From Here to Eternity

By: James Jones

Narrated by: Elijah Alexander

Length: 36 hrs and 50 mins

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.

©1998 James Jones (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

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.

Over-long book with pedestrian narration

This story of an army base on Oahu in the months preceding the Pearl Harbor attack is over-written but absorbing nevertheless, despite a so-so narration. The two-track plot follows the fortunes and love lives of a sergeant and a private. It effectively delineates the military and social attitudes and divisions of the time, including casual racism and antisemitism and an interesting dip into the homosexual demimonde in Honolulu. But It's a show-offy literary performance featuring NCO's debating dialectics, Shakespeare-quoting whores, and a zen master in the stockade. The author never used just one simile if he could think of five, and invented adverbs if actual ones weren't available. (This book would have driven Elmore Leonard mad.)

The narration is well-paced, considering the heft of the book, but the reader 's accents and vocal characterizations of the cast are off base at best and annoying at times.

I bought this in a special Audible sale/promotion of unabridged classics, and question whether it was really worth my time despite the special price.

My turn for a timeless classic

Not sure why I finally got around to reading this book. Perhaps the war in Ukraine. More likely chance. A vivid depiction of Amy life and life in Honolulu just before and after Pearl Harbor. Characters come to life on the telling of the story. The narrator does a good job of bringing personality into the characters voices. Some unexpected twists.

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.

Great Book

This is a very long book, and I wasn't sure if I was willing to spend the time. I am so very glad I did. In each character the author shows the reader each of us has a public side we show, and then a private side that very few are allowed to see. This is a book I will read again. I found it difficult to decide who was the main character. I now realize, we all are.

A great all around story

Wonderful character development. Each player really let you see who they were. You got feel as though you had really gotten to know, to understand what they were going through and how they looked at the world.

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.

Abridged not unabridged narration.

This professional narration addition to book is not completely unabridged because some parts of it are abridged, especially the language paragraphs that are sexually explicit, and words whose context referred to sexual.acts.
Maybe audible should develop some kind of maturity rating, so book that contain this type language can be unavailable to younger readers by parental controls, or described as censored for language and contents; consequently, they are abridged!

Awesome story - horrible reading

What made the experience of listening to From Here to Eternity the most enjoyable?

turning it off

What didn’t you like about Elijah Alexander’s performance?

His characters are absolutely horrendous. Had to turn this off after a few hours. I tried to listen, but the voices he makes make it impossible to listen.

A MILITARY OPUS

From Here to Eternity was named by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century. It earned the National Book Award for fiction in 1951.

Reading it in 2014 makes one hope American’ civilization has progressed since Jones wrote his Army opus about pre-WWII’ Hawaii. Jones writes about the months before and immediately after Pearl Harbor.

The stereotyping, misogyny, and bravado of Jones’ characters are, at times cloying, and at other times, entertaining. From Here to Eternity is a guy’s-guy’ novel that embarrasses men who think they are brave and women who are brave.