King Rat (The Asian Saga)

This is, and has been for 30 years, one of my all time favorite reads. Shogun, probably Clavell's best known book, is wonderful too but it's nearly 1,300 pages. This masterpiece is short and sweet and it lays to the bone the pain and suffering endured by the poor souls unlucky enough to find themselves confined in Changi prison camp and, even more horrific, Utram Road Prison..a place men are sent.. never to return. It has to be one of the best WWII books about the Allied soldiers captured by the Japanese. He doesn't pull any punches and yet he manages to find humor in among the horror these men endured. The author, himself a POW held by the Japanese, claims that while the settings are very real places, the characters and the story told are fictional; but it's difficult not to sense his own experiences coming through as he develops the characters inside these pages. It's an impossible book to put down once you start. It includes an unlikely buddy story and is full of subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, social commentary as well. The author's able to put you inside each man's mind and lets you view this nightmare world they're forced to live in through their very individual points of view. It's a cops and robbers story too and it's a wonderful example of capitalism at it's finest and at it's worse. It's about betrayal, devotion, loyalty, love and friendship. For such a small book, it packs an amazingly large punch!While it is not for the faint of heart, I still highly recommend it.

The first-published but chronologically-fourth book of the Asian Saga, KING RAT follows a group of allied POWs in a Japanese internment camp in Singapore during World War II. The story revolves around “The King”, an American prisoner who hustles his way into a life of relative comfort amidst scarcity, sickness, and desperation. The descriptions of life in the crowded and under-provided POW camp are realistic and horrifying, but the real message here is about the psychological impacts of abuse and confinement on the thousands of young men locked up in Changi. Life in a POW camp is terrifyingly boring but constantly stressful. The men are on edge all the time but have nothing to do. While there is very little action per-se in KING RAT, there is an ever-present threat of violence that keeps the story on a knife edge.Still, even under the direst circumstances, we see light-heartedness, laughter, enjoyment, friendship, competition, and jealously. Hierarchies emerge and a natural order takes over. The ability of humans to adapt to their conditions and retain their sense of self is seen here from Clavell’s first-hand perspective. The fact that KING RAT was largely based on Clavell’s own experiences as a POW during World War II in the very prison he centers his tale on gives the novel gravitas and a great deal of authenticity.One major plot line that I didn’t expect but was important for the book focused on transgender acceptance and psychology. A RAF pilot who plays female characters in performances ends up fully embracing the life of a woman. The hesitancy of Sean’s friends to accept Sean-the-woman, the psychology underlying Sean’s transition, and wanted and unwanted attention from the sexually-starved male prisoners are all examined, probably less carefully than would be acceptable by a modern author of Clavell’s stature.The book ends with the prisoners being released and their realization that they have been changed forever. Many are unsure of their place in the world after surviving Changi, especially after seeing themselves in the eyes of the healthy soldiers sent to free them. The King’s time on top has come to an end and his reaction is powerful.The exploration of human interactions and ethical nuance while under psychological and physical strain, make KING RAT Clavell’s most important novel content-wise. I did not enjoy it as much as I did SHOGUN or TAI PAN, two of my favorite novels, which had better pacing, characters, and especially settings, but this one is certainly worth reading and thinking about.

A story of survival in the WWII prisoner-of-war camp at Changi, Singapore. Like a rat, an American corporal known as the King uses his wits to survive and adapt in the prison camp. He has had a rough life and after the war will probably be sent to military prison for his activities in the camp. His life at Changi is probably the most successful period of his existence. At one point he devises a successful scheme to breed rats and to sell theirmeat to the officers as that of the small mammal called a mouse-deer or Rusa tikus which is considered a delicacy. It is about the size of a rat. Although there is a lot of resentment toward the King, his machinations keep the other prisoners alive and striving. As news of the war's end reaches the camp, the King's incredible network of power crumbles and his future looks grim. The King is based on Clavell's experience as a prisoner of war.

I read King Rat (KR) shortly after it was first published. I remember thinking then that KR was an exciting book, but perhaps far-fetched, even if the author was a POW in Singapore. A decade later I was posted to Singapore, and met a few people who remembered the years of Japanese occupation, and some who were prisoners themselves. It seems that Mr. Clavell was not exaggerating.Having recently read a couple of volumes of the author's Asian Saga, I decided to read KR again. This edition has an informative foreword, in itself very good literary criticism, and some parts in the book which may not have been in the first edition - I am not entirely sure. This time around, the book struck me not merely exciting, but positively dramatic, and many scenes could indeed have been combined into a very dramatic play.As other reviewers have already described KR's background and plot, I would add only that character development is first rate, as are the sections depicting the lives and fates of the prisoners' families. Most of these are bleak, and some are not resolved, but there are few happy endings, apart from the fact that most of the main prisoner characters survived, a great accomplished in view of happened in Changi in 1942-45. It was a horrible place, and KR is its dramatic chronicle. One may perhaps also think of it as the requiem for the British Empire military, and certainly for the UK Army. In any case, I reckon KR is one of the most powerful novels from the Second World War, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Having read Shogun, (by the same author) many times, I wanted to try another novel and I was not disappointed at all.Based in a Japanese POW camp during WW2 this book explores the life of inmates, what they had to do to survive and the exploits and mischief of one of the main inmates called King, as he sought to trade in items and food to profit from the starving men's misery. The weird thing, even though what he does is particularly odious, he is so charming and likeable you can't help but warm to him.This is written extremely well and I flew through the 400 pages in no time at all and was gripped throughout. Even though this touches on some of the cruelties of war, it is not too harrowing or tough to read as a result.The characters are easy to relate to and you can see the different ways men cope with tough situations such as these.There is more to the story, which I won't spoil here, but be assured that it is well worth the time and makes for a enjoyable, gripping read.

This writer never fails to bring me a good read and I really enjoyed King Rat. Great story. Sadness and humour. A page turner which left my housework undone. One small niggle though: I think the real Japanese Prison of War experience would have been even more ferocious than it is portrayed here. However, really, I am relieved that this great author did not put in more horrific details.

One complaint, Yes the author was a FEPOW, but it was The British Army that surrendered not the English, a tad disrespectful to the Scots, Welsh, Ulstermen & Irish that died during and after the fighting, that aside a great read, but out of 40,000 white men, I find it hard to believe an American was Top Dog, Not A Chance, Not A Chance.

Even though the book was sitting on my shelf for years, I just read it recently when I started the Asia Saga of Clavell. My top favourite will always be TAI-PAN, but this is a very good book with interesting characters and insights into the different ways of survival, how one's upbringing and way of thinking determine the path one takes to survive or fall.

From the Second World War, there has been very little literature arising from the Japanese POW camps, compared to the enormous amount based on German camps.Yet the ordeals suffered by Japanese prisoners were horrific in the extreme, and surely merit more extensive exploration.This book at least attempts to address that balance.The story is based in Changi jail, in Singapore. Although obscenely brutal and murderous, it was actually not among the most sadistically genocidal of the Japanese camps.Clavell - himself a camp veteran - provides a vivid portrayal of the desperate existence endured by the prisoners as the Japanese steadily worked them to death.Different men respond in different ways to extreme hardship, and `every man for himself ' was a seemingly a commonly chosen option.One criticism of the book has been that there isn't much portrayal of the dignity, esprit de corps, and self sacrifice which characterised a great deal of the POWs' behaviour.Instead, Clavell explores the dark side - the pathetic nature of the prisoners' bitter desperation reducing them to pit their wits against each other. `Rat' prevails as the King of this grimmest of Castles.There's a twist in the tail, however, and relationships readjust dramatically towards the end of the story.The book has a powerful authenticity, and brings together a fascinating cluster of characters. It's a must-read, if only for the insight it gives into a crucial piece of 20th century history.