The Sand Pebbles, Richard McKenna
The Sand Pebbles, Richard McKenna
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

The Sand Pebbles

Author: Richard McKenna

Narrator: Rick Adamson

Unabridged: 22 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/29/2022


Synopsis

The critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller and the basis for the Academy Award– and Golden Globe–nominated film starring Steve McQueen.

As a spirit of nationalism inspired by Chiang Kai-shek's leadership begins to sweep through China, the river gunship San Pablo is ordered to patrol the region and to protect US citizens. Jack Holman is a machinist aboard the San Pablo, who has joined the navy in order to avoid jail time. Because he is so fiercely independent, Jake remains a relative loner and is uncomfortable with navy protocol and discipline.

Holman's independent mind chafes against military hierarchy and also ensures that he does not share his shipmates' disdain for the Chinese. Instead, Holman is fascinated with the culture and the people that surround him and develops emotional bonds that prove quite thorny when the circumstances become more tumultuous and more dire.

The perspective of The Sand Pebbles is therefore both panoramic as well as personal. Like Lawrence of Arabia, the tension explored here is between the self as individual against the broader spectrum of social and historical forces against which we are all measured.

About Richard McKenna

Richard McKenna (1913-1964) was an American sailor and novelist. He was best known for his historical novel, The Sand Pebbles, which tells the story of an American sailor serving aboard a gunboat on the Chinese Yangtze River in 1926.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brett

I thought this was great. The story followed a US Navy boat as it patroled the Yangtze River. It followed the real-world naval deterrent operations of the 1920s when Sailors were deployed to protect American citizens and also act as a show of force against the growing turmoil and civil unrest in Chi......more

Goodreads review by KennyO

In the Navy, stationed in Japan, I was waiting for a seat on a standby Air Force flight when it was announced that flight operations were shutting down for 24 hours for runway maintenance. I had time to kill but there was no lounge, no restaurant, no news stand and no one else around. At least there......more

Goodreads review by David

Loved this book. Couldn't put it down. I don't know how I missed it for all these years. I can not believe McKenna has only one book. Sometimes when that happens its because the author puts his heart and soul into a masterpiece. I Think that's what happened this time. The use of metaphor, and simile......more