When it was announced recently that National Security Advisor, James Jones, was leaving the White House, the name caused my thoughts to turn to another James Jones. No, not James Earl Jones the actor. Actually my mind focused on James R. Jones the novelist.
Although most people have forgotten about James Jones the novelist or remember him only for his groundbreaking novel, “From Here To Eternity” or, perhaps, “The Thin Red Line,” he also wrote what can only be described as THE Great American Novel, “Some Came Running.” Perhaps you saw a movie of the same name starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Shirley MacClaine. Well, the character names are pretty much all that the movie has in common with the novel. “Some Came Running” was a sweeping novel of such detail and depth that it can serve as a goldmine for sociologists and psychologists who want to research what post WWII America was like. In many ways, “Some Came Running” covered the same themes (and more) as Sinclair Lewis’ “Babbit” with one important difference: the characters in Jones’ novel were much more developed.
I first discovered the genius of James Jones when I picked up a copy of “From Here To Eternity.” I had seen the movie many times and was quite impressed with it so was wondering how much better the novel could be. It took me only a few pages to be absolutely stunned by the quality of Jones’ writing. Normally I read faster the further along in a book I progress. However, in this case, I purpose cut down my reading rate because I simply didn’t want the experience to end. To this day I remain astounded at not only his writing style (Jones rated the highest of any soldier in an Army aptitude test for literary ability) but how a person could possibly know so much about both psychological and sociological matters.
After “From Here To Eternity,” I read more James Jones’ novels with a bit of trepidation. Was “From Here To Eternity” an exception or would Jones’ genius shine through in his other novels? I was not disappointed. They all fully matched (and in some cases exceeded) the promise of his first novel. Sometimes I run across a scuba diver who mentions to me that “Go To the Widowmaker” is probably the best novel ever written about scuba diving. They usually can’t recall the author but I smile as I inform them that it was the same James Jones who wrote “From Here to Eternity” and a host of other novels.
For conservatives, there is a special James Jones treat. He wrote what I would describe as the best inadvertently conservative novel…”The Merry Month of May.” Although Jones was never blatantly political in his books, he would probably have described himself as a liberal. However, Jones was also brutally honest to the point of even taking sharp, unflattering looks at himself in his books. So when Jones wrote about the mostly liberal American colony in Paris during the student and workers strikes there in 1968 which pretty much shut down France, it was far from flattering. He entertainingly chronicled their self-indulgence, fanatical cult-like adherence to leftwing politics, and other self-destructive attitudes.
What brought James Jones to Paris in the first place was what can only be described as a case of a great literary injustice. Despite the fact that “Some Came Running” is what can be considered The Great American Novel, most critics at the time of its publication savaged it. Why? Well, because Jones used the literary device of eliminating apostrophes in word contractions so, for example, “can’t” was written as “cant.” Critics obsessed over that while completely losing sight of the overall greatness of the novel.
Another big problem for critics is they wanted another “From Here to Eternity.” So, although, most of that novel dealt with the lives of regular soldiers (the Pearl Harbor attack came near the end of the novel), the critics seemed to want another “important” novel from Jones. They harshly criticized him for the “ordinary” people in “Some Came Running” while failing to notice the overall scope of the novel. Small town life in post WWII America, illegal gambling, petty insecurities, jealousy, racial attitudes, road travel prior to the interstate highway system, political corruption, hypocrisy, and much, much more are all in that novel which must be read in the unabridged version. As a result of the treatment this novel received from critics, Jones went into self-exile in Paris for over 15 years.
Just to give you a brief taste of the incredible power of Jones’ written words, here is his description of reveille in “From Here to Eternity.”
This is the song of the men who have no place, played by a man who has never had a place, and can therefore play it. Listen to it. You know this song, remember? This is the song you close your ears to every night, so you can sleep. This is the song you drink five martinis every evening not to hear. This is the song of the Great Loneliness, that creeps in like the desert wind and dehydrates the soul. This is the song you’ll listen to on the day you die. When you lay there in the bed and sweat it out, and know that all the doctors and nurses and weeping friends dont mean a thing and cant help you any, cant save you one small bitter taste of it, because you are the one thats dying and not them; when you wait for it to come and know that sleep will not evade it and martinis will not put it off and conversation will not circumvent it and hobbies will not help you to escape it; then you will hear this song and, remembering, recognize it. This song is Reality. Remember? Surely you remember?
