I know it's a little surprising to see so many balls of yarn
for this book, but it was excellent.
This book is right up there with my favorites. I was really nervous to read this book and
one reason was because I thought it would take place more in the Victorian Era,
which would make it more difficult to read.
But this book actually takes place during World War II. I know I've said this many times, but I am a
character reader and Caine Mutiny is a character book. There are many characters, but not too many
to keep track of and the author does a great job of developing these
characters.
It is the story of a young man named Willie Keith. He was raised in a very well-to-do home; his
mother especially spoiled him. He goes
to Princeton and then decides he'd rather play the piano in night clubs than go
on to do any more schooling or any serious job.
He kind of has a very laid back attitude about everything. While starting a new job at a night club he meets
a singer named May Wynn (that's her stage name) and they start a courtship and
soon fall in love. He doesn't want to be
drafted into the army so he enlists in the Navy. While he is in the Naval Academy the love
story continues and he kind of strings May along because she wasn't raised in
the same class as Willie and so he can't seriously consider marrying her, but
he doesn't want to give her up. She on
the other hand enrolls in school and tries to improve herself so she can fit in
with his crowd. Willie starts out as
kind of a smart alec in the naval academy and gets into a lot of trouble, but
just before he gets kicked out he buckles down and graduates as one of the top
of his class. He then gets assigned to a
minesweeper ship, the Caine. He's not excited
about it, but does his duty.
It then goes into life on the ship and what his first
captain is like (Willie doesn't like him at all). You get to know a lot of the crew members and
a little feel of what the Navy is like.
Before long a new captain is assigned to the ship, Captain Queeg. Willie is very happy about this because of
his great dislike for the previous captain.
So much happens to them on the ship and I don't want to write about it
all, but you soon learn that Captain Queeg is a little weird and has some
mental problems. One of the crew
members, Lieutenant Keefer starts putting it in the Executive Lieutenant
Maryk's mind (he's the assistant to the captain) that Captain Queeg has mental
problems and can't function as the head of the ship. Lieutenant Maryk begins to keep a book of all
the things that Captain Queeg does that shows his mental handicaps. One of them is a strawberry incident where
the Captain searched the entire ship and all the crew members for keys because
he was sure that someone snuck into the fridge and stole his strawberries;all
this after someone told the Captain who ate the strawberries. The Captain also runs from battle many times
and stays cooped up in his room most of the time eating ice cream and most of the
time he has two little steel balls that he rolls around in his hand.
During a massive typhoon Captain Queeg makes some decisions
that Lieutenant Maryk felt weren't right and then Captain Queeg just kind of
shuts down and doesn't give any more orders even though the ship nearly
capsizes several times. Lieutenant Maryk
then relieves Captain Queeg of his duties and Willie Keith and one other
officer, Stilwell, begin to follow Maryk and ignore the Captain.
The next part of the book talks about the Court Martial to
determine whether they were justified in relieving the Captain of his duties.
This part of the book was just as enjoyable and exciting to read as the time
they spent on the ship. I'm not going to
tell you the outcome though; I really think you should read this book so I
don't want to give anything away.
During all of this Willie Keith and May Wynn keep their
romance going, and even get engaged, but right before the court martial Willie
decides he needs to break it off with May.
After the court martial, Willie and Lieutenant Keefer go
back to the Caine to finish out the war.
Just as the war ends Willie becomes the Captain of the Caine and brings
it back to the United States for it to go to the junk yard as it's a really old
and beat up ship. When he gets home he
decides that he really does want to marry May and so he goes and finds her.
The actually mutiny and the verdict of the court martial are
actually a little anti-climatic. If you
weren't paying attention to the book you just might miss them. But the build up and the aftermath of each
are exciting and interesting.
It also paints an excellent picture of a boy and how he
matures into a man through his experiences in the Navy. The author mentions his appearance several
times, but mostly you see it through his decisions and his actions throughout
the book. I came to really like Willie
and saw him as a good Naval Officer.
Another reason I loved this book was that throughout the
book it would mention Willie Keith or Lieutenant Keefer were in their rooms
reading books like, Bleak House, one
of my favorites. They were often reading
literature that didn't fit into their surroundings. I thought that contrast was great.
Sometimes I read these Pulitzer books and wonder, "why
in the world did this book win?" I
didn't wonder that at all with this book.
It was well written and so enjoyable to read. Sometimes a good book is like a drug and I
definitely had a good buzz when I finished this one.
