I recently had the pleasure of reading
one of Jim Lehrer’s novels called The Special Prisoner. For
those of you who are unfamiliar with Jim Lehrer he is most commonly known as
the host of The News Hour on PBS. The reading of this
book was a requirement for my college English class but turned out to be a
great read.
The book The Special Prisoner is
a novel written about a young man named John Quincy Watson who becomes a pilot
of a B-29 bomber plane during World War II. It is a tale of his life before,
during, and after he is taken prisoner by the Japanese. However, this book is
very graphic and not for the faint of heart. It goes into great detail of John
Watson’s time as a P.O.W. Revenge is very prominent in this book, and it showed
me the that revenge runs much, much deeper than I ever thought it could.
I was drawn into this book from the very
first page. I found myself reading ahead of the class as I just could not put
it down. I connected with the characters and found myself sympathizing with
John Watson, but I also found a great hatred for the other main character Mr.
Toshimoto, otherwise known as The Hyena, the man in charge of the prison camp
John Watson was at. This book is truly well written and I highly recommend it.
I must tell you though Lehrer does not sugarcoat any of the situations discussed in this book so
be prepared.