''Whistle'' (1978), a novel by
James Jones, tells the story of four wounded South Pacific veterans brought back by hospital ship to the United States during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Much of the story takes place in a veterans hospital in the fictional city of Luxor,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
(based on the city of
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
).
''Whistle'' forms the third part of a war trilogy, after ''
From Here to Eternity
''From Here to Eternity'' is a 1953 American drama romance war film directed by Fred Zinnemann, and written by Daniel Taradash, based on the 1951 novel of the same name by James Jones. The picture deals with the tribulations of three U.S. A ...
'' (1951) and ''
The Thin Red Line'' (1962). Jones presented the characters of Mart Winch, Bobby Prell, Marion Landers, and Johnny Strange as Welsh, Witt, Fife, and Storm in ''
The Thin Red Line''.
James Jones died in 1977 before finishing the novel. The final three chapters were completed by
Willie Morris
William Weaks Morris (November 29, 1935 – August 2, 1999) was an American writer and editor born in Jackson, Mississippi, though his family later moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, which he immortalized in his works of prose. Morris' tradem ...
based on taped conversations with the author and extensive notes he had already written.
Jones expected that his novel would say, "Just about everything I have ever had to say, or will ever have to say, on the human condition of war."
Critical reception
In a 1978 book review in ''
Kirkus Reviews'', an anonymous reviewer called the novel "a truly gratifying recovery of Jones' reputation after a long slump since the holding action of The Thin Red Line." The review summarized; "This is at its best an almost mystical book in which the inner psychology of soldiering is much like that of the doom-driven warriors of Homer who hear the gods whistling up their spines—and Jones' dense, long-lined prose has never been more Homeric. Those who have found him crude and verbose in the past will probably not change their minds over Whistle. But admirers of Eternity and Thin Red Line will find him striving to draw the last sparks and puffs from his great single subject—manhood tested by combat—and will feel that he succeeds decisively enough to make this the last third of the great American WW II novel."
In a 1978 review in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', John Aldridge wrote; "it is perhaps testimony Mr. Morris”s skill at synopsis or to Jones's deficiencies as a writer of recognizable style that one can scarcely tell where the original text ends and the synopsis begins."
In ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', Thomas Edwards wrote "even if Jones was a novelist who aimed for, and often enough achieved, something beyond mastery of technique and style, no assessment of Whistle can avoid saying that it is a very badly written book."
References
1978 American novels
Novels set during World War II
Unfinished novels
Novels published posthumously
Novels set in Tennessee
Books with cover art by Paul Bacon
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