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Title: A prison camp and an opportunity
Review: This novel's one of those a reader finds himself wondering whether he'd have enjoyed it as much if he'd seen the movie first. Probably it's best not to wonder. Steve McQueen made a great hero of the prison camp in the movie, but something was lost. A young man, an entepreneur, finds his element in a Japanese POW camp in Southeast Asia. He's a scrounger, a bargainer, a person who can get whatever anyone needs, wants, yearns for. He charges for it in labor, in goods, in money. All the other prisoners dispise him for what he's able to do, but use him.This is a story of the human condition, of human weakness, human flaws and blame. Read the book, see the movie and allow yourself to feel the tragedy of a man who's doing what he does best, fills a needed function, earns the hatred and scorn of his betters, all in an environment that ends the day the Japanese surrender.
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