Invasion! by Whitman Chambers. Dutton (1943), 320 pp.
John Mercer, recently in the insurance business, is hiding in a Los Angeles storm drain. Japanese troops had launched their invasion only five days before and had already pushed fifteen miles inland. A sort of malaise had prevented John from accompanying his bitchy wife Alice in the mandatory evacuation of the city. Now he’s ready to leave, but he’ll never make it alone. In the drain he meets Hap McGonigle, an addled First World War vet who is leading a small band of civilians who are trying to slip past Japanese patrols. Also in the group are pretty Gail Lange, her condescending boyfriend, Clyde Livingston, and Stella, a plain-spoken and hard-drinking housekeeper. Others join up later, but no one has a good plan for escape.
This is a surprisingly successful piece of popular fiction. The romantic parts may be a little corny, but the action sequences are tense and fast moving. Chambers adds to the tension with a tight focus on his protagonist. A none-too-reassuring speech by President Roosevelt sets up the big picture. After that, John knows only what he experiences in sewers, storm drains, and abandoned buildings, where an enemy soldier could be around any corner. He loses track of where he is. Even his own neighborhood becomes unfamiliar. When the group isn’t moving, it’s talking politics. A surprising variety of opinions show discontent about the prosecution of the war and some doubts about its purpose and outcome. Nevertheless, the author doesn’t hide his message: Americans should stop grousing and commit themselves to victory. The book’s surrealistic ending reinforces the point. Modern readers may be intrigued by a war story in which neither the author nor the original audience knew how the war was going to turn out.