James Jones: A Friendship

James Jones: A Friendship by Morris, Willie. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780385144322.

"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 Harpers and a prolific author in his own right, crafts a moving portrait that captures Joness integrity, strength, and lust for life. Interwoven with recollections by Joness colleagues, such as Irwin Shaw and William Styron, and his editors, Maxwell Perkins and Burroughs Mitchell, Morris sketches the pivotal events of Joness life as well as small but defining moments of intimacy and compassion. Morris spins out Joness 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 Joness race against the clock to finish Whistle, the culmination of his World War II trilogy, which Morris himself completed after his friends 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."