BOOK NOTES by Joan Ruddiman
Like many, particularly those who live without cable television, I’ve come to depend on Jim Lehrer as a news source. He, at least, restrains himself and his assembled panel of experts from comment until after the news event. Peter, Tom and Dan seem to think they are the news event, talking over and through speeches and selectively editing the sound bites they, or their network, decide the public should hear.
What I didn’t realize is that Lehrer is also a novelist. Mostly known for mysteries, his latest novel grapples with some heavy historical and philosophical issues.
"The Special Prisoner" begins in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, where John Quincy Watson, the respected retired bishop of a Methodist conference, is due to board a plane for the east coast, where he is scheduled for one of his many annual speaking engagements. His plans, and life, change dramatically when he looks into the eyes of a man, who, 50 years earlier, tortured him unmercifully. Watson, a big, redheaded flyer, survived the brutality of a Japanese prisoner of war camp, survived the aftermath of physical and emotional rehabilitation, and thought he had survived the spiritual despair that was the greatest threat to his survival. Fifty years after the fact, with 50 years of more than surviving but succeeding at great levels, Bishop Watson confronts the rush of pure hatred for this man he called The Hyena.
Lehrer tackles some heavy issues in this tightly written fiction. We are now two generations removed from World War II, well beyond the half-century anniversaries of all the major events of that era. Accolades from the likes of historian Stephen Ambrose and commentator Tom Brokaw making the case for this "greatest generation" can be matched by objective analysis of the wrongs perpetrated by both sides. It is the ethics of war that Lehrer delves into through his character’s choice to follow his past to San Diego, rather than to carry on the life he’s made by continuing on to Virginia.
Watson was the captain of the mighty B-29s. He and his crew carried out the fire bombings of Japanese cities. These attacks were directed to civilians – old people and women and children. By design they were intended to bring the Japanese government to its knees in order to save Japanese citizens. Towards the end of this bloody confrontation in the Pacific, not much hope was held for the ending of war through conventional battlefield victories. Japan had sent clear messages that they would not surrender.
Lehrer juxtaposes the horrors of the firebombed cities with images from the prisoner of war camps through narrative and flashbacks. Watson’s experiences as a POW are graphically described in the immediacy of the time by vivid flashbacks. The emotional conversations held 50 years later capture the awful fear of looking up at firebombs raining mass destruction and death. To Lehrer’s credit, the flashbacks are not colored by current political correctness; the graphic brutality is incredibly harsh and the intense hatred is overtly racist. Nor do the emotional memories go unchallenged. How Watson and his compatriots and their Japanese counterparts deal with these evils of war as survivors living in a new era is a classic philosophical conundrum. That was how it was in the war – then – and unless you were there, it is impossible to fully comprehend or understand – now. More power to Lehrer for airing an irresolvable issue: when is a war really over?
Lehrer also delves into the spiritual nature of man. Watson and others survive physical abuse through sheer will. Others less physically damaged die, seemingly from a lack of such will to survive. The abuse to their human psyche was more damaging than the assaults on their bodies. Watson spends months in rehabilitation for his battered legs and body. He spends years working on recovering his soul.
Lehrer acknowledges the support of his brother, the Rev. Fred Lehrer, in the writing of this book. Indeed, the position of Watson as a retired Methodist minister and bishop is significant to the story, as is the role of Watson’s spiritual guide, Rick, also a Methodist minister, who leads Watson to his spiritual redemption. Much of the story is about surviving, hanging in to not only live another day, but to live in the full sunlight of life. Watson returns from the war, but it is through Rick and his spiritual salvation that he returns to life.
Given this powerful theme, Lehrer’s plot takes a jarring 180-degree turn when a character that has trumpeted the fullness of life chooses to commit suicide rather than face a debilitating illness. Moreover, he badgers Watson to eulogize his choice. Where Lehrer has unhesitatingly explored the sanctity of life, even in explicating decisions made in war, this piece of his plot is difficult to fathom.
From the opening pages, the story is framed on the children’s "Now I lay me down to sleep" bedtime prayer. This prayer enjoins the Lord to assume responsibility for our living and dying as in "I pray the Lord my soul to keep" and "I pray the Lord my soul to take."
Throughout, Lehrer makes the case that a higher power is involved in life and death moments. The POW who just does not wake up one morning, who does not have a scratch on him, has chosen not to live – what Lehrer frames in the "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." But this is a very different concept than choosing death as in purposing to take one’s own life independent of the Lord’s will. For Lehrer to have a significant character who has been an advocate for life choose suicide for its expediency and because he does not wish to go through the trouble of dying, is disconcerting.
Matters of war, guilt, redemption, salvation are rarely perceived in stark black or white. Lehrer has definitely entered what is being called "controversial territory" with this book. It is a novel worthy of a book discussion group. It may be a novel that demands discussion.
Just as there is nothing lightweight about Lehrer’s news hour, likewise in his novel, "The Special Prisoner," he dares to tread some very bumpy political and philosophical paths.
Joan Ruddiman is a teacher and a member of the Allentown library board.