Something About a Soldier

by Mark Harris

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Something about a Soldier is considered by some critics to be Mark Harris's finest novel. The wacky characters and situations are clothed in a trenchant language that says everything Harris wants to say while retaining the purity and simplicity of a fable. nbsp; The hero is Private Jacob Epp (changed from Epstein), seventeen, from Perkinsville, New York. In 1944 he enters the army and arrives for basic training in Georgia with his Soldier's Handbook and a virginal social conscience. Exposed show more to racial discrimination and poverty, he becomes a social activist, even flirts briefly with communism. He meets Jolene, a countergirl in the PX, who urges him to embrace her, a warmer object for his love than any abstraction. How Private Epp is saved from death for love is a nutty, ingenious story that the reader won't be able to resist. show less

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TimBazzett 1,729 reviews

I first read Something About a Soldier more than thirty years ago, shortly after my first tour in the army. Although the book is set during WWII and my army days were the Cold War years, what Harris had to say - about the army, about life, about love and war, and innnocence and experience - was universal, and easy to relate to. Pvt Jacob Epp (aka Epstein) should be a classic character of contemporary literature. With a genius IQ and encyclopedic knowledge, 17 year-old Jacob's absolute innocence and inability to connect are nearly heartbreaking. Yet Harris's portrayal of Jacob - and of Joleen and Captain Dodd, who make up an odd love triangle - is laced too with a laugh-out-loud humor. And Harris's pronouncements on war and human nature show more are every bit as applicable today at they were over a half-century ago. After thirty years, I found the book still full of important insights, many of which I was too young to catch the first time through. I will probably re-visit this book one day. I sincerely hope another generation of readers will discover it one day. show less

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