by James Jones
First published 2003
Pearl Harbor explodes under Japanese bombs. Nineteen-year-old Private First Class Richard Mask grips his .45 caliber automatic, the weapon connecting him to frontier soldiers and Custer's men. The pistol becomes his anchor as war crashes into his world. Mask and his unit evacuate Schofield Barracks and trek across Oahu's beaches toward a distant mountain pass. But the real battle centers on the gun itself. Fellow soldiers want it. Mask needs it. The weapon transforms from symbol to obsession as men fight over its possession. Through Hawaii's landscape, from military base to shoreline to remote highlands, the struggle for the pistol reveals how quickly civilized men turn savage. War strips away pretense. The gun exposes what lies beneath.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, military-fiction, action
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: obsession, war
Setting: Hawaii, Oahu, Schofield Barracks
Period: Pearl Harbor
158 pages · Paperback · University of Chicago Press
Content warnings: violence