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From Here to Eternity
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 36 hrs and 50 mins
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Publisher's summary
Diamond Head, Hawaii, 1941. Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt is a champion welterweight and a fine bugler. But when he refuses to join the company's boxing team, he gets "the treatment" that may break him or kill him. First Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden knows how to soldier better than almost anyone, yet he's risking his career to have an affair with the commanding officer's wife. Both Warden and Prewitt are bound by a common bond: the Army is their heart and blood...and, possibly, their death.
In this magnificent but brutal classic of a soldier's life, James Jones portrays the courage, violence and passions of men and women who live by unspoken codes and with unutterable despair. The most important American novel to come out of World War II, this is a masterpiece that captures as no other the honor and savagery of men.
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In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss - but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and a round of darts.
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Soap-opera thrillers?
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By: John Lescroart
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Cannery Row
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Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Henri, Mack and his boys, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and most poignant works.
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Five stars with a Caveat
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By: John Steinbeck
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Bombs Away
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: Henry Stozier
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From "the master of alternate history" comes a new trilogy that reimagines a mid-20th century in which General MacArthur, without bothering to consult President Truman, detonates nuclear warheads in several Manchurian cities after China enters the Korean War. In his acclaimed novels of alternate history, Harry Turtledove has scrutinized the twisted soul of the 20th century, from the forces that set World War I in motion to the rise of fascism in the decades that followed.
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This Bomb's a dud
- By Dallas Huybregts on 09-27-16
By: Harry Turtledove
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Cat Chaser
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The hero of Cat Chaser, George Moran, isn't looking for trouble but finds it anyway when he winds up in bed with the wife of a drug-dealing mob-connected Dominican cop - vicious, macho and ready to follow George to the ends of the earth, which in this case means Miami.
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Elmore Leonard and Frank Muller: Unbeatable.
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All My Friends are Going to be Strangers
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Danny Deck - Emma's friend from Terms of Endearment - is a promising young writer losing touch with his talent and drifting from Texas to California because "that's where all the writers are." Set in the early 60s, this is a very funny (and raunchy) satire of life in Texas and California and a true and American portrait of an artist as a young man.
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Favorite audio book ever
- By melanie christner on 06-01-16
By: Larry McMurtry
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The Stand
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This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.
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My First Completed Stephen King Novel
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Sometimes a Great Notion
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A literary icon sometimes seen as a bridge between the Beat Generation and the hippies, Ken Kesey scored an unexpected hit with his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His successful follow-up, Sometimes a Great Notion, was also transformed into a major motion picture, directed by and starring Paul Newman. Here, Oregon’s Stamper family does what it can to survive a bitter strike dividing their tiny logging community. And as tensions rise, delicate family bonds begin to fray and unravel.
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Sometimes a Great Novel Pops up out of Nowhere
- By Mr. Eyuz on 06-07-19
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Peyton Place
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In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
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Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
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When Gravity Fails
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- By: George Alec Effinger
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. And Marid Audrian has been made an offer he can't refuse.The 200-year-old godfather of the Budayeen's underworld has enlisted Marid as his instrument of vengeance. But first Marid must undergo the most sophisticated of surgical implants before he dares to confront a killer who carries the power of every psychopath since the beginning of time.
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Neuromancer in the Middle East
- By David on 07-28-13
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What listeners say about From Here to Eternity
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- aaron
- 06-13-13
Genius on Every Level
The reviews currently on Audible seem to be all over the place, in regards to this book, so I hope to make things clear. For what this book is, it is GENIUS.
It tells the stories of some of the "lowest men on the totem pole" in the US Army, prior to the US entering the war. You're not going to get the big battles, the big personalities (like MacArthur or Patton), or the big action. What you will get is TONS of tension and human conflict! Jones' ability to make these characters real is remarkable. The situations they find themselves in, while not the most exciting, are filled with drama.
The stakes are high in almost every scene, and the character are so fleshed out that we actually care what happens to them. The writing is some of the best I've ever read, in terms of transporting the reader into the gritty, terrible world that these men occupied on a daily basis. It wasn't pretty, but it was real.
The narrator was a mixed bag for me. Some of the time he seemed to be whispering, which was a bit odd and unnecessary. However, his different voices help the characters stand out, which is greatly needed when there are this many to keep track of.
Overall, if you enjoy WWII historical fiction, and want something that delves deeper into the human psychodrama of soldiers, instead of just the battles, this is the book for you.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Paul
- 07-02-12
Has narrator ever been to Hawaii?
Elijah Alexander manages to mispronounce almost every Hawaiian word except for 'Honolulu.' How uninformed does one have to be to pronounce Hilo Hattie's name as high-low Hattie? Imagine what he does with 'Wahiawa' and 'Haleiwa.' The narrator's ignorance of common Hawaiian names was distracting to the story, and should be an embarrassment to him and the publisher.
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20 people found this helpful
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- Peter
- 07-15-13
Less Would Have Been More
What did you like best about From Here to Eternity? What did you like least?
In listening to this famous book, I found myself longing for a Reader's Digest condensed version. Scenes and conversations go on far too long and retrace the same path--many times I rolled my eyes and said 'for god's sake let's move on!' The writing is awkward and self-indulgent, the philosophy espoused by the characters--often at great length--is complete gibberish. The characters themselves are maddeningly self-defeating and unfathomable. It's hard to identify with Prewitt, who seems incapable of making a single correct decision. The men are all misogynistic and in the alternate reality of this book, women don't really enjoy sex, they just do it so the men will talk to them. For all that, I must admit it did conjure up old Hawaii before the war very well, and it held my interest. I guess any character you get to know is interesting, but there are better writers out there than James Jones.
Note to the actor who read this: Adjutant is not pronounced ad-JOO-tent. M/Sgt is spoken as master sergeant, not m-sergeant. Others have commented on your Hawaiian name mangling and I concur. Your funny little voices were annoying, especially that of Stark. Less is more in that regard.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Barry
- 12-24-14
What it is to be a man
The first thing that struck me, having grown so used to the movie version over the years, is how young all the characters are. Most of them are barely into their early 20s, and some of them are still in their teens. And like so many young men of that age, they are trying to understand life. It was just a smidge surprising to hear the same old college dorm room bull sessions coming out of the mouths of young enlisted men. But college kids have no reason to think they have a monopoly on that kind of philosophical speculation. Prewitt is at the heart of this conversation on what it is to be a man. His internal conflict between his own sense of self and what the Army demands of him is what drives the whole book.
Set in 1941, and written 10 years later, this book preserves an honest depiction of how a certain class of people lived and thought, while unavoidably coloring it with how Americans were changed by the war and its aftermath. Allowing for a certain amount of authorial tampering, this is a more uncensored look at normal Americans than you will get from the movies, and a whole lot more informative than you will get from history books. I applaud the visceral realism that James Jones tries to capture here.
I had no idea the movie version dealt with such a narrow slice of this book. To it's credit, the movie captures the essential core of the book as far as story and characters go. What got lost is a lot of the back story for the characters, and how the peacetime military became a refuge for young men hit hard by the Depression. In fact, the influence of the early 20th century labor movement, the Prohibition years, the Depression, and hobo subculture, all loom large as formative factors for these people. The other thing that got shorted was the internal life of these characters.
One odd thing about the novel is that there is a change in tone that takes over most of the last quarter of it. It kind of feels like that portion was written earlier, before Jones had polished his style. It feels amateurish like a young writer trying to imitate some cheap pulp fiction of the time. Jones does a good deal of damage to the authenticity of the characters he worked so hard to create. Fortunately, he manages to get back on track and ends strong.
Overall, Elijah Alexander does a great job of keeping all the characters straight and giving them appropriate accents. My one complaint is that I wish he hadn't adopted such an exaggerated drawl for Maylon Stark.
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- Kristi R.
- 04-21-14
"From Hare to Maternity!"
This book starts off slow, it's not a war story but a military life story. Most of the action takes place before Pearl Harbor and we see little of the aftermath. I wasn't prepared to like this book much, but it really grows on you.
There are so many characters that are so well drawn, that you know they were all based on real people and events. Robert E. Lee Prewitt is a "30 year man" (career soldier) who starts off in the bugle corps but because he is a great fighter is put in the ring. He almost kills a man and swears off boxing and transfers out of the bugle corps and is transferred to Schofield barracks where "Dynamite" Holmes wants to have the best boxing squad of all time. Prew is pressured to fight but holds out and eventually ends up in the stockade.
Now it turns into a sadistic prison story which really gets interesting. Guards beat you for fun and some people go crazy or don't survive at all.
Milt Warden has an affair with Holmes' wife Karen who has a very bad reputation. Once Warden learns her real story he knows he will never love anyone else as much as he loves her. He even puts in for officer school so he can be the man she wants him to be.
Those are the main characters but there are many more. This is the re-released version with the gay scenes put back in and I really thought it was well done. Some I have heard say it's too long, but I listened to every minute of it and didn't see anything that didn't belong.
The narrator Elijah Alexander was new to me, but I enjoyed his accents and voices. Stark was annoying at first but I got used to him by the end and he ended up being one of my favorite characters.
The suicide of one of the characters was so unique, I cringed and almost laughed in the unusual way Mr. Jones presented it. I have since read that his own father had killed himself and this may have been an attempt of his to explain some of his feelings on the matter. Well done.
I enjoyed this book and will probably listen to it again. It is my first by this author.
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- Critic's Choice
- 09-11-16
Has not aged well
What did you like best about From Here to Eternity? What did you like least?
The book was probably considered bold for its time, but the writing distracts from what is otherwise a good story. Throughout the book Jones employs a strange and irritating use of adverbs in describing what the characters say (e.g., "he said pleasedly" and "he said relievedly"). There is also an undertone of antisemitism that, in my opinion, doesn't just reflect the attitudes of the characters. Also, the two key male characters do one stupid, self-destructive thing after another based on their own unique moral standards in the case of Prewitt (like The Fountainhead) or because they just don't give a damn in the case of Warden.
How could the performance have been better?
With one major flaw which I never got used to, the reading was fine. The reader employed an exaggerated, unrealistic accent for the character Maylon Stark.
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- D. Stone
- 03-11-13
Gritty, Realistic, Depressing
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
The book is a realistic book detailing the gritty experiences of soldiers in early WWII. The focus is on non-commissioned officers and enlisted men in the army. Readers will learn how these men thought and the decisions they made. My chief criticism is that the author never provided a hopeful answer to the fatalistic world perspectives of the characters.
Would you recommend From Here to Eternity to your friends? Why or why not?
Yes. It provides a "peak" into the mindset of those who have little hope in a world that appears to not reward the poor and downtrodden.
What aspect of Elijah Alexander’s performance would you have changed?
It would have been helpful to not read word for word. Since Jones used a lot of "he said's", Jones could have merely used different voices to avoid the constant refrain of "he said's."
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Probably. The movie would be rather graphic and depressing.
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- Josh Atkinson
- 03-20-18
A good story, but dated
I have a relative who studied writing with James Jones. Thats why I picked the book. I would have given the performance 4 stars if it werent for the voicing of Maylen Stark. like nails on a chalkboard...
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- Sher from Provo
- 08-10-17
Boring and tiresome!
I can't believe this author has been so successful. This is a poorly written book. It drags beyond belief, and he makes up his own adverbs by adding "-ly" to any imaginable word. It got so irritating that I could hardly finish. So why did I? I had heard that it is about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but it took 3/4 of this big book to get to that part, and then it was mostly about collateral damage and little about the actual harbor. Then the rest of the book went back to dragging. The subject matter was mainly how drunk can you get, and how often, and how many times you can get laid. Such entertainment! The protagonist was supposed to be pining to be a bugler, but he did so little pining for that job I couldn't believe it. Being a musician myself, I know what it is to have the desire to play an instrument and to be frustrated in not being able to. No way did he care about his bugle. I think I care more about that lonely bugle than any of these characters. They just never went anywhere. Well, except to bed with each other. What disappointment. I could go on and on, but, unlike this book, I won't.
The narrator was not my fave either. He mispronounced so many words that should have been obvious, or at least, if unfamiliar, he should have looked up. His normal reading voice was fine, but his characterizations were horrible, especially Stark. I wanted to choke him!
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- SW Clemens
- 03-19-15
The Title is the High Point
The characters are cardboard cliché’s, the dialogue laughable, the plot boring, the pace plodding, and the writing atrocious. I am truly shocked by how poorly written this book is, particularly as it won the National Book Award. Virtually every page (or minute) has paragraphs that could win “The Bad Hemingway Contest.”
The narration is also among the worst I’ve heard (out of hundreds) and seriously diminished the experience. If you are a writer and bemoan your lack of talent, read this book — it will make you feel so much better about yourself.
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