Historical Fiction · TenseA young ensign, an unstable captain and a court-martial
The Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
A young officer joins a Navy ship with a captain who is coming apart
Willie Keith, a naive young ensign, joins the destroyer-minesweeper USS Caine in the Pacific during World War II. The ship's captain, Lieutenant Commander Philip Queeg, grows increasingly erratic and paranoid. The tensions, which come to a head during Typhoon Cobra in December 1944, lead to a legal confrontation that forms the story's climax.
More about this book
Who
Willie Keith, a young ensign; Captain Philip Queeg; Lieutenant Stephen Maryk, the executive officer; Lieutenant Tom Keefer; and the lawyer Barney Greenwald.
World
A U.S. Navy destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific during World War II, and a court-martial afterward.
What makes it different
It draws on Wouk's own experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers, the USS Zane and the USS Southard. It won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted as a 1953 stage play and a 1954 film.
Feel
A naval story that turns into a courtroom drama, at a steady pace.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Behind the book
The novel draws on Herman Wouk's own experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers, USS Zane and USS Southard, during World War II.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- The Caine MutinyWikipedia