King Rat Pb (The Asian Saga) [Paperback]

James Clavell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Coronet (March 10, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340204451
• ISBN-13: 978-0340204450
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #850,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Clavell, who died in 1994, was a screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although he wrote the screenplays for a number of acclaimed films, including The Fly (1958), The Great Escape (1963), and To Sir With Love (1967), he is best known for his epic novels in his Asian Saga.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars King Rat is about POW's and should be written about., January 9, 2012

By 

Lillie Langtry "Art Lover" (West Islip, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: King Rat Pb (The Asian Saga) (Paperback)

This book is not like the others of the saga, but that does not diminish it in significance. This book is a depiction of the author's experiences as a POW and to denigrate that is a sin of the worst kind. This book is real. It is autobiographical. To compare his works to Hogan's Heros is an injustice. James Clavell's books are full of wisdom and insight into the hearts of men. His wisdom embodies body, soul and spirit. Just because it is different from the other books, does not diminish it in any way. The book made me cry at the end, because it made us see how the POW's were looked upon with scrutinizing eyes from those who had not right to judge them. They were looked upon with condescension and judgement arrogantly. These men were heros and were judged by their emanciated appearances. The King, could only operate at his best when other men were dependent on him under the environment of a prison camp, probably due to his impoverished upbringing. But in times of peace when they were no longer imprisoned, he became nothing. Was he a hero or a villian. To me it depended upon the circumstances. He played upon the men and used them, was a hero to a few and a menace to others. Clavell summed it up the best at the end. He was the King of Rats, and they became rats in the prison camp because that is what their reality became.

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant piece of work!, August 18, 2010

By 

Al - See all my reviews

This review is from: King Rat Pb (The Asian Saga) (Paperback)

Hands down possibly one of the best books I've ever read! I'll never take a fried egg for granted again!!

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars King Rat the Worst of the Clavell Saga, March 1, 2007

By 

Avid Reader (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: King Rat Pb (The Asian Saga) (Paperback)

James Clavell's "King Rat" is hands down the worst of his Asian saga. Only related to the other four by the main character's possession of a "gold ring, signet of the Clan Gordon" (italics) mentioned once on the seventh page. Any reader of Clavell would expect this to have some significance later but the thread never reemerges. Did the author forget about it, carried away by his clearly sophmoric adulation of his Hero? Or did he toss it in at his publisher's request in order to somehow justify this waste of print by weakly connecting it to his better works. And what is this shiftless down-and-out motherless drunkard's son doing with such a treasure anyway? Surely that would have made a more interesting book. Of course, the matural answer is that Clavell is telling his own story, what he lived through as a POW. He has, however, forgotten the first rule of freshman exposition: "Just because it happened to you, doesn't make it interesting." Certainly, there are traces of the Clavell magic--despite his always hackneyed prose, he is a master storyteller, but in this case the threads lead nowhere and peter out where a quick death would be more merciful. A large theme is built up around a secret radio, but when discovered not once but twice the Japanese commander who has been built up as a terrifying menace offers cigarettes to all involved. None are tortured,jailed or even questioned. It is as if he is uncertain as to whether he wants to write The Gulag Archipelago or Catch 22 and settle for Hogan's Heroes" (of TV sitcom fame). Changi makes Stalak 13 look the Hanoi Hilton. There is even a Corporal Schwarz-like Japanese guard who, like his sitcom counterpart has "no stomach for war" and comes close to saying "I know nothing-Nothing!" Clavell,who knows how to spin yarn, would be great on a campout and we cannot forget the majestic sweep of his four ?good? books, but, like the t-shirt says, "I spent nearly four years in a Japanese POW camp and all could come up with was this lame book. I was going to give the book away but instead chucked into the recycle bin.