Hiroshima Joe
by Martin Booth
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One of the most powerful novels about the experience of war, first published in 1985 Captured by Hirohito's soldiers at the fall of Hong Kong and transferred to a Japanese slave camp outside Hiroshima, Captain Joe Sandingham was present when the bomb was dropped. Now a shell of a man, he lives in a cheap Hong Kong hotel, scrounging for food and the occasional bar girl. The locals call him "Hiroshima Joe" with a mixture of pity and contempt. But Joe--haunted by the sounds and voices of his show more past, debilitated by illness, and shattered by his wartime ordeal--is a man whose compassion and will to survive define a clear-eyed and unexpected heroism. show lessTags
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Hiroshima Joe is a profoundly sad book. It's fundamentally a war novel executed via character study: Joe Sandingham fights in the defense of Hong Kong against the 1941 Japanese invasion, spends the next several years in a variety of internment camps, then looks back on these events from the perspective of the sordid mess his life's become seven years after the war ended.
And since it follows its protagonist's life so closely, it stands or falls on Booth's ability to draw his character. And it stands. Joe is not at all who you might expect him to be -- he's no conventional hero; that's for sure -- but he is believable, sympathetic (in spite of his numerous and ugly flaws), and always very human.
Perhaps the highest praise for Hiroshima Joe show more is Booth's ability to explore tragedy -- in several forms, including the one obviously suggested by the book's title -- without descending into bitterness. This is a difficult challenge for war novels, and Booth overcomes it with brutal elegance.
Highly recommended. show less
And since it follows its protagonist's life so closely, it stands or falls on Booth's ability to draw his character. And it stands. Joe is not at all who you might expect him to be -- he's no conventional hero; that's for sure -- but he is believable, sympathetic (in spite of his numerous and ugly flaws), and always very human.
Perhaps the highest praise for Hiroshima Joe show more is Booth's ability to explore tragedy -- in several forms, including the one obviously suggested by the book's title -- without descending into bitterness. This is a difficult challenge for war novels, and Booth overcomes it with brutal elegance.
Highly recommended. show less
Not just another prison camp novel. This book paints the story of a man who survives a Japanese slave camp and the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, and still manages to live some semblence of a hero's life. This low-key heroism is sustained despite a constant barrage of spirit-killing and physically challenging experiences.
HIROSHIMA JOE by Martin Booth (1984)
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THE WAR ROOM
813 works; 24 members
Author Information
47+ Works 2,804 Members
Martin Booth (September 7, 1944-February 12, 2004) was a prolific British novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press. Booth died after an 18-month struggle with cancer in 2004. (Bowker Author Biography)
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Joe Sandingham
- Important places
- Hong Kong; Hiroshima, Japan
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Statistics
- Members
- 144
- Popularity
- 227,186
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.53)
- Languages
- Danish, English, Polish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 3
