Customer Reviews

James Clavell's King Rat

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

James Clavell is renowned for his works such as _Shogun_ and _Noble House_. This darkly autobiographical novel was, so far as I am aware, his first literary work. It remains his best.

Clavell was a prisoner of the Japanese. He was held at the infamous Changi prison on the eastern end of Singapore island as described in the novel. Like the protagonist, Peter Marlowe, Clavell came from a good family, though due to his eyesight he was in the Royal Artillery, not the Royal Air Force (a little harmless wish-fulfillment, there).

I think the novel impresses so many readers due to its stark simplicity and forthrightness, particularly in describing the moral dilemmas that confront Marlowe. With the issue of survival in the balance, does morality become relative? Marlowe concludes that the only man who could answer his questions, his father, is dead-- killed on the Murmansk run. But just as Changi is rebirth for Marlowe, perhaps it is the King-- the trader with the Japanese-- who becomes Marlowe's father and answers those questions.

There are many, many layers to this book. I have read it many times and have always walked away with something new. As with the Changi experience, itself, I sense that there is never complete resolution.

Clavell died several years ago. I hope that he found peace.

Add this work to testaments like Iris Chang's, _The Rape of Nanking_, as a remembrance of what the Japanese did to the defeated.

Of all Clavell's books, this has always been my favorite. I will not deny that Clavell tends to use the same story and characters in every novel (compare shogun with tai-pan and noble house). I love all his books (even gai-jin which few seem to enjoy), but King Rat is the best. It really makes you think about human nature, and what's really important in life. All these people grew up in a certain lifestyle, and suddenly and thrown together in a POW camp, and under brutal circumstances. I have done research on POW camps at this time,and the findings are not pleasant, so it really is interesting to see how people change, and what they really value. Seeing as how Mr. Clavell spent time in Changi himself, all that we see in King Rat is an extension of that, and so you can really appreciate what he endured. It for these above reasons that I truly enjoyed this book above his other great novels, and why I have read several times over.

King Rat has many unique aspects amongst the other novels in the Asian saga:
- It was written first, with less connections to the rest of the series.
- It's the shortest of the lot.
- It's the most autobiographical, as Clavell spent time in that same prison.
- There is the least cross-cultural interaction.

Having said all of this, this WWII POW survival story is a compelling study of what people do to survive. In a sense, we all become rats, with one as king. Much of the book studies the manipulations between folks vying for power. There are the Americans trying to enforce prison standards. There are people living off of rank to hold a grasp of dignity. And then there is the King of the title, who finds a way to transcend above the problems, living off the black market and a network of informants.

We are introduced to the character that most closely resembles Clavell in this novel too. Though he reappears in Noble House, we first catch the author as the King's sidekick, a downed soldier who has to struggle with where his loyalties are.

I can not recommend the series enough. Whether you go through it chronologically as written, or in the order of time periods written about, you'll find this a deep addition to the series.

This is the only only book that written that in my opinion supplants Clavell's own Shogun as perhaps the best historical novel ever written.

Partly autobiographical, King Rat recounts the story of Phillip Marlowe, a character no doubt based on Clavell himself, and his years spent in the notorious Singapore POW camp known as Changi during WW2.

What is so stunning about this novel, is that perhaps because of the very real life experiences that forged its narrative, it becomes more than mere words on paper, it becomes a very real world where the old class lines are broken down as officers and enlisted men sleep in the same mud huts, where getting an egg in your rice for dinner constitutes a great day, a transvestite becomes the sexual icon of the whole camp and the very concept of traditional ethics and morals are challenged.

What makes this novel so very magical is that the depth with which the characters and their respective personalities and fates resonate with the readers, their laughter becomes your laughter, their sorrow becomes your sorrow, their joy becomes your joy, very rarely is a novel simultaneously able to so superbly entertain and make you affect your outlook on life, after the end of this short novel you will feel as if you have emerged from three years in a Singapore prison camp, and like the men in this novel, you will never be the same again.

This book is lumped into the "Asian Saga" series of James Clavell, and yes, it takes place in Asia, but bears no other true resemblance to the rest of the saga. It's shorter, of course, but it's also not an epic...it takes place in a POW camp almost entirely.

The character of King, the American trader who lives high-on-the-hog through his wheeling and dealing, is fascinating in the feelings of hatred & envy he generates. Everyone wants to be close to him, not because they like him, but because he can afford to give away cigarettes, share an egg, pour coffee, etc. He has learned to manipulate the system totally to look out for #1.

He makes friends with unassuming British fighter pilot Peter Marlowe, who at first acts and translator and later as partner and friend to King. His character goes through lots of development, and he is really the conscious of the camp. Although not written in the first person, we really see things through his eyes.

The book is packed full of colorful characters, many sketched only briefly, yet Clavell makes us see them all, and understand them.

THere are moments of high drama, where our characters are close to being caught or captured, and the plot moves at a brisk pace.

I found the ending of the story to be just a tiny bit rushed, BUT it made some powerful statements. When the war ends, the fear that sweeps through the camp, first that the Japanese will take vengeance on the POWs and second, the fear of "what do we do now," is very convincing. It's not what I ever thought the liberation of a POW camp would be like, and it really made me stop and think. And the dynamics that occur when the first officers from "outside" show up to help liberate the camp are fascinating.

This book is an exploration of the human spirit that is dramatic, moving, occasionally funny and always unexpected. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

James Clavell's King Rat is a poignant, resonating tale about humanity and struggle in incredibly dire situations--namely, the World War II Japanese prison camp of Changi.

The bulk of the story, consisting of the life-and-death daily turmoil among the POWs, is deeply affecting and intriguing. Clavell writes concisely and powerfully. The brief descriptions and terse dialog amplify the emotion and passion of the story. It is not often that a book is truly "hard to put down" for me, but this was one of them. The pace of the book and the compassion I developed for the characters was such that I really didn't want to stop.

The ending left me profoundly melancholy--not necessarily a bad thing. Clavell creates intense moral questions for the reader about honor, duty, loyalty, love, and a thousand other human emotions. As the war ends and the prisoners are faced with the somehow-terrorizing concept of returning to normal life, the reader comes to grips with what truly matters in life, the hope and faith of the POWs, and the joy of life in the face of death.

King Rat is a whirlwind of emotion and adventure. It will heighten your understanding of World War II history and leave you questioning. A grand tale.

An American corporal manages to swindle and manipulate his way to being the "King" of a Japanese POW camp. The one thing that sets this aside from Clavell's three other novels that I have read, aside from being semi autobiographical is the protagonist. The King has a rascal like charm to him that makes the character highly readable and fun. He is the underdog. Plotting and conniving to make a buck and sticking it to his superiors and relishing it. A man in the right place at the right time. He befriends a British Lieutenant by the name of Marlowe (A nice little nod to Joseph Conrad) whose honor and integrity is arguably the the conflict in the book. Finally, on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the dutiful yet pitful antagonist Lieutenant Grey. Who, while morally and lawfully in the right, alienates himself by taking himself too seriously. These three make for some great tension and are the main drive of the story.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not an epic, despite this being his most personal story. However, Clavell fans will not be disappointed. The protagonist thinks two steps ahead of everyone else (I would hate to play chess with the author) and I would not be surprised if King's shrewdness was a precursor to Toranaga in Shogun. Any less qualified author would have made this story into glorified genre pulp. For those struggling for a visual reference, think Bridge on the River Kwai and Pappilon. A great read and highly recommended.

This, in my opinion, is the best of three books and movies about Japanese World War II prisoner of war camps. The others, also very good, are Bridge on the River Kwai and Empire of the Sun.

The theme is how men survive in the horrendous conditions of POW camps. Set in one of the worst camps, Changi, near Singapore, an American corporal, called The King, thrives. He is street-smart, unscrupulous, the most powerful man among the 10,000 prisoners, and somewhat appealing in his vulnerability. The King is also honest -- at least about himself -- and the only other honest person in the book is his antagonist, the wretched, diarrhea-ridden British cop, Grey, who is attempting to rise above his lower-class origins. Most of the other British officers in the book are revealed to be vicious hypocrites.

The King and his callow, worshipful friend, a British pilot named Marlowe, outsmart everyone...but then the war ends, and the real world begins again. This is a good tale on several levels: adventure, survival, an insider's look at a Japanese POW camp, and an examination of the differences between Brits and Americans. The movie rates five stars. The book is almost there.

Warning: this is a disturbing book. It is gripping and enthralling, but horrifying. It shows men being tested to the utmost, and the many bad qualities this brings out. But it also shows true friendship and cooperation against adversity.

Clavell truly brings to life a POW camp of Englishmen and Americans (captives of the Japanese) and the horrors they were subject to. Men help each other survive, but also betray each other, and are jealous of each other's success. The King, an American soldier, is especially envied because he is extremely skilled at trading and making deals. He and the Englishman Peter Marlowe are the main characters, but there are also stories of other men and how they survive.

The ending is perhaps the most frightening part of the whole book. The prisoners are freed at the end of WWII, and as they leave the camp, they must learn to be part of the world again, and not the world they created. I won't spoil anything more. For anyone who can handle its intensity, "King Rat" is an eye-opening read.

Whether you are a fan of Clavell's Asian Saga or a casual reader, you will surely enjoy his first major book about prisoners of war at Changi in Sinapore during the Japanese occupation. Because Clavell himself spent time in the POW camp, he has a real perspective of what life was like in the camp. He is able to describe to the reader a sense of competitive community that the prisoners had amongst one another and that it seemed the Japanese hardly had a role at all. One enterprising character is able to make a great deal of money and garner a large amount of supplies at the envy of most others. The title itself has a cryptic meaning that only reading the book will dissolve....