Quite simply, my favorite book of all time. McKenna's death while he was writing "The Sons of Martha" was a terrible loss. ( )

This book was recommended by my friend, Jerry. It became one of my top 50 books of all time. It is about a U.S. Navy gunboat in China in the 1920's. ( )

This is another book you should treat yourself to if you liked the movie.
There is just so much more, you can really see and feel for Jake Holman as he finally finds a place and peaple to belong too. ( )

"The Sand Pebbles" was written by Richard McKenna, a career Navy sailor of no particular high rank, he was a mechanic. He was born to poor parents in 1913, a member of the "Greatest Generation", and fought in WWII in his late 20s. Before WWII he served a few years as a navy "river rat" on the Yangtze River in China where he gathered first-hand experience and stories for this novel about a US "gun boat" on the Yangtze during China's 1925-27 revolution. In the 1950s he retired from the Navy and then graduated with a university literary degree and wrote this his single novel, before dieing in 1964. In some ways McKenna's life mirrors the fictional life of the hero of "The Caine Mutiny" who wanted to retire from the Navy and write the great american novel.

The Sand Pebbles is foremost very entertaining and a "man's man" kind of romance - lots of brawling, drinking, whoring, loving and working with big heavy machinery and guns. But it is more than just entertainment, it is a historically accurate portrayal of life in China during the Gun Boat era before China had become unified as a nation. It is a commentary on race and cultural relations between "invincible" white-men and their "coolie" servants; between lowly working-class sailors and respectable missionary citizens. It is a hero's journey of self-discovery and growth. Of China's emergence as a distinct nation. But more than anything it is reliably authentic: one really has the feeling of what it must have been life to serve on a Gun Boat in China in the 1920's. ( )