James E. Bassett’s Harm’s Way is a powerful novel that explores the personal cost of war through the lens of a fictional naval campaign in the early years of World War II.
High Point: The complex naval battle descriptions are suspenseful, exciting and easy to follow, but they never overshadow the human aspects.
Low Point: None
Author: James E. Bassett
Publication Date: 1962
Genre: Fiction – War
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James E. Bassett’s Harm’s Way is a powerful novel that explores the personal cost of war through the lens of a fictional naval campaign in the early years of World War II.
It doesn’t whitewash or glorify war with bumper sticker patriotism. Instead, the novel highlights individual loss and the physical, mental and emotional toll that war inflicts on the men and women caught up in it. But at the same time, the story also depicts ordinary people doing extraordinary things when they’re called upon.
Bassett’s style is engaging and precise. He excels in his descriptions of the naval battles which are often fought over hundreds of square miles of ocean. But you won’t get mired in the logistics of warfare at the expense of the human stories. Those are the core of the novel.
This book was the basis of the 1965 movie In Harm’s Way directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne. There are key plot differences between the novel and the movie. And as usual, the book is better.
Watch the movie first—there are not that many spoilers—and then enjoy the book. Though Bassett produced other works, his best—by far–was Harm’s Way.
Movie/TV Adaptation
In Harm’s Way (1965)
Sources For This Book
Free eBook (Project Gutenberg): Not available
Free Audiobook (LibriVox): Not available
Available to Purchase: AbeBooks, Biblio, Thriftbooks
