James Jones: A Friendship

"Willie Morris gives us a finely tuned, funny, and heartrending elegy to his friend, James Jones, whose novels "From Here to Eternity" and "The Thin Red Line" immortalized the experiences of a whole generation of World War II victims and survivors. Morris, a former editor of Harper's and a prolific author in his own right, crafts a moving portrait that captures Jones's integrity, strength, and lust for life. Interwoven with recollections by Jones's colleagues, such as Irwin Shaw and William Styron, and his editors, Maxwell Perkins and Burroughs Mitchell, Morris sketches the pivotal events of Jones's life as well as small but defining moments of intimacy and compassion. Morris spins out Jones's experiences in the wartime Pacific, his storybook marriage, his self-imposed exile in Paris, and his return to East Hampton, Long Island. He also recounts Jones's race against the clock to finish Whistle, the culmination of his World War II trilogy, which Morris himself completed after his friend's death in 1977. An exquisite and lyrical rendering of an artist and his work, "James Jones: A Friendship" celebrates a rare bond that transcends both the vicissitudes of life and the finality of death."