“Johnny Got His Gun” (1938) by Dalton Trumbo

Keith had selected “Johnny Got His Gun” (1938) by Dalton Trumbo which was first published on 3 September 1939, two days after Germany invaded Poland, and is about a 20-year-old American infantryman Joe Bonham who suffers a direct hit from a German shell in the last days of the Great War. Unsurprisingly, its powerful anti-war message also had a profound effect on Americans during the Vietnam era.

Keith explained how "Dalton Trumbo" conveys its anti-war message across 20 short chapters, each explores a different aspect of Joe’s life before the war, or his thoughts on his current predicament. As his thoughts become more lucid, he realises he has been left deaf, dumb and blind and that all four of his limbs have subsequently been amputated. His face has also been disfigured and is covered by a mask to avoid distressing the hospital staff. 9/10

Nigel pointed out that Dalton Trumbo was also a screenwriter and he was later blacklisted and jailed for being a Communist. His political views are to the fore in this convincing argument for peace and cooperation, and against the futility and waste of war. War is explained as "us" versus "them": "us" being the working classes and “them" being those with money who do not do any fighting but whose interests are served by war. Joe also muses on the abstract, nebulous language that is used to justify war - democracy, freedom, liberty etc. 9/10

Hamish talked about a fine line and Billy Bragg, and how, for all the arguments in favour of pacifism it is when Joe is musing on aspects of his life before the war that this book really succeeds. Most of these memories involve moments of loss for Joe, and these mirror the physical losses that Joe has sustained. 8/10

Tristan mused how Johnny Got His Gun is one of the most original, clever and powerful novels he’d ever read. It’s a little uneven in places but overall it’s unforgettable, and rightly regarded as classic American literature. 8/10

Robin

Robin?  Robin, of International Rescue, was saving orangoutangs.  Or was he?  Later reports suggest he was watching a band.  Had he actually read the book?  Some of the HBG naysayers thought not.  

Nick?  Nick was with his pal Mark E Smith however, through the wonders of email, he informed an expectant throng of HBGers thus...   

As i walked out one summer morning, a month in the country, dead mans shoes, slaughterhouse 5, stoner, the road, the book we read the time before last, dogs of war...to the pantheon of greats in Hove's Finest Book Club (TM) comes a new name...Johnny Got his Gun. This near faultless polemic against the horror of war has burnt a hole in my head and my heart....why haven't I heard of this masterpiece before?

The first thing I noticed about it was the way it compares to some of my favourite other books:

Stoner for the undistinguished life and its own implicit polemic against war.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, an autobiography of a man with locked-in syndrome

The war poets

Pat Barker's regeneration

I could go on...

I could call out hundreds of scenes but the most vivid for me were:

Where father and son know they are spending their last camping trip together. Touchingly rendered, heartbreakingly close to every father's heart, He and his father had lost everything, themselves and the rod.

Nick emailed his review

Fighting for a word - motherland, fatherland, homeland native land! It's all the same. What the hell good to you is your native land after you are dead? If you get killed fighting for your native land you've bought a pig in a poke - you've paid for something you'll never collect. The opposite of what we are told to believe by most politicians and leaders - the conflict of the red or the White poppy. This part chimed most closely for me with Stoner and the way he was shunned after choosing not to go to war.

The passage about the German girl, polishing the bomb - this scene detached from its horror and the eventual carnage it causes.

His urgent need to make himself understood through morse code and the idea of him being transported around the country in a glass case.

Keith, my friend, you have chosen wisely - I pity Hamish and his choices.

It is a masterpiece. It is a 10/10.

Amen to that brother.

“Ukulele Songs” (2011) by Eddie Vedder

“Ukulele Songs” was very well received by Keith and Nigel.  Tristan was less enamoured.  No one else appeared to care

“Into The Wild” (2007) directed by Sean Penn

“Into The Wild” annoyed Nigel and Nick.  Keith quite liked it.  Hamish and Tristan really liked it.