What a fantastic collection of stories. Certainly one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a while, and a rare fiction read for me. Read into that what you will. Although the stories are fictional, they are based on Mitchener’s experiences in the US navy in WWII. Perhaps because it was written directly after the war it feels very fresh, immediate, and real. The characters talk and act like 1940’s Americans because that’s what Mitchener was when he wrote it. Each chapter is a separate short story, usual around 10 to 20 pages long, and an easy half hour read. Each stands by itself, but locations and characters appear and reappear, the most notable being the “hero”, Tony Fry, but there are various others in including the French plantation owner who cycles through native wives, and the SeeBee Luther Billis. There are some that deal with fierce battles with the Japanese, but they are the minority. My favourites were both early on in the book: The Cave, about bravery and courage, and Milk Run; no better description ever made of the American’s overwhelming superiority in industrial machinery, as a significant proportion of the available airpower is deployed to save one downed pilot. But mostly the stories deal with the monotony and boredom of remote posts on small islands with little in the way of entertainment. A surprisingly number deal with sex and romance, either actual or frustrated by distance. The longest story in the book, Fo’ Dolla’, describes an intense romance between a Vietnamese girl and a marine officer. Worthy of Emily Bronte in its descriptions of a passionate doomed love affair and the idiocy of the young officer. Poignantly, he turns up again in the last chapter as the name on a headstone. Throughout we are treated with wonderful poetic descriptions of the natural beauty of the islands. The palm trees, volcanoes, and endless coral. It’s fair to say that I’m somewhat obsessed with WWII, and the Pacific campaign is particularly fascinating thanks to the immense distances and the exotic landscape over which it was fought. I really enjoyed Ian Toll’s magnificent three-volume history, and it was reading that which led me to buy Tales of the South Pacific. A thread I’m glad I pulled on.