Caine Mutiny

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.