We should be really grateful for the strike that prevented Clavell to work as a screenplay writer and director for a few weeks in the early sixties and led them to write his first novel. In this edition there is a nice prologue by his daughter explaining what prompted him to write this book, and how quickly he wrote it. The novel is a fictionalized retelling of Clavell's experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Singapore.
Clavell does an amazing job in describing the personalities of the different characters that take part in the story. The fact that the camp held American, English and Australian prisoners provided him with the opportunity to showcase his acute understanding of the different cultures. If you add on top of that the Japanese and the locals that were in charge of managing the camp, you will find a wealth of characters that make this a mesmerizing read. There are two characters though, that are at the center of this tale, and whose actions could serve as a study in sociology. One is an American, the King, who is a corporal that has the ability to facilitate commerce, which is prohibited by camp rules, and therefore makes a very nice living, especially when compared with everyone else. When the King meets Peter Marlowe, a British Lieutenant, the contrast of personalities and moral codes could not be clearer. Thus starts an unusual friendship that will test Marlowe's character and convictions, since he will have to decide between compromising his morals in return for better living conditions for him and his friends, and sticking to his guns and keep on living miserably.
One thing that you can tell as soon as you start reading this novel, and that is confirmed later, is that Clavell is an excellent narrator and has a gift for describing characters and give them a soul. This helps understand how he can hold the reader's attention without it wavering in lengthy novels like "Shogun". In this case, the parts that deal with the secret commerce help provide the story with variety, because they speed up the pace and change the tone. It is also interesting that this edition includes the passages related to the situation of those left behind, mainly wives and kids. These provide additional insights into the lives of the prisoners, helping us understand their motivations and behavior better.
In summary, this can only be defined as an excellent read. Although it has some scenes that may be hard on some readers for their brutality, I believe that the great majority of people will love it.
Clavell does an amazing job in describing the personalities of the different characters that take part in the story. The fact that the camp held American, English and Australian prisoners provided him with the opportunity to showcase his acute understanding of the different cultures. If you add on top of that the Japanese and the locals that were in charge of managing the camp, you will find a wealth of characters that make this a mesmerizing read. There are two characters though, that are at the center of this tale, and whose actions could serve as a study in sociology. One is an American, the King, who is a corporal that has the ability to facilitate commerce, which is prohibited by camp rules, and therefore makes a very nice living, especially when compared with everyone else. When the King meets Peter Marlowe, a British Lieutenant, the contrast of personalities and moral codes could not be clearer. Thus starts an unusual friendship that will test Marlowe's character and convictions, since he will have to decide between compromising his morals in return for better living conditions for him and his friends, and sticking to his guns and keep on living miserably.
One thing that you can tell as soon as you start reading this novel, and that is confirmed later, is that Clavell is an excellent narrator and has a gift for describing characters and give them a soul. This helps understand how he can hold the reader's attention without it wavering in lengthy novels like "Shogun". In this case, the parts that deal with the secret commerce help provide the story with variety, because they speed up the pace and change the tone. It is also interesting that this edition includes the passages related to the situation of those left behind, mainly wives and kids. These provide additional insights into the lives of the prisoners, helping us understand their motivations and behavior better.
In summary, this can only be defined as an excellent read. Although it has some scenes that may be hard on some readers for their brutality, I believe that the great majority of people will love it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I liked this book. It was a good read. For me it didn't compare well with the other classics like Shogun but the story kept me reading until the end.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Set in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in WWII, King Rat is a brilliant and gripping story that follows the lives and deaths of the men trapped behind the wire, held by brutal guards and slowly starving. Friendships and hatreds bloom, and we come to really care about the fate of the characters. King Rat shows the way that people survive extreme hardships: some by pulling together and helping each other, some by acting purely out of selfishness. Plus, how people try to impose their own order and maintain their own power in a place where they are helpless. A very incisive look at the human condition that is relevant everywhere: you'll recognise your work colleagues amongst the inmates.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Classic read
Telling the autobiographical tale of the authours stay in a Japanese POW camp, this moving story should be read by anyone with an interest in the world war.
Published 1 day ago by Robert
James Clavell
James Clavell - A brilliant author (very disapointingly now deceased - so no more books from this source) and an absolutely brilliant book
Published 11 days ago by Peter Western Gate
What is the truth about Changi?
I am an amateur reader with a long-standing interest in World War II, and POW stories.
From the outset of my reading, when I was about 10, I encountered, amongst others, the... Read more
From the outset of my reading, when I was about 10, I encountered, amongst others, the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by John Gough
One of the few Japanese POW novels
From the Second World War, there has been very little literature arising from the Japanese POW camps, compared to the enormous amount based on German camps. Read more
Published 14 months ago by anozama
King Rat
Love James Clavell - got all the Asian books
This one is set in a prisoner of war camp (as he was himself at one time)and it basically shows how one man adapted to life in the... Read more
This one is set in a prisoner of war camp (as he was himself at one time)and it basically shows how one man adapted to life in the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Izzy
Highly ratted!!
I kind of enjoyed Shogun but didn't really enjoy any of the rest of Clavell's novels and nearly didn't bother with this one. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Aunty Pog
Now that, is a novel !!
A very different PoW story from the norm. Set in the notorious Changi, Clavell's paints such a vivid picture you can smell the place. Read more
Published 21 months ago by J.I.S.
Human condition on a POW Japanese WWII camp
Very good novel about human condition on a POW Japanese WWII camp, although not one of my favourite James Clavell's novels I was not disappointed with the book. Read more
Published on 22 Nov 2009 by Master Mind
King Rat
Fairly gripping document of life in a POW camp. Characters at first tend to blur into each other but Clavell provides enough unique details for each one for this to become less of... Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2009 by Rich
Review of WWll novel by James Clavell
James Clavell has created an entire library of inter-related epic novels, all of which were expertly researched in great depth and written in a captivating, easy-to-read style that... Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by Jack Haslam
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