Reviews of Jim Webb's Books
Los
Angeles Times:
The narrative
literally crackles with authority. James Webb has written a book of
questions, has created earthy and humanly flawed characters to
grapple imperfectly with the questions, to muddle through. There is
love and adultery and the failure of poetry to cope with the latter.
There is suspense.... As in war, no one truly triumphs. But the
struggles are mighty and the victories impressive.
Washington Star:
Webb is as much a moral philosopher of the military as a novelist. In a
time when fiction seems to find it harder and harder to address
moral issues, that makes him a valuable man at the typewriter. A
SENSE OF HONOR is provocative and passionate.
Boston Globe:
The question Webb asks is one that has been slighted for more than a
decade: Is there a greater common good to be advanced and protected
which justifies some degree of physical hardship for men who must
bear it in their future lives? ... It is a remarkable moral
statement, one that might sooner have been expected from an older,
more experienced man. But Webb learned many crucial lessons under
the gun and his call rings true.
The
New York Times:
James Webb writes
as only an insider could of that peculiarly costly education. His
uncanny ear for the raunchy vocabulary of military life (he must
have taken notes) is matched by his evocation of its spit and polish
claustrophobia and its inherent contradictions loneliness in the
midst of camaraderie, brutality mixed with decency, pain with pride,
honor with death and destruction.
Nashville
Tennessean: The book is a novel of ideas
which probes the nature of the efficient military mind and the kind
of leader who breeds heroes, even when he may destroy a certain
element of humanity. It is also a complex dissertation on the nature
of authority and the value of rules and regulations.
Publisher's Weekly:
In this powerful novel, Webb pulls the reader right into the cauldron of
Annapolis, for a vivid picture of heroes and martinets living
according to their various interpretations of 'honor'; and he
illuminates the mystique that makes men voluntarily stay in such a
meat grinder.
Nashville Banner:
Rarely do I read a book that
I have trouble putting down, a book that haunts me at work and one
that I anxiously return to in the evening.
James Webb's A Sense of Honor does that.... could
easily become one of the year's best novels.
Denver Post: The plebe system of military indoctrination is treated in stunning detail, with an appreciation for both its horrors and its virtues.... The Marines and the Naval Academy are fortunate to have a chronicler as insightful and compassionate as James Webb.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS