MacArthur's Ghost: P.F. Kluge

by P.F. Kluge

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877959013
• ISBN13: 9780877959014
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Arbor House Publishing
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Insightful, engrossing, and beautifully written

MacArthur's Ghost is a masterfully wrought tale about the Philippines during two periods of its troubled history - MacArthur's Pacific Campaign of World War Two and the end of the Marcos regime. With the depth of P.F. Kluge's knowledge, experience and compassion shining through every page, I am not sure anyone else could have pulled off a novel of such scope. MacArthur's Ghost is the story of Harry Roberts Harding, a civilian "guerrilla" who carries out a series of daring military raids against the Japanese occupying forces after MacArthur's retreat to Australia. As tales of the "Ghost's" exploits grow, Harding, the reclusive son of an American missionary, is elevated to the status of a living legend. After the war ends, Harding drops into obscurity. Forty years later, a mysterious "someone" has the bright idea of transforming Harding's exploits into a movie and his personal story into a book. A somewhat ingenuous travel writer, George Griffin, is chosen for the task, for reasons which remain obscure. Griffin soon discovers that the job he has been assigned is more difficult than he imagined. Harding insists on telling his story blow by blow, exactly as the events occurred, which keeps Griffin on tenterhooks, And the corrupt Philippine government, ostensibly a sponsor of the project, is as interested in suppressing Harding's story as it is in promoting it. The reasons for the behind-the-scenes manipulations of both Griffin and Harding become painfully clear as the story unfolds. As he attempts to discover the tragic secret lying behind Harding's final days as a guerrilla, Griffin keeps asking,"How does it end?" In fact, there is no end. The story of the Philippines,its long history of occupation, compliance and resistance, continues. Fortunately, we have P. F. Kluge here to recount it, which he does with impressive style, and with the mesmerizing skill of a conjurer.