Book Review: Mister Roberts by Thomas Heggen
It is early spring, 1945, and World War Two rages on…somewhere else. Here in the backwaters of the Pacific Ocean, the Reluctant, an auxiliary cargo vessel of the United States Navy, sails from miserable coral island to miserable jungle island, delivering loads of non-urgent supplies. This old tub has never seen action, and it’s probably never see action, something that’s a long-term frustration for First Officer Lieutenant Douglas Roberts.
Mister Roberts dropped out of medical school and enlisted after Pearl Harbor to fight the forces of fascism. He’d initially wanted to be a pilot, but a mild eyesight issue made him unsuitable, so he settled for the Navy, figuring he’d see combat on a warship. Instead, the Navy assigned him to supply ships well behind the front lines.
The Reluctant is a slow boat, so long hot days and sometimes weeks go by with no important duties to fulfill, only makework that might keep the hands busy, but does little to occupy the mind. Discipline aboard ship is…relaxed at best, despite the petty tyranny of incompetent Captain Morton.
Lieutenant Roberts is both competent and a decent fellow, and he’s the officer doing the most to keep the crew functioning, despite the fact that he’d rather be elsewhere. He puts in a transfer request every month, and every month Captain Morton forwards it to Headquarters with the notation “transfer not recommended.” (Captain Morton also routinely refuses compassionate leave and day pass requests.)
This 1946 novel was loosely based on the author’s own experiences in World War Two, and several of the characters are directly based on real people, though not ones who all served on the same ship. It started as a number of short stories, and shows this in its structure, but Mr. Heggen did a good job of removing redundant material.
While Mister Roberts is the primary character, individual chapters focus on different crew members and their small incidents. Sick call, a quarrel springing up out of nowhere, an outbreak of voyeurism, pranks played on the captain; anything to relieve the tedium of the seemingly pointless voyages.
Most of the novel is comic in tone, but the ending is bittersweet. Mister Roberts’ transfer at last comes in and the ship must continue to function without him, and there is one last message.
The book was very successful, becoming a Broadway play, a movie with Henry Fonda, and even a television series.
The writing is good, and the situations seem plausible. Over the course of the book, Mister Roberts’ personality has depth, but we don’t spend too much time with him brooding. Unfortunately, Mr. Heggen died in 1949, before he could overcome writer’s block for a second book.
Content note: The sailors and officers of the Reluctant unsurprisingly use rather salty language. One chapter has the crew spying on naked women, which is depicted as harmless fun–until it isn’t. Prostitution happens a couple of times. Rape comes up a couple of times: once as an accusation (not proven) and once in speculation of female-on-male rape. There’s a touch of relatively mild animal abuse, and a transphobic slur.
This book was written in the first half of the 1940s, from the viewpoint of a frustrated military man, and some of the attitudes depicted have not aged well. But it struck a chord with readers at the time, many of whom had served in the war or personally knew someone who had. Recommended for readers who want to know more about life on Navy ships outside of combat.
Here’s the movie trailer!
