Hiroshima Joe by Martin Booth
Joe Sandingham, a down-and-out ex-British Lieutenant living in a seedy Hong Kong hotel, struggles to maintain hope and trust and obliterate from his memory the horrors of his years in a Japanese prison camp Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Joe Sandingham, in his halcyon days a British army officer, now scrounges food in the seedy Hong Kong hotel where he lives, steals and runs errands for Leung, a sinister drug dealer and racketeer, to support his drink and dope habits. A ruined heap striving for some sliver of dignity, his only friend a Chinese prostitute, Joe is tormented by memories of World War II, of his lover Bob who died in combat, of his long ordeal as a prisoner of the Japanese. The narrative shifts back and forth between time present (1952) and the war years, accumulating brutal detail and scourging event; the POW period culminating in the cataclysm at Hiroshima, hard by his prison camp. Hounded by Leung's murderous henchmen, dying of radiation sickness, Joe finally achieves a kind of victory by hanging himself. After some narrative awkwardness, Booth is able to fashion a moving drama from the cruelties and pathologies of modern warfareand some moral meaning from the terrible travail of a man who survived, and even transcended it. 40,000 first printing; $50,000 promo; paperback rights to Viking Penguin. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal In this novel about war, set in Japan during World War II and Hong Kong in 1952, horror contrasts with beauty, intensifying each moment as a precious event. The protagonist, British homosexual Joe Sandingham, is an unusual hero/antihero. Decimated physically and emotionally by combat, the tortures of imprisonment as a POW, and the inhumanity of Hiroshima, Joe remains in Hong Kong, an opium addict, stealing and finally even killing to survive. Hiroshima Joe is special because its anti-war statement includes a poignant vision of life's inevitable continuation. Andrew Peters, Pioneer Multi-County Lib., Norman, Okla. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review Engrossing...unflinchingly graphic. ?The New York Times A brilliant achievement. ?Daily Telegraph (UK) A carefully controlled study of man's beastliness to man, vividly observed. ?Financial Times Fashion[s] a moving drama from the cruelties and pathologies of modern warfare and some moral meaning from the terrible travail of a man who survived, and even transcended it. ?Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Martin Booth is a critically acclaimed novelist and film writer. His novel, The Industry of Souls, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His new novel, Islands of Silence, is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Publication Details
Title:
Author(s):
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Binding: Paperback
Published by: Random House UK: , 1994
Edition:
ISBN: 9780099460800 | 0099460807
448 pages.
Book Condition: Good
Cover worn. Yext tanned
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