I'm going to persist with the Asian Saga, even though I'm not really a big fan of Clavell's writing anymore. I thought 'Shogun' was great, but 'Taipan' and 'Gaijin' were too much work. Fortunately, as a piece of writing, 'King Rat' is much better - and it should be too, as it is practically autobiographical.

That said, it is hard to communicate the horrors of the prison of war camp, and I don't think that this comes nearly as close as others that I've read. ( )

Clavell was a prisoner of war of the Japanese during WWII & this book is about living in such a camp. It's an incredibly good, yet horrible story. It's not really like 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch' except that it does give a pretty granular look at just how far from the human norm people can adapt. I can't say much else without a spoiler, so I'll just say that it won't ever be your favorite book to read over & over, but it's a 'must read once'. ( )

Based on the experiences of the author, this book is a harrowing look into the Asian POW camps of WW2, and how it changed the people living in it forever. Heart breaking. ( )

The final novel in Clavell's Asian series which kicked off with Shogun. This book is set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. ( )

this book is very boring