The Sergeant

by Dennis Murphy

"Not since Thomas Mann's DEATH IN VENICE has there been a story which so effectively probes the hidden depths of an abnormal relationship."

171 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, what sort of ending do you expect from a 1950s book about a tragically repressed military sergeant who becomes obsessed with a much younger, straight soldier, told from the perspective of the young soldier. I should have know better than to read this.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stayed up all night reading this. It's gripping, but I think Tom Swanson turns callous by the end. This novel shows the danger of not knowing yourself.

[Cecil · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy flowing, good read. Everybody isn't good, and every novel can't have a happy ending.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dennis Murphy's The Sergeant is a fairly standard combination of postwar military drama and neurotic character study. Sergeant Callan, a middle-aged, decorated WWII veteran arrives at an Army base in rural France in the early '50s. Disgusted by the CO's slack behavior, Callan makes a point of whipping his company into shape, with his harsh, humorless methods immediately triggering resentment among the enlisted men. But Callan takes a shine to young Private Swanson, first appointing him to comfortable office job, then taking him to the nearest village for drinks and companionship. At first the Private is alternately flattered and bewildered by the Sergeant's attentions, only to realize that they're becoming the laughingstock of the company. When the Sergeant punishes a veteran Private for drunkenness, and revokes Swanson's leave pass (disrupting his romance with a pretty French girl), Swanson realizes Callan's affection for him is more than comradely. Yes, this is one of those '50s novels about a repressed homosexual, who spends 200 pages agonizing over his sexuality, a few paragraphs trying to act on it and the remainder punishing himself for giving into his "weakness." Murphy's sparse prose and believable portrayal of barracks life make the book readable, and he tries to portray Callan as a sympathetic figure cursed by depression, trauma and loneliness, giving us occasional glimpses of tortured humanity behind the bluster. But since the bulk of the story is told through the eyes of Swanson, the unwelcome target of his affections, it undercuts most of our sympathy for the Sergeant. Considering this, and the time in which the story was written, there's only one way it can all end; and it might well be affecting if you haven't read or watched a hundred similar endings beforehand. Adapted into an overwrought 1968 film starring Rod Steiger and John Phillip Law.

[R Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I picked up at a garage sale of mostly first editions of books from the 1950s. This one should have been a short story. Many pages of angst of the main character. Annoying excessive self reflection. Started skimming towards the end to get to the resolution that I predicted early on in the book. I guess it's a reflection of the time that it was written that it got a lot of attention because of the subject matter.