I’ve a liking for history and I possess a particular interest in gathering information about the two world wars. When I wanted to read works of fiction on the world wars, I was immediately redirected to Alistair MacLean. I picked South by Java Head since my knowledge on the Pacific War isn't all that high (The edition I purchased was also rather inexpensive).Coming to the plot, retired Brigadier Foster Farnholme is at Singapore and he is desperate to leave. The reason being, he has the complete plans for the Japanese invasion of Australia and wants to hand it over to the Australians. Unfortunately, the situation isn’t favourable to him, the Japanese troops are all over Singapore and the British forces were all set to surrender on the next day. Farnholme along with some people leave Singapore and after a chain of events in the sea, they end up in a British – Arabian tanker Viroma led by Captain Findhorn and his trusted subordinate John Nicolson. But, they know that they aren’t going to be out there for too long and the Japanese may attack them any time. The plot is centred on John Nicolson along with a romantic sub-plot between Nicolson and a nurse.When I was suggested Alistair MacLean, I was told to expect a thrilling adventure, an element of suspense, traitors and double-agents and of course, protagonists surviving beating all the odds. South by Java Head fulfils all these, including the last one. It had a brilliant adventure, desperate people trying to reach Australia by sea from Singapore. An element of suspense – when the Japanese are going to attack and how this little crew is going to cope up with it. Protagonists surviving beating all the odds – I’m not willing to make this a spoiler. Definitely, you’d also be made to guess who is going to be the traitor, there might be one or more. But, the book certainly also has several drawbacks. Alistair MacLean might be well known for anything else, but certainly not for his language, with most of the dialogues being flat and boring and also had occasional grammatical errors. I also didn’t like the way the author portrayed the Japanese, as heartless killing machines and frequently referring to them as “those inhuman devils”. Besides, people who aren’t familiar with maritime terms would find it difficult to understand the navy jargons. Moreover, the end to the sup-plot was also quite abrupt, as though the author used it only to lighten the entire plot and had no intentions of giving it a proper finish. There were also several loose ends, such as; it was never mentioned why Farnholme had a liking for the two year old boy and why he had to arrange such a dangerous trip for him. However, the bottom-line is, whether the reader contemplates if the occurrences are possible in a real situation or not, the reader would certainly enjoy reading this book. This book is highly recommended to those who are in the same “boat” as I am in terms of interests. I’m willing to give this book a three out of five, because of the excessive number of negatives
Its interesting to investigate MacLean's early novels to see the original formulation of all the hackneyed narrative conventions and action-cliches that he came to rely on later in his career. That's the main thing I got out of this novel.MacLean is definitely one of the oddest of the successful thriller writers to come out of WWII. Some of his works ('Guns of Navarone') have themes latent within them which can be raised to greatness. Most of his novels are simply workmanlike, filled technically ingenious heists and commando raids. This book written in '58--but written with a WWII sensibility. 'Japs' are referred to as 'diabolical devils', 'inhuman fiends', etc. Strange choice of material for MacLean here, in that he uses rather mundane military forces as the antagonists instead of the obviously fictitious and cozily-abstract 'elite, crack, units' he would always invent later. There are no sophisticated weapons in this novel either; just your standard battle fleets, bayonets, machine-guns, and dive bombers. Its all really rather prosaic. A straightforward war story. Well, almost. There are inevitably a couple of lurid elements--'secret plans on microfilm' and '100,000 tonnes of secret fuel oil' sought by the minions of the Rising Sun. Really, most of the story is about survival on a crowded life-raft. But what I was looking for when I picked up the book--fully-fledged characters and realistic dialog--neither was present. They're not present in the later MacLean career... but I was hoping this early writing would not be part of the formula. I was disappointed. Instead of three-dimensional personalities, there are circus caricatures. Like the Scots Sergeant-Major who can fell anyone with a massive blow from his club-like fist. Like the heroic protagonist who gives speeches while tossing grenades, "its nothing, really, all in a day's work". And at least two of the shipwreck survivors are secretly saboteurs. Naturally.Eric Ambler does all this so much better. Ambler distracts the reader from the predictable story goal. MacLean doesn't bother. He telegraphs what the 'macguffin' is at the start of his stories. In this case, microfilm. in 'Jaqva Head' MacLean again is brusquely upfront, informs us (painfully) that the outcome of his plot has a nation teetering on the brink of disaster. Still, he gets away with it. Because he's an action writer; and he has a fabulous dexterity at writing his own particular style of action which no one else wants to do.His style is interchangeable no matter what the title of the books are; its uncanny the way he never switches anything up or tries something new. His male heroes are unique in never needing sleep; possessing fantastic calm even in the wildest chaos; and never questioning themselves no matter what. Its gets very tiring.'South By Java Head' is cast from the same die as his later line of hits. On its own; nothing very special. A lesser example of his abilities but found quite near the debut of his career. That's what's remarkable.
Do You like book South By Java Head (2008)?
I looked forward to reading my first Alister MacLean novel and early in the book was not disappointed. The book was cleverly set up and introduced. It is a World War II novel that begins with an escape from a ravaged and burning Singapore by boat with an agent and an unusual cast of characters that are carrying the plans for Japan's invasion of Australia. It goes downhill from there. Surving hurricanes, bombings, being picked up by an oil tanker, then attacked by a submarine, then a fake U.S. PT Boat, rowing to Java where they are finally captured by the Japanese, only to escape. There was so much action that it became boring. The only part that was missing was when the safe fell out of the sky on Wiley Coyote's head.
—Chuck
Interesting author, MacLean. He began his career with three WWII novels, the classics HMS Ulysses and Guns of Navarrone, along with the lesser known South By Java Head. He then switched gears and produced a series of six contemporary (at their time) novels using the sardonic, first person tough-guy style for which he is perhaps best remembered (for better or worse). From there, it was back to the third person for his next four books, all relative classics including the excellent Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare, along with his only sequel and last World War II story, Force 10 From Navarone.So Java Head is pretty early MacLean, and it shows. I mainly wanted to read this because it is set - or at least starts out (and too quickly leaves) - in Singapore, my current home, and because there is such a dearth of good Singapore war stories (the only other one that comes to mind being King Rat, James Clavell's first book). But other than that, there isn't a whole lot to particularly recommend this book. It's not at all bad, but it is dated and just not particularly memorable. It's a classic adrift-at-sea story, with some particularly nasty and stereotypical Jap baddies, (MacLean exhibits much of the racial prejudices of the day in his work, and is much kinder to the Germans than he ever was to the Japanese). The basic construct is classic MacLean and similar to his later Night Without End (a random group of characters forced together by unusual circumstances - and there's a killer in their midst!), along with some of his typical if confusing good-guy-pretending-to-be-bad-guy-pretending-to-be-good-guy (aka "WTF?") twists deep in the third act.I've somehow been rereading a lot of MacLean lately - mostly from his "middle period" - and so with no set narrator here it took me a full third of the book to figure out just who the hero was, which was actually kind of nice for a change. MacLean's female characters also tend to be stereotypes - either angels (or fallen angels) with not much to do except act noble or swoon, or older matrons representing the Empire at its best - and his dialogue was always pretty clunky. With his complex plots, a lot of key points end up having to be explained thorugh lengthy bad guy monologuing, or scenes where the soon-to-be-killed good guy asks a lot of questions before he escapes (often thanks to one of those good-guy-pretending-to-be-bad-guy characters). As a diver, I question a bit of his marine science - folks getting grabbed by giant clams, and barracuda being described as "the most voracious killers in the sea" - but MacLean spent a number of years in the Royal Navy, including the Atlantic and Pacific War theaters, so I imagine he should know what he's talking about; he certainly does know his boats. Interestingly, he helped evacuate liberated POWs from Singapore's infamous Changi Prison after the war, (which was the setting for King Rat).Also interestingly, like Joseph Conrad, MacLean learned English as a second language - he grew up speaking Scottish Gaelic!
—Philip
