Oh boy. As soon as I finish with this review, I'll go and improve my rating for "Shogun"... Mr Clavell, I'm sorry for the one star. At least your book has a story, and its style is something more than just separating gerunds with commas.The praises on the cover should've rung the bell. "A page-turner of the first order"? It's a dreadful record of the life of Thomas Glover, a trader from Aberdeen, who went to Japan and by basically selling arms and opium (oh and tea, and some other stuff) established connections with the would-be Meiji statesmen like Ito Hirobumi. Not even for one moment is the reader unsure of the outcome of Glover's boring antics, from tumbling on the grass with his childhood sweetheart to smuggling rebellious samurai into England. Everything goes super smooth. Here's the pattern:GLOVER: Hey guys, it's a new chapter! I'm gonna do this really daft thing. You with me? Whatever, I don't care.ENGLISH-SPEAKING FOREIGNERS: Tom, it's too risky! The country is so mysterious!... Ah, but you are this speshul person. Take care, see you on Friday.THE FRENCH: Mon Dieu! What a faux pas! How typically repulsive! We're going to stalk you, you realize that?GOOD SAMURAI: You in Japan. Is still hostile territory. You gaijin but like samurai. Hai.BAD SAMURAI: (grunt)GLOVER: Hai, so desu! Shogun nanka kuso kurae! Daimyo nanka kuso kurae! Dozo! Kanpai! (runs from the bad samurai and the French, goes home, takes a bath, counts money)JAPANESE WOMEN: Irasshaimase!I guess the above is sort of a spoiler, but it's based on a true-life story anyway, so we all knew he wasn't gonna croak before his time, right?"Not merely an engaging and vivid historical novel, but also a meditative work of art that is as finely honed as a Samurai's sword." There is no sense of period, no atmosphere, all characters other than Glover are just pale sketches, and the dude is not any more compelling, just a puppet, doing random things to get from the beginning of the story to the end, without any reflection whatsoever about people or things. There is nothing meditative about the book, unless by "meditative" they mean really "inducing to put it down and meditate, looking at the wall or other passengers on the train"."Rattles along, grounded in historical research and filled with emotional truths." The historical research is - besides some bare facts, like attacks on foreigners, or the bombing of Shimonoseki - just funny. I'm going to write some of it down because I got absolutely zero satisfaction from this book, at least I'll have some fun now. In the order of appearance.- The madam of the brothel Sakura is sometimes referred to as okami, which is sort of correct (not in case of a brothel, but let's not be THAT picky), and sometimes as okama, which is a modern Japanese slang for a male homosexual.- One of Glover's employees is named Nakajimo. Seeing that Sakamoto Ryoma's name (who was a real person) is spelled "Ryomo", it seems to be a case of bad handwriting.- The woman Glover purchases as his concubine "unclasps" her hair before sex. There are numerous references to men running their hands through women's hair. One look at the hairstyles of the period would make you understand that it was impossible.- The woman Glover purchases as his concubine becomes his wife. A Buddhist monk from the nearby temple "chants a mantra" and "bestows a blessing" (a Christian minister participates in the fun too). Well, too bad that the marriage ceremony would be a shinto one.- The woman Glover purchases as his concubine turns out to be a daughter of a high-standing samurai in the service of the lord of Satsuma. Which helps Glover to establish ties with his father-in-law first, and the lord of Satsuma later. Glover is easily accepted as a son-in-law despite the fact that a woman from a family of such importance a) wouldn't have to be sold to a brothel, b) would have been sold to a brothel as a punishment c) upon having been sold to a brothel as a result of a transgression on her part, she would have ceased to be a member of the family.- When Glover meets Ito Hirobumi (the first prime minister of Japan), the latter introduces himself as, well, Ito Hirobumi. But his name was different at that time; he renamed himself "Hirobumi" only in the 4th year of Meiji.- The favorite phrase of Glover's is Hai, so desu, which is way too modern and too polite - and yes, too feminine - to have been used by a would-be samurai dude in the middle of the 19th century. And that after Glover was ridiculed for using another feminine word (which was only in dialect).- Japanese is sometimes correct, sometimes... Hidden Christians were called kakure Kirishitan, not just kakure.The coin's name is ichibu, not itzibu. Irasshaimase is used instead of okaerinasai. There are more but I'm in a hurry.- There is no ordinary tea preparing in the book, it's always a full-blown tea ceremony, always in beautiful earthenware, always thick green. By the way, foreigners are ridiculing Japanese green tea, even though green tea WAS drunk in the West at that time.- Of course there are tables in ordinary Japanese houses... and stinky indoor toilets O.o. I don't know where that one has come from.And all these would be totally (all right not totally, but sort of possible to bear) okay with me, had the story been entertaining! But no! The guy is a total jerk. He deals in arms, in opium, abandons pregnant women, steals children. Still, his life story could have been entertaining. But he is a boring would-be manly dude who does everything just as every other colonist dude before him did, AND HAS NO PURPOSE IN LIFE other than to be in this book.Now to improve Shogun's rating.
Love this. Loved, loved, loved it.The Pure Land follows the life of Thomas Glover, a Scottish expatriot to Japan in the late 1850s who literally funded a revolution. We are with Glover when he first decides to travel so far from home in a tiny northern Scottish village and seek his fortune in this distant land. We sympathize with him as he stumbles through his early years in Japan, trying to learn the language and the culture and the business he has been hired to work for, all while evading the violent tendencies of the samurai who resent the presence of foreigners in their land. We glory in his triumph as he becomes a successful businessman in his own right and begins to develop personal relationships with those around him, including a series of concubines with whom he tries, again and again, to form a family. We are moved by his efforts to aid Japanese rebels in overthrowing the Shogun and returning the rule of Japan to the Emperor, and feel his pain when he is witness to a major military attack on a village of people he loves, many of whom are lost.It is a poignant, moving story, one that inspired the musical Miss Saigon and the opera Madame Butterfly. The reader experiences so many of Glover's thoughts and emotions in a very resonant way, and I personally found myself carried away with Glover's adventure as if I were there beside him experiencing it all firsthand.This is a novel full of magic and realism, buoyant and heartrending all at once, and is a truly fascinating and engrossing read. I will definitely be reading this one again.
Do You like book The Pure Land (2007)?
Ένα πραγματικά υπέροχο βιβλίο το οποίο μας περιγράφει τις συνθήκες που επικρατούσαν στην Ιαπωνία στα τέλη του του 19ο αιώνα αρχές του επόμενου. Όταν στην Ιαπωνία άρχισαν να γίνονται εμπορικές συναλλαγές με την Δύση αλλά και να εκβιομηχανίζεται. Αναφέρεται στο βιβλίο η πολιτική κατάσταση της χώρας αλλά και οι συγκρούσεις μεταξύ των κατοίκων της. Αυτό το βιβλίο είχε ένα μοναδικό τρόπο να σε ταξιδέψει στην Ιαπωνία μέσα όμως και από την υπέροχη ιστορία του πρωταγωνιστή οποίος σε μικρή ηλικία μετακόμισε εκεί για να εργαστεί και στη συνέχεια έπαιξε καθοριστικό ρόλο στην εξέλιξη των πραγμάτων. Το προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα σε όλους για να ξεκινήσουν ένα σαγηνευτικό ταξίδι!!!
—Rena Xrusopoulou
Novel ini banyak memberi pemikiran tentang berbagai nilai-nilai hidup kita ini.Misalnya, pandangan timur (Jepang) terhadap barat (Eropa dan U.S) sebagai bangsa barbar karena nilai-nilai hidupnya yang dianggap kurang luhur. Sedangkan, barat juga memandang timur sebagai bangsa barbar karena belum memiliki agama yang 'sebenarnya' dan dianggap kurang manusiawi -> contohnya tradisi seppu.Sisi menarik dari novel ini juga mengenai bagaimana posisi wanita timur dalam masyarakat baik itu bagi penduduk asli ataupun bagi penduduk pendatang yang tinggal di Jepang. Peran wanita serta pemikiran wanita timur itu terlihat dari reaksi isteri-isteri atau 'pacar' Glover (tokoh utama) saat mengadung / melahirkan.Intinya, pada saatu itu wanita merasa rendah diri / gagal dalam rumah tangga jika tidak mampu melahirkan anak laki-laki, keguguran, atau jika anaknya mati bayi. Misalnya, reaksi Sono (isteri pertama Glover) yang pulang -- kayaknya bercerai -- karena anaknya mati bayi. Atau reaksi Tsuru (isteri kedua Glover) yang berasumsi bahwa ia dan anak perempuannya akan diusir oleh Glover karena Glover tahu kalau dia punya anak laki-laki dari pacarnya Maki.Banyak lagi pemikiran lain yang timbul dari novel ini, seperti bagaimana rasa cinta pada suatu negara itu muncul, atau kenapa terlalu fokus pada pengejaran karir dan ketidak-acuhan terhadap kesehatan hubungan pribadi tidak memberikan ketengangan dan kebahagiaan dalam hidup, atau yang pemikiran bahwa existing is suffering.Pure Land, bukan hanya sekedar novel yang membahas kebudayaan Jepang dan romantika, tapi juga membahas berbagai falsafah hidup yang sebenarnya masih dianut oleh manusia modern saat ini..
—Nora Sabrina Sirait
Undecided about the rating--I was swinging between 3 and 4, so gave it four. The core story of the book is that of Thomas Glover who brought Western ship building, the locomotive and other technology to Japan, and who is the father of Kirin beer. What got me was the first chapter, and the 2nd and 3rd to last chapters. What was their purpose? Why show us Nagasaki just after the bomb? Why come back to it and even bring us through to the 21st century. These 3 chapters stood out as sore thumbs to me. (OK, now it's back to being rated a 3. ) Overall, an interesting story, but Spence has bitten off too large piece of history to chew in 400 pages. Oh, and the Kobe Incident in the book is so twisted that it is all inaccurate--that really annoyed me. I understand that a writer can do what he wants, but rewriting history? OK, OK, it's fiction...
—Powersamurai
