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The Sand Pebbles cover art

The Sand Pebbles

Written by: Richard McKenna
Narrated by: Rick Adamson
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Publisher's Summary

The critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller and the basis for the Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated film starring Steve McQueen.

As a spirit of nationalism inspired by Chiang Kai-shek's leadership begins to sweep through China, the river gunship San Pablo is ordered to patrol the region and to protect US citizens. Jack Holman is a machinist aboard the San Pablo, who has joined the navy in order to avoid jail time. Because he is so fiercely independent, Jake remains a relative loner and is uncomfortable with navy protocol and discipline.

Holman's independent mind chafes against military hierarchy and also ensures that he does not share his shipmates' disdain for the Chinese. Instead, Holman is fascinated with the culture and the people that surround him and develops emotional bonds that prove quite thorny when the circumstances become more tumultuous and more dire.

The perspective of The Sand Pebbles is therefore both panoramic as well as personal. Like Lawrence of Arabia, the tension explored here is between the self as individual against the broader spectrum of social and historical forces against which we are all measured.
©1962 Richard McKenna (P)2022 Tantor
Psychological Historical Fiction Genre Fiction
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A great story!

For anyone who is a fan of the film with Steve McQueen, this really fleshes out the story of Holman. It's quite long, but that's because it's packed with detail. It particularly appealed to me as I'm a gearhead and I just ate up the detailed descriptions of the equipment in San Pablo and how they operated and repaired it. This detail is vital to the story as the San Pablo is one of the characters, just like Serenity is for Firefly and Rocinante is for The Expanse. Holman's relationship with the ship starts from the first paragraph and reflects his values and his impression of duty to the Navy and to America.
The other plots relieve the story of the shipboard life and throw a light on local Chinese politics and the effect of missionaries at that time on Chinese society. But it's always from Holman's point of view. A racist sailor who realizes that his view is skewed and there is a lot that he's been missing because of it. Holman evolves slowly and we get to see it.
I very much enjoyed Sand Pebbles.

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