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Thin Red Line
Thin Red Line | James Jones
6 posts | 8 read | 5 to read
They are the men of C-for-Charlie company Mad 1st Sgt. Eddie Welsh, Pvt. 1st Class Don Doll, Pvt. John Bell, Capt. James Stein, Cpl. Fife, and dozens more just like them infantrymen who are about to land, grim and white-faced, on an atoll in the Pacific called Guadalcanal. This is their story, a shatteringly realistic walk into hell and back. In the days ahead, some will earn medals, others will do anything they can dream up to get evacuated before they land in a muddy grave. But they will all discover the thin red line that divides the sane from the mad and the living from the dead in this unforgettable portrait that captures for all time the total experience of men at war. Foreword by Francine Prose Brutal, direct, and powerful . . . The men are real, the words are real, death is real, imminent and immediate. "Los Angeles Times " A rare and splendid accomplishment . . . strong and ambitious, spacious, and as honest as any novel ever written. "Newsweek" "" [A] major novel of combat in World War II . . . reminiscent of Stephen Crane in "The Red Badge of Courage." "The Christian Science Monitor" "" "The Thin Red Line "moves so intensely and inexorably that it almost seems like the war it is describing. "The New York Times Book Review""
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TheSpineView
The Thin Red Line | James Jones
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Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Perfect 👍🏻 9mo
Eggs Brilliant 👌🏼 9mo
52 likes3 comments
review
Bigwig
The Thin Red Line | James Jones
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Pickpick

This 1962 novel of World War II is a powerful read. Depicting the experiences of an American infantry company during the invasion of Guadalcanal, the plot focuses on a dozen soldiers who discover pain, terror, heroism, and deeply cynical truths as they face the cruel indifference of death and fate in the jungle. A very bleak tale, and one that is rougher, more nuanced, and more grounded than the introspective 1998 Terrance Malick film adaptation.

9 likes1 stack add
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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
The Thin Red Line | James Jones
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#ManicMonday @JoScho

Favorite Adaptation: The Thin Red Line

Favorite Movie: The Princess Bride (yes, I know this is an adaptation too, but the actual adapting of The Thin Red Line was better)

Guilty Pleasure Movies: Thai martial arts movies! Ong Bak 1-3, Born to Fight, Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector) 1 and 2

Popcorn or candy? Sorry to be a snob, but no food or drink at the theater. Just the movie.

saresmoore You and my husband sure are kindred spirits. Although, his favorite adaptation is Fight Club. 7y
dsfisher Wow, I haven‘t thought about that book/movie images. Excellent book 7y
70 likes2 comments
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Anna40
The Thin Red Line | James Jones
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#bookcolortag @Izai.Amorim thanks for red! It's an easy colour :)

Izai.Amorim Do I see a book in Italian? 7y
Anna40 @Izai.Amorim Sí! Umberto Saba selected poems! I'm half Italian. Studied Italian lit at uni. My master's thesis was about the novelle siciliane by Pirandello and how his early work was influenced by Verga and the Verismo. 7y
Izai.Amorim @Anna40 That's cool! I love Italy. We have friends in Siena who own a house in Puglia and sometimes we come down for Ferragosto. Close to Mola di Bari. I can understand Italian but don't speak properly, more like a sailor. I can read news and prose but poetry would be a challenge. Litsy doesn't offer Italian as a language option, which is regrettable. 7y
Anna40 @Izai.Amorim never been to Bari. Siena is beautiful. It should be easy for you to learn Italian if you know Spanish and Portuguese. My mother is from Udine, Friuli Venezia Giulia. Pasolini wrote some of his poetry in Friulano! It's actually a language not a dialect as some internet sources suggest! 7y
Izai.Amorim @Anna40 The closeness to Portuguese is more of a problem. Since it's so easy to pick it up, it makes me lazy. I came to the point where I had to sit down and learn the verb conjugations, orthography, grammar, etc. But that's s lot of work. Since Italians are so nice and forgive you anything if you try to speak Italian, the pressure is low...🤷‍♂️But I started reading prose and that's a great help. Never been to Udine... 7y
11 likes5 comments
review
LilithSaintcrow
Thin Red Line | James Jones
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Pickpick

My WWII Pacific reading continued with this book. The thin veneer of fiction makes it a little less brutal than Sledge or Leckie's memoirs, but not by much. Interestingly, this book approaches the question of sex between men in combat units. Maybe it has to be "fiction" before someone could talk about it so frankly. There are no heroes here, just people in terrible situations, in perhaps one of the most wrenchingly "true" things I've ever read.

2 likes1 stack add
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LilithSaintcrow
The Thin Red Line | James Jones
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Taking a break from Foote to read some Jones. I came across a mention of this book while reading Leckie's "Helmet For My Pillow", and the library had it. Breakfast with a book begins!

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