A String of Pearls

By Benedict A. Baglio

A vibrant leviathan that sailed the world's oceans in the name of the United States, she was already twenty-seven years old on December 7, 1941. But she was still the pride of the Navy and favorite of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 149436638X
• ISBN13: 9781494366384
• Release Date: December 2013
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An engaging historical novel about the Pearl Harbor attack

My maternal grandfather served on the U.S.S. "Arizona" as a radio operator after World War I and my mother still has mementoes from a Christmas party aboard the battleship a couple of decades before the attack on Pearl Harbor. I knew that "A String of Pearls" would have something to do with the "Arizona" since the cover shot shows the memorial that was erected over the ship sitting on the bottom of Battleship Row and a blueprint of BS-39, commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on March 16, 1914 by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt. That is the Prelude in Benedict A. Baglio's novel about the fate of the "Arizona," which tells the story of Pearl Harbor from an interesting revisionist perspective. The best known conspiracy theory about the attack on Pearl Harbor argues that FDR provoked the attack by denying the Japanese access to raw materials in the Pacific, knew about the sneak attack in advance, and covered up his failure to warn the Navy and Army commanders in Hawaii. An Army Board panel in 1944 found that everything the Japanese were planning to do was known to the United States and the argument goes that FDR needed the attack to get Hitler to make the mistake of declaring war against the United States since the American public and Congress were overwhelmingly against fighting another war in Europe. Consequently, Roosevelt is seen as setting up Pearl Harbor by denying intelligence ot his commanders, misleading them into thinking negotiations with Japan were making headway in avoiding war, and sending false information about the location of the Japanese carrier fleet in early December 1941. However, that is not the conspiracy that Baglio is playing out in "A String of Pearls," which makes the guilty party a desperate Winston Churchill, who is afraid that the United States will only fight the Japanese and not help the British against the Germans in Europe. It took me a while in reading this engaging book to figure out that it was a revisionist interpretation (I do not read back covers until after I have read the book) of the well known events leading to December 7th, and even given the book's premise the conspiracy is more a part of the developing narrative than a full-blown argument. For that you would have to check out James Rusbridger and Eric Nave's "Betrayal at Pearl Harbor: How Churchill Lured Roosevelt into World War II," which I assume Baglio has read (his novel is certainly compatible with the book's conclusions). "A String of Pearls" will strike some as a lighter version of "The Winds of War," in that you have FDR, Churchill and Hitler running around, and a cast of fictional characters who get to be in the right place at the right time. Each chapter is divided into sections that are introduced by date and place (sometimes time) and Baglio is rather relentless in paring down his narrative to what is essential to play out the conspiracy. As a general rule, whenever he covers historical events that

Riveting

I'm the "child" of a World War II vet and heard far too many stories of the War in my youth to think I'd ever be interested in another account of what happened at Pearl Harbor. But this book, "A String of Pearls," was a delightful surprise. Extremely well written, it takes you from the Oval Office and the witty mind of Winston Churchill to the ship's galleys where we meet enlisted men, officers (and the women they love) and my particular favorite character, the USS Arizona herself. Reading this book allows you to experience a fictional account of the early Twentieth Century world and the events and attitudes leading to the Japanese invasion at Pearl Harbor. (I heard Glen Miller as I read.) Highly recommend.

Simply a fantastic book

What a look back at the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. We get to read about the historical events, but Roosevelt and Churchill are talking to us! Rich characters and settings make this the book of the year for me. Highly recommended!