Special Prisoner - ISBNLookup.com

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

From best-selling author Lehrer comes a work about an American soldier's harrowing wartime experience in Japan.

Iris Chang

Riveting...I couldn't put this book down! The Special Prisoner delves into the full complexity of human evil and revenge.

Stephen E. Ambrose

[A] tribute to the men who endured and prevailed over the worst existence imaginable.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

As in his previous novel, White Widow, the plot of newscaster-writer Lehrer's newest book turns on a chance encounter. In this case the pivotal meeting is between retired Methodist Bishop John Quincy Watson of San Antonio, Tex., an elderly ex-B-29 pilot and POW, and a Japanese businessman in whose eyes Watson sees the stare of the interrogator who tortured him. Incredulous that his old nemesis could have survived, Watson nevertheless discovers that the stranger has checked into a San Diego hotel under the interrogator's last name, and he decides to confront him. Mr. Tashimoto, however, denies he is the former camp official his prisoners nicknamed "the Hyena" because of his sadistic laugh. With this tension-filled standoff underway, Lehrer suspensefully alternates between Watson's harrowing memories of WWII and his present-day cat-and-mouse interrogation with the roles reversed. The first half of the narrative is a provocative, at times wrenching, dramatization of racism, war crimes and revenge--with right not necessarily on Watson's side--but the second is deprived of much of its drive when Watson tragically loses control of the situation and is brought to trial for his violent behavior. Although the ending does not satisfactorily resolve the moral ambiguity of its tantalizing premise, Lehrer's novel successfully illuminates still-sensitive issues for both the U.S. and Japan. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

The title of Lehrer's 14th book, a harrowing novel of redemption and revenge, refers to the designation the Japanese gave to captured U.S. airmen, for whom they reserved the most horrific torture. In alternating chapters, the first half of the novel ricochets between John Quincy Watson's World War II experiences as a B-29 bomber pilot and (mostly) Japanese POW and his present-day encounter--he is a retired Methodist bishop--with the man he knew as his Japanese torturer, Tashimoto. The second part of the novel, a trial, condemns both the brutality of Japanese treatment of POWs and the U.S. bombing attacks on Japan, along with lingering U.S. racism against the Japanese. While the lean prose and fast pace mean that some of the men in the prison camp are too sketchily drawn for us to care about them, both Watson and his friend Henry Howell are fully realized. Lehrer offers no easy answers in this gripping, sorrowful story that moves well beyond the satire that characterizes his earlier works. Recommended, especially where World War II novels are popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/00; for an interview with Lehrer, see p. 199.--Ed.]--Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal" Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Sean Kevin Fitzpatrick

The title refers to a shot-down American airman who was taken prisoner during World War II. John Philip Watson endured the horrors of torture and humiliation, and this concise powerhouse of a novel begins with Watson's sixty-second year, during which he has retired as the Methodist bishop of San Antonio. His tightly reconstructed life begins to unwind, though, as he sees his primary torturer, known as "The Hyena," while changing planes in Dallas. Lehrer is a newsman, novelist and arguably one of the best news anchors on television. His news training gives him a fine instinct for story and an ability to edit out anything that does not advance it. Lehrer provides us with a concentrated dose of a world we have never known but which we now see with blinding brightness. This is a fast and moving read with the texture of authenticity.

Kirkus Reviews

A near-miss about man's inhumanity to man—in war and then in peace. He's become the much respected, almost revered, now retired Bishop Quincy Watson of Boston, but 50 years ago he flew a B29 that rained firebombs on Tokyo until the Japanese shot him down. Though he survived the crash, Quincy spent much of the time that followed wishing he hadn't. Fliers, especially bomber pilots, were viewed with maximum hostility by their captors. Quincy found himself labeled a `special prisoner,` a category the Japanese reserved for war criminals. Degraded, tortured, threatened daily with death and worse, he was one of a minuscule number of special prisoners who managed to live through the experience. At the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, on an otherwise ordinary day, his glance happens to connect with someone else's. Seconds later, that man is lost in the airport crowd, but Quincy is certain he's recognized the eyes (`two dark brown lasers`) belonging to his former chief tormentor, Japanese Lieutenant Tashimoto. Quincy goes on a hunt, traces his prey to a hotel in San Diego, and confronts the man in his room. Tashimoto denies everything he's accused of, insists the two have never met and that during the war the US, not Japan, behaved like an outlaw nation. Quincy calls him a liar on all counts. Hate regenerated is as implacable as ever. It explodes into sudden violence, the long-term ramifications of which are tragic and embittering. PBS news anchor Lehrer, now a veteran novelist (Purple Dots, 1998, etc.), attempts a morality tale here. The result, unfortunately, is frustratingly elusive. The POW scenes are riveting, but the plotting, particularly the denouement, seems wrenched to fit a fixedidea,making the tale hard to believe and the seeming morality hard to track.Author tour