The Odyssey of Art O'Hara

Book excerpt: It is July of 1945, and the American war with Japan is nearing its earthshaking fi nale. Meanwhile the fi ghting continues unabated, and the USS Atwood is attacked. Hundreds of men are killed at once while hundreds more are forced to abandon their sinking ship. Awaiting a rescue which might never come, the men in the water are left to struggle against heat and cold, thirst and despair, insanity and sharks. Among these desperate men is Art O'Hara, "king of the liberty hogs" and distinguished scalawag. Imprisoned in an environment of surreal savagery, he seeks escape amid his own scarcely tapped imagination and memory, evoking at last a nearly forgotten love for a Japanese American whose family has been sent to an internment camp. Th e Odyssey of Art O'Hara is a work of fi ction based on the true story of the USS Indianapolis. Th e author, John Loranger, was born in Butte, Montana in 1961. He served in the United States Navy from 1983 to 1987.