I just finished King Rat. We older folk may remember a movie of that same name. George Segal deftly plays a POW camp black marketer named King. That's his last name. No one calls him by his first name and king becomes more of a title. He is hated and respected by all in the camp. Many are beholden to him for his selling things so they can buy stuff to keep themselves alive. Others are his flunkies and therefore also get benefits. Still everyone is jealous and hates him. He extols in their hated. The POW commanders try to catch him, some more than others. But he and his underlings keep him free.
The book is told through the eyes of Peter Marlowe, a British officer who King befriends when he finds he can speak the language. We learn, through his thinking, more about him than we ever do King. King is an American. The camp, set in the Far East, Philippines I think, has Americans, British, and Australians. They all live in separate areas.
Clavell is very interested also in the different perceptions when the war ends and they are liberated. The remaining men are skin and bones. The Japanese never gave them clothes so many, after three years, are pretty much naked all the time. Yet this is all the POW's know. They have grown used to their private hell. Outsiders coming in after all this time see animals. The soon to be free men wonder why they stare at them and get angry.
The book is a little depressing.
King is an American. Unlike anyone else there he has no place to go back to. He comes from a low class abusive home. For him this is the best time of his life and he really does not want it to end. That is horrible to admit and he really does not admit it to himself. But Marlowe sees it before they part for good. When he rides off in the truck with the other Americans heading home he is no longer king, he's just another man. In fact he is the worst of all the men.
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