Rating: 
Summary: More Than A War Story
Review: Good literature can transport the reader into the world of the book. Great literature enters the world of the reader. "The Caine Mutiny" is great literature. Many have seen the movie so I can say a little about the story. Set on an obsolete destroyer-minesweeper during World War II, "The Caine Mutiny", seen through the eyes of a young officer, Willie Keith, tells the story of an inadequate captain whose mismanagement leads to his relief from command when a crisis confronts the ship. With romance and a domineering mother, the book intertwines several stories which hold the reader's interest.Perhaps a Navy veteran would see much about the service in "The Caine Mutiny", I do not know. Although it is set on a naval vessel in wartime, it is much more than a war story, although that it is. I saw much about life in it. It contains instances and characters which I encounter in a life about as far from the Caine as one can imagine. This ability of this book to enter into the world of the reader, even as the reader enters the world of the book, earns "The Caine Mutiny" a place in the canon of great literature. I enjoy reading, but I cannot remember a book which I was so loath to set down. This book is a real page turner. Years ago my father told me to watch the movie, which I did. I finally took his advise the next step and read the book. Since I cannot return the favor, I will pass it on. READ "THE CAINE MUTINY"!
Rating:
Summary: The Caine Mutiny- a novel for the ages
Review: There are two types of books written by authors-those which appeal only to critics and those which appeal to the general public. This is a prime example of the latter(the ease of the vocab used helps). With brilliant imagery and lots of Navy jargon (which I didn't understand before I read the book), Herman Wouk conveys to us the story aboard the USS Caine during WWII. He gives us deep charachters with Willie Keith, Steve Maryk and Tom Keefer,and he creates a legend with Captain Phillip Francis Queeg. He makes us think. A classic.
Rating:
Summary: Readers and critics
Review: I have been reading the reviews written on Amazon about this book. Many readers refer to it as a great book, and some as the greatest that they have ever read. This is in stark contrast to the critical evaluation of the work given by professionals, academics primarily. For them Wouk is a ' middle- brow' writer whose powers of character creation, language, are not very great. Here I must confess that ' The Caine Mutiny' is one of those books from which I have a stronger memory from the movie , than from the book itself. Many readers have referred to the masterful character creation of Captain Queeg, of his once contemptible and yet sympathy- arousing character, of the story of the development of Willie Kieth from crude and selfish young man to responsible sailor and hero. Many too suggest that Wouk's ending of the work is masterful. And all point out how wonderfully readable the book is.
My guess is reading it will not only help the reader understand something about American life during the Second War but will also give an insight into American values and attitudes in the 1950's.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book of all time!!
Review: I read this book while vacationing in St.George, Utah and I read it in two days. It is an amazing read one that most likely will never be beat. The writing is overwhelming, the characters haunting and it's setting enchanting. You will fall in love with the soothing voice of May Wynn, the piano playing of Willie Kieth and the craziness of Captain Queeg. I recomend this to anyone who likes novels of World War II or just a great read!!!
Rating:
Summary: More Than A War Story
Review: Good literature can transport the reader into the world of the book. Great literature enters the world of the reader. "The Caine Mutiny" is great literature. Many have seen the movie so I can say a little about the story. Set on an obsolete destroyer-minesweeper during World War II, "The Caine Mutiny", seen through the eyes of a young officer, Willie Keith, tells the story of an inadequate captain whose mismanagement leads to his relief from command when a crisis confronts the ship. With romance and a domineering mother, the book intertwines several stories which hold the reader's interest. Perhaps a Navy veteran would see much about the service in "The Caine Mutiny", I do not know. Although it is set on a naval vessel in wartime, it is much more than a war story, although that it is. I saw much about life in it. It contains instances and characters which I encounter in a life about as far from the Caine as one can imagine. This ability of this book to enter into the world of the reader, even as the reader enters the world of the book, earns "The Caine Mutiny" a place in the canon of great literature. I enjoy reading, but I cannot remember a book which I was so loath to set down. This book is a real page turner. Years ago my father told me to watch the movie, which I did. I finally took his advise the next step and read the book. Since I cannot return the favor, I will pass it on. READ "THE CAINE MUTINY"!
Rating:
Summary: I appreciate it even more on my third read
Review: This is perhaps the third time I have read The Caine Mutiny and now with a little age under my belt, I appreciate it even more. Of course, the story is about a mutiny aboard the vintage destroyer minesweeper The Caine, during the Second World War. Most everyone is familar with Humphrey Bogarts outstanding rendition of Captain Queeg in the 1954 movie version of the book. Although other reviews have focused on the plot and character development (both which I think are excellent), I would like to address two themes which Wouk weaves throughout the book- the use, or should I say misuse, of psychology, and the issue of leadership. The mutiny, the defense and the acquittal of the Executive Office Mayrk, all revolved around psychological theories of mental illness. The officers, especially Keefer, see Queegs erratic behavior as symptomatic of psychological illness. As their dissatisfaction of the Queegs leadership grows, the more they theorize about his mental stability. Of course, as we see at the end of the book, Queeg did not suffer as much from a psychological problem, as he did from character deficiencies. Greenwald, the attorney for the defense, is able to turn the words of the Freudian psychologist (an expert witness for the prosecution) back upon him, so the psychologist admits that Queeg must have been mentally ill at the time of the mutiny. I find it ironic that using that logic, most readers of this review would be found mentally incompetent as well. What makes this novel successful (aside from good writing) is that Wouk taps into Americas love affair with psychology as the explanation for human behavior. The building of character takes second place to the building of ones self-esteem and mental health. It is a formula for disaster for our society today, as it was for the officers and crew of the Caine. This brings us to the second issue- leadership. It is particularly ironic that Keefer, the real instigator of the mutiny, the junior officer who most lack character, fails when he finally becomes captain of the Caine- he buckles under pressure and prematurely abandons ship after it is attacked leaving our hero, Willie Keith, in charge. As a result of his heroism, Willie becomes the Caines last captain. It is only under the weight of leadership that both Keefer and Keith begin to realize how difficult leadership is and the stress that Queeg was under. They discover that it is easier to complain than to lead, to foment dissension than to encourage, and to second-guess than to take responsibility. Any complaints? Yes one. The portrayal of the black seamen who served as orderlies reflects that time long past. Was there not one back sailor on board who spoke and acted like a man? Of course there was, but too bad Wouk restored to racist stereotypes in his portrayal of these sailors.
Rating:
Summary: A ripping novel of World War Two in the US Navy.
Review: This is perhaps not the greatest novel ever written about World War Two, but it may be the most readable. This is an engrossing, ingenious, and well-written story of ordinary men at sea, placed in an uncommon predicament. Their predicament is simple: their captain is a spectacularly bad leader. This leads to consequences that Wouk develops brilliantly. Wouk's own experience in the US Navy gives this book a gritty authentic feel. The reader really gets a flavor of what it must have been like to be a junior US Naval officer aboard a destroyer-minesweeper. The discussions of officer efficiency reports, the codebreaking duty, casual discipline, and more, all ring true. The real story is the maturation of Willie Keith. At the beginning of the novel he is a spoiled, overprivileged lad living an aimless life. His time in the service, and the unusual predicament in which he finds himself, hardens him into a true fighting-man in a way that has happened to countless thousands of servicemen. Wouk tells this story exceedingly well, in a manner that most readers will be able to easily relate to. I found this novel to be an unusually good read primarily for this reason. Wouk's writing is first-rate, and it is easy to see why this novel appealed to readers of the early 1950s, many of them with fresh memories of World War Two. The flavor of that war lingers in the novel even today, and gives the twenty-first century reader a notion of what those times were like. This is altogether a remarkably good novel, deserving of every one of its five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: No Mutiny: Little Action But Lots of Words
Review: When THE CAINE MUTINY was first published in 1952, it became an instant hit since the memories of the Second World War were still quite fresh in the collective minds of the adult American public. Further, the intense psychological give and take which forms the bulk of the last one third of the novel reflected the growing fascination with Freudian theories of personality. Adding to the sales was the engrossing film version with Bogie twirling steel balls on the witness stand. However, with the passing of decades, enough time has gone by to permit a more balanced view of Herman Wouk's attempt to portray the stresses that war has on a mind that lacks flexibility. What emerges is a novel that is so lacking in strong characters and reader involvement that one now can wonder why readers even now try to plow through the nearly 400 pages of mind numbing text before the only good part emerges: Queeg on the stand. The book opens with what is surely one of the weakest portrayals of a protagonist in 20th century literature: Willie Kieth, who comes across as a feckless and uninteresting naval cadet. As I was reading several hundred pages of his supposed growth from callowness to maturity, I soon enough realized that Kieth could not carry the book on his vapid smile and non-existent character. Fortunately, Wouk includes a number or secondary characters who spice up the action. Unfortunately, by the time I come across these backups, I have had to read more than one half way through. The romantic female interest for Keith is his feminine doppleganger, May Winn, who seems to exist only to prize the dubious value of her probably non-existent virtue over any revealing insights into her relation with Willie Kieth. Keith's comrades on the Caine are infinitely more interesting. Clearly, Wouk sets up his book to point to the courtroom confrontation between attack defensive lawyer Barney Greenwald and Captain Queeg. This part, despite the incessant references to Freudian illness, is Wouk's most compelling achievement. What one takes away today after having read THE CAINE MUTINY is a sense that war truly does warp personalities that are already inclined to be warped. Yet, an author owes his reading public a more believable set of literary conventions and writing skills that were so clearly lacking here. When Keith leaves the book as one who has been reviled even by the man assigned to protect him, I got the feeling that Wouk wrote THE CAINE MUTINY as a huge inside joke that illustrates that a book that masks a dearth of conventional literary tropes needs only a "hook" to reel in a series of readers eager to discover some eternal truths about warfare only to discover that the price to learn them is a Queeg-like capitualtion to those same harsh truths.
Rating: 
Summary: Overdone
Review: The book has a broad range of plots, centering around the mutiny and the events preceding. Many other sub-plots, tiny ones, not easily noticed, help to provide a sense of reality to the book and fill in spaces between Queeg's explosions.
May Wynn's love affair is the main theme that opens and closes the book. In the middle, the most important things happen, although very little time is spent in those situations in comparison to the rest of the book. The two consider getting married, write letters back and forth, and break up in the small amount of time given to their affair. This is the largest and most prominent sub-plot in the book.
Although there are many other sub-plots in the book, one of the strongest parts in the book is its vivid detail of situations. The best points are not lengthy, but they capture the feel of the situation in the emotion of the character. The book is almost charismatic in the way it describes the rolling sea, and the raging wind. On page 324, the severity of the storm is emphasized by the words: "...it [the deck] was slanting steeply to starboard... so steeply that he could not stand on it... the deck was remaining slanted."
One point where the plot really was captivating was that things in Willie's life never seemed to go smoothly. He nearly was expelled from the officer school because of his demerits. Then, his late flight caused him to arrive in the port after the ship left. Where things could go wrong for Willie, they did.
Captain Queeg's outbursts led to filling over two hundred of the book's four hundred ninety-eight pages, which seemed to be the more interesting part of the book. The pace of the book increased once he relieved de Vriess. His manner of thinking and dealing with his officers took up most of the storyline from the time the crew left the west coast of the USA to the mutiny, and was possibly the most interesting part of the book.
In contrast to that, the plot seemed to lose momentum after the mutiny. The court-martial had very little action or plot advancement for over sixty pages. It is mostly a battle of words and definitions, and mostly the plot revolves around Greenwald's defense strategy. There was little suspense, little surprises, little plot. The court-martial is more of a review of the past chapters than new events.
Another point which left a bad taste in my mouth is the conclusion of Willie and May Wynn's life. By the end, May seems little more than a filler, something needed to take up space in the novel. Except for the fact that she is Willie's girlfriend she bears no weight or effect on the focus of the novel. After the mutiny, the whole love affair sputters and dies, leaving little interest in the whole mess. Although useful in the beginning of the book, May Wynn did little to help the plot advance after Willie boarded the Caine.
Overall, I feel that the book was worth reading until the court-martial. In the beginning, there are all sorts of challenges to overcome, puzzling situations, and brief yet vivid detail about the ship, the sea, and the emotions of the officers and men. The court-martial is mostly just questions asked and answers given, with little real action. The story afterwards really has little to do with the story before, like a doomed surgery patient with no chance of survival and no reason to go on, just living its pathetic life until the bittersweet end.
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