The central conflict is Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt's refusal to box in an Army company that prizes boxing above all else (this is in the innocent days of Pearl Harbor just before the Japanese attack). The agonies Prewitt goes through for his conscience are best left up to Jones to describe. The movie version of this book is quite competent but had to be cleaned up to an almost ridiculous extent (the whorehouse became a "dance hall," for example). If you can, read this massive novel first, then see the film. I think few if any people would regret the effort it takes to read "From Here to Eternity."
Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt and 1st Sergeant Milton Warden were more interesting than any two characters from any book that I can remember. Each with their own code that occassionally jives with the Army code. Jones has a sharp mind and his characters do much philosophizing. Prewitt spends his time looking for the answers and living up to his own code. He never makes it easy on himself. He always takes the tough way.
Warden, who seems more in control than any character in the book, will occassionaly take a dangerous risk just out of boredom.
An earlier review stated that Prewitt was too smart for his education, but it struck me odd that Warden had read most of the books on Prewitt's "to read" list. Where does a First Sergeant get that much time to read?
The relation between men and women in this book was also quite interesting. As is the relationship between the soldiers themselves.
Give it a look. I'm moving onto The Thin Red Line.
Put it like this - after reading TTRL, I simply had to read FHtE. Quite simply this book MUST be read - it is excellent. Slow to begin with like TTRL (about 200 pages), it hooks you in until eventually you think of your spare time in only how much you can read the book.
Not quite as good as TTRL - in my opinion - but i think that is because I read it first. None the less, this is a cracker, and I'll have to complete the list with 'Whistle'.
Go get it.