A good story about a US Navy gunboat on the Yangtze in the early 20c. Some of the scenes are violent and unpleasant. ( )

Good historical adventure novel of a gunboat in China in 1920s. Good movie with Steve McQueen. ( )

I remember reading this when I was in high school and enjoying it very much. The novel was entertaining both due to its great characterizations, historical detail, and suspense. One of my favorite books from my teen years. ( )

Published in 1962, The Sand Pebbles is book about the fictional U.S. Navy gunboat San Pablo, patrolling the rivers and ports of China in the 1920’s. As the story opens, protagonist Jake Holman is just arriving onboard. He is not a typical sailor – he resents the submission to authority and discipline required for military duty. He has been shuffled from one ship to another due to his attitude. He excels at maintaining the ship’s engines.

Holman, as an outsider, is not popular with the crew, but eventually makes a few loyal friends. He takes one of the Chinese laborers under his wing to teach him about engines. He helps another when the friend becomes involved with a local Chinese woman. Jake keeps in touch with a female Christian missionary and teacher he met on his way to his duty station. He forms genuine friendships for the first time in his life. He does not buy into the racist attitudes toward the Chinese and becomes a sympathetic character.

The first half of the book describes shipboard and shoreside life during the era of “gunboat diplomacy” and the second shows the changes brought about by the rise of Chinese Nationalism. Themes include identity, loyalty, courage, class, and power. It is a story of a country on the verge of revolution, and the impact on the forces that previously had the upper hand.

The author vividly portrays the time and place. The first half is relatively tame compared to the volatile second half. The characters are realistic, with strengths and flaws. Jake’s character is particularly well-formed. McKenna includes representatives of the many groups involved in this complex time. The climax is expertly constructed. The reader can sense the characters’ distress in dealing with torn loyalties and painful decisions. The story includes violence and tragedy, but also tenderness and compassion. It is Jake’s story but also provides insight into this period of China’s history. This was one of my grandfather’s favorite books.
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4.5 stars- rounded down.

It is China 1926. Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang is on the rise and China is on the brink of eruption. Jake Holman is a sailor on the American gunship, San Pablo, and he and his shipmates will be at the center of the explosion, as the Chinese begin to expel foreign interests from their country.

Holman is a misfit. He loves and understands the engine, the machinery for which he is responsible on the ship, but he does not understand people very well and knows little or nothing of love. His feelings about the Chinese are not quite in line with his fellow seamen and he befriends and trains a coolie who helps him to see the Chinese as individuals rather than as a class of people to be exploited for labor or sex. He is more aware and more open than those around him, and that does not always serve him well in dealing with those he encounters.

Then there are the missionaries, and particularly Miss Eckert. If you have seen the movie made from this book (a wonderful thing starring the inimitable Steve McQueen), you will expect a more robust love story than you will get between these pages. The romantic angle works for the movie, but here McKenna seems to be making a much different point in having Miss Eckert as part of his tale. She is the unattainable dream and sometimes the motivating force for Holman, and even when he steeps himself in thoughts of her, she eludes him. For each of these men, trapped aboard a small ship in a world that they do not understand and of which they are truly not a part, there is something that pushes them through the frightening situation they are in, and for Holman it is Shirley Eckert.

There is a great deal of detail here about the workings of the engine, the daily lives of the crew and the onboard coolies, the marches and political dealings of the revolutionaries and the rules that operate between the powerful nations that seem to want to divide China between them and the Chinese who are its life’s blood. The details are never boring and always informative of the plot. Nothing is unnecessary or misplaced. I closed the book understanding much more about the era it addresses and the individual characters portrayed.

I have had this book sitting on my library shelf for a number of years, and I am so glad that I did not allow it to sit any longer. I gave a dollar for it on a bargain table...talk about getting your monies worth!
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