A masterpiece of fiction!

I recently posted (see "Through the Valley of the Kwai - Part 1" and "Through the Valley of the Kwai - Part 2") about one of my new favorite books, Through the Valley of the Kwai by Ernest Gordon.  Gordon was an officer in the British army during World War II, serving in Southeast Asia.  He escaped with a couple of fellow officers after the British surrendered on the island of Singapore, but he was eventually captured by the Japanese and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner-of-war, working on the infamous Burma Railway.  As I've mentioned before, the Burma Railway was also the subject of a fictional novel by the French author Pierre Boulle, which was later made into a movie starring Sir Alec Guinness and William Holden.  Gordon mentioned Boulle's book and stated that it was a work of fiction - the famous "bridge over the river Kwai" didn't quite happen as described in Boulle's book or the subsequent movie.

I've never read Boulle's book (although I've seen the movie more than once in the last few years), so after reading Gordon's account, I decided to check Boulle's book out at our local public library.  Even if it's a work of fiction, it's a brilliant masterpiece!  I highly recommend it.

I've posted in the past on the movie (see "The Bridge Over the River Kwai Syndrome" and "The IKEA Effect"), which faithfully (mostly) follows the story in the novel.  The main protagonist is Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson, the senior British officer at the prisoner-of-war (POW) camp.  He is all spit and polish and lives 100% by the rules.  Colonel Saito is the Japanese commander of the POW camp and the novel's main antagonist.  His orders are to use the British POW's to build a railroad bridge across the River Kwai (hence the name of the book) as part of the Burma Railway.  

At the beginning of the story, Saito orders all the POW's, including the officers, to perform manual labor.  Colonel Nicholson disagrees, because under the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), officers cannot be forced to do hard labor.  Saito places Nicholson in a small, iron box without food and water, thinking that he will eventually relent.  Nicholson ends up outlasting Saito, and his stubbornness eventually forces Saito to relent.  Officers won't do hard labor.

Nicholson believes it is his duty to comply with Colonel Saito's orders to complete the construction of the bridge.  As testament to the ingenuity, knowledge, and skills of the British Army, Nicholson leads his men to build the bridge on time, on budget, and according to specification.  The bridge becomes an object of pride and admiration for the men.  What's ironic is that while Nicholson is pushing his men hard to finish the bridge (out of a distorted sense of pride and duty, mixed with a healthy dose of perfectionism), a British commando unit called Force 316, led by a British special forces soldier named Shears is making plans to destroy it.

There are several passages in the novel where you, as the reader, just shake your head in amazement at how warped Nicholson's reality has become.  At one point, some of the men are intentionally trying to sabotage the completion of the bridge.  Nicholson responds by punishing the saboteurs and ordering his men to work harder.  

Boulle writes, "In any case, Colonel Nicholson had taken steps to avoid any chance of misunderstanding, first by delivering an address in which he explained quite clearly what was expected of them, and secondly by inflicting severe punishments on a few recalcitrants who had not fully understood.  This action had seemed so well intended that the victims did not hold it against him."

At another point in the story, the British army surgeon who is serving as the camp's medical officer argues with Nicholson and asks him not to force the sick and wounded to continue to work.  Nicholson refuses and continues to order "every man who can walk" to work.  Once the British POW's come close to completing the bridge, one of the officers asks Colonel Nicholson if he is going to have the bridge painted.  Nicholson responds, "Don't even think of such a thing, Clipton.  The most we could do would be to give it a coating of lime - and a fine target that would make for the planes, wouldn't it! You seem to forget there's a war on!"

After the bridge is completed, and before the bridge is first crossed by a Japanese army train, Colonel Saito and his officers inspect the bridge.  Colonel Nicholson is not satisfied with their inspection, and goes to personally inspect the bridge to see if it's ready.  That's when he spots some of the explosive wires that had been set the night before by Shears' commandos, which the Japanese soldiers had not seen.  Nicholson responds, "If I'd been one of them, I shouldn't have been so careless.  Any British soldier would have spotted the sabotage.  Ah well, the train won't be long now."

As I stated in my post "The Bridge Over the River Kwai Syndrome", there's an interesting dichotomy at play here.  Nicholson starts off leading by example, risking his own life to stand up for his principles and for his fellow officers.  His leadership is further on display as he leads the POWs to build the bridge in record time.  However, he seems to lose sight of the fact of the long-term goal of winning the war!

Here is a great lesson about goal obsession that has been called the "Bridge Over the River Kwai syndrome."  As leaders, we should never work so hard to "do a good job" that we end up helping the wrong cause or forgetting the ethical stakes.  As Samuel Bacharach writes in Inc. magazine, "Leadership can be an intoxicating, distracting force that blurs common sense and straight thinking.  The Bridge Over the River Kwai reminds all leaders that they must never forget their bigger mission."