Solider in the Rain is a 1960 novel by
William Goldman about a simple army sergeant on a base in the American south,
his two far more educated buddies, and one young local girl.
On the
surface, the story would seem to be a comic novel, but there is a lot more
heart to it than that label would give it.
Supply
Sgt. Eustis Clay has ambitions to be rich and famous when he gets out of the army.
His problem is that he has no idea how to go about it. But that does not stop
him from generating all sorts of ideas and weighing the possibilities. One line
of work he considers is broom balancing – the end of the handle on his palm and
the brush in the air – something he does better than anyone and practices when
he has nothing to do while on duty in his supply office. He abandons the idea
when he cannot find a way of turning his pastime into a money-making business.
Eustis fancies himself a songwriter and believes his future may lie there, even
though his songs are hilariously bad.
Eustis sounds too dim to root for, but he has some redeeming
qualities. He overcame a childhood tragedy, loves his dog, is a loyal friend, is
considerate to the local girls, and is consistently cheerful.
He
looks up to his 40ish friend, Master Sgt. Maxwell Slaughter, a base
wheeler-dealer. Eustis considers Maxwell his mentor. At first, Maxwell seems
to tolerate Eustis' buffoonery in order to use him to procure goods from the
supply office which Maxwell trades for items like an air conditioner for his
office and his own personal vending machine. As the story progresses,
Goldman shows the supremely confident Maxwell is a man with deep doubts and
fears, which Maxwell only reveals to his friend, Eustis.
In his
own naïve way, Eustis tries to help Maxwell by setting him up on a date with
a local beauty named Bobby Jo Pepperdine, who hangs around the base and has had
many intimate boyfriends despite being only 14 years old.
Maxwell,
a gentleman and a guy with a lot of problems, develops a platonic rapport with
Bobby Jo, which makes for some loopy, yet touching scenes.
Another
buddy is Private Jerry Meltzer, an Ivy League graduate, drafted during the
Korean War, who, during the story learns to drink with Eustis, celebrates the
end of the Korean conflict and his discharge from the army.
In one
of the best scenes in the book, Jerry invites Eustis, Maxwell, and Bobby Jo
to a party at a hotel in town hosted by his overbearing mother and snotty fiancée who have traveled south to get Jerry and bring him back to New York.
Goldman’s excellent ear for dialogue is evident in this scene. The six
characters in the hotel suite have such unique voices that Goldman barely
needed to identify the speakers.
Jerry,
like Bobby Jo, is headed for a disappointing future and neither Eustis nor Maxwell can help them. In fact, they are all headed for disappointing
futures, and that sense of ultimate sadness makes the book something far
more than just a humorous tale of army life.
Solider in the Rain, was the then
29-year-old Goldman’s third novel, written a few years after he himself was
discharged from the army. His style is lean and his portrayal of the hot, dusty
base and the variety of people associated with it is well worth the read.
Shortly
after its publication, Blake Edwards, the man behind the Pink Panther movies, turned the book into a screenplay and produced
it as a film starring the surprisingly excellent Steve McQueen as Eustis Clay,
the perfectly cast Jackie Gleason as Maxwell Slaughter, and Tuesday Weld as Bobby Jo.
Goldman
went on to write Marathon Man and the screenplays for “Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men" and much more.
