- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Public Affairs (May 30 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1903985307
- ISBN-13: 978-1903985304
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 299 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,465,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
An overwhelming sense of symmetry permeates The Special Prisoner, but it doesn't come in the lovely, harmonious, balanced variety. Instead it's the terrifying symmetry of life at its most basic, of innocence, guilt, death, and rebirth. Jim Lehrer's hero, Bishop John Quincy Watson, is imprisoned alternately in physical and metaphysical realms throughout the novel, a "man of God and grace" who comes to wrestle with a "long-dormant barbaric monster ... waiting in his soul."
This retired Methodist is an all-American boy who did his duty for his country in World War II at a high personal cost. Shot down over Tokyo on his 17th mission as the young pilot of a B-29 Superfortress, Watson spent the rest of the war in a Japanese POW camp. Designed specifically for bomber crews--who were considered the worst of the White Devils--it was run by a particularly ruthless guard called the Hyena. As the novel opens, the now 70-year-old, crippled Bishop has just spotted Tashimoto, the Hyena, in an airport in Texas, casually boarding a plane. Memories of the camp come flooding back and slam head-on into what Watson had presumed was a rock-solid wall of spiritual piety, and he quickly sets off on a mission of revenge. He tracks his prey to a hotel room in San Diego, and what happens next plunges him into recollections of unspeakable horror, changing his life irrevocably. The novel becomes a vicious game of back and forth between past and present, captor and captive; the Bishop unwittingly slides in and out of each role as he confronts the demon without and ousts the demon within. But is Tashimoto really the demon he seeks? If not, what monsters of delusion has the Bishop actually let loose?
Lehrer explores questions of guilt, shame, forgiveness, and self-examination with an obvious passion, if not intellectual rigor, and his eye for detail is sharp. He intertwines the stories with the precision of a chainlink fence, using such devices as the interplay between the Hyena's bamboo stick and the crippled Bishop's cane. The Special Prisoner is a densely packed, suspenseful read that gets more captivating as it gathers speed. --S. Ketchum --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
As in his previous novel, White Widow, the plot of newscaster-writer Lehrer's newest book turns on a chance encounter. In this case the pivotal meeting is between retired Methodist Bishop John Quincy Watson of San Antonio, Tex., an elderly ex-B-29 pilot and POW, and a Japanese businessman in whose eyes Watson sees the stare of the interrogator who tortured him. Incredulous that his old nemesis could have survived, Watson nevertheless discovers that the stranger has checked into a San Diego hotel under the interrogator's last name, and he decides to confront him. Mr. Tashimoto, however, denies he is the former camp official his prisoners nicknamed "the Hyena" because of his sadistic laugh. With this tension-filled standoff underway, Lehrer suspensefully alternates between Watson's harrowing memories of WWII and his present-day cat-and-mouse interrogation with the roles reversed. The first half of the narrative is a provocative, at times wrenching, dramatization of racism, war crimes and revenge--with right not necessarily on Watson's side--but the second is deprived of much of its drive when Watson tragically loses control of the situation and is brought to trial for his violent behavior. Although the ending does not satisfactorily resolve the moral ambiguity of its tantalizing premise, Lehrer's novel successfully illuminates still-sensitive issues for both the U.S. and Japan. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A most unusual revenge tale,
By
This review is from: The Special Prisoner (Paperback)
I recalled the line from "The Wolfman" after reading this well written tale ("even a man with a pure heart" or something to that effect). An unforgetable read. Past sins may be forgiven, but never forgotten. Get this one.
3.0 out of 5 stars
only a beginning,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Special Prisoner (Paperback)
As a novel, this book in and of itself was disappointing. Great promise, but somehow it did not follow through as anitcipated. The issues are complex and I think that Lehrer did a great job of laying them out. Experience shapes us immeasureably and often invisibly. How we perceive life events changes as new events enter the equation. No matter how well we believe we have come to terms with the good and the bad in life, no matter how certain we are of ourselves and our relationships, how we ultimately react remains a mystery. The strength of this book lies in what goes on in the mind of the reader after completing this rather contrived (at least the second half) story. It would be a good choice for a discussion group as it invites the readers to explore these moral truths as general concerns, but look at their own beliefs and souls.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Return To Innocence,
By "manifest-destiny" (Uncasville, CT United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Special Prisoner (Paperback)
In light of the rather vivid pictorial representation we conceive from the description in the novel "The Special Prisoner" by Jim Lehrer, a more conflicting issue is presented. As a POW in the ruthless hands of an unremorseful Lieutenant Tashimoto, John Quincy Watson is faced with a trial of self-reliance that he would remain the product of for his entire life. The mechanical structure of the novel enables the readers to reflect back and forth from past to present in attempts to establish connections towards Watson both pre and post. A brief overview of the more conflicting fundamentals in the book refers to the actions of an older John Quincy Watson having survived the hands of Tashimoto 50 years before. A factor of revenge funds the actions that in the end fuel the fire of murder. In the mist of all this suffering and refutation, John Quincy refines his focus as the road to closure is reached as he once thought 50 years before. In that, the novel recollects the complications and suffering of POW's and the ultimate price for that torture is defined in one mans return to innocence.
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