Shogun, James Clavell

[mongrel]

Any of us who love to read have books on our shelves we've kept from way, way back, that for whatever reason we haven't picked up in a good long while, but when we stop to wonder why we still have them -- we remember them as great stories or sources of info or whatever. And we keep them....

Awhile back, it being very cold outside and me being too tired to fight the cold, and nothing else appealing to me, I just happened to notice my ratty paperback copy of James Clavell's epic novel of Japan, "Shogun". This copy dates back to just before the miniseries premiered on TV. Figuring to just pass a little time leafing through it, I proceeded to spend a fair number of nights after my shop time was spent, reading well past the time I ought to have gone to bed. At 1210 fine-printed pages the story at the end left me with the same feeling I had the first time I read it: "WHAT? That's IT?"

The truest indication of a great novel -- what initially seems impossibly long winds up being altogether too short, leaving you realizing that, like life, a tale must end, yet wishing there was more. The only other books I can recall being so overwhelmingly long, yet leaving me stunned, at the end, at how SHORT they seemed, were "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry, and "The Lord Of The Rings" -- which Tolkien never regarded or intended as a trilogy, but as a single book, and should be read as such.

If anyone's unfamiliar with "Shogun", it concerns an Englishman shipwrecked on the coast of Japan, in 1601. Initially against his will he is dragged into the almost mind-breaking treachery and intrigue of Japan in those days, and into conflict with Spanish and Portuguese traders, priests, and missionaries whose primary aim throughout the book is to see him quickly and painfully dead. Before long, though, he begins to assimilate into the Japanese way of life, attaining rank, status, and an entirely new self-awareness by virtue of courage, cunning, and a willingness to play the game by Japanese rules -- and win. At every turn there is swordplay, gunplay, incredibly brutal violence, sex, love, hatred, religious fanaticism, and an unceasing certainty that a single wrong word or move, or even a moment's bad luck, and someone dies....

This is not strictly a historical novel. Most characters are based on historical figures and the events are largely as they happened in history, but there's a strong sense of this being an alternate universe, allowing Clavell to tell a tale that follows the outline but isn't confined to the literal facts of history. In the process he spins a yarn that immerses you not only in another place and time, but almost in another world -- one where the morality and beliefs most of us were raised with simply don't apply. In the same sense that the best fantasy is that which is rooted firmly in a sense of reality, as we understand it, this is history with much of its basis in a way of life both alien and unreal.

Thirty-plus years after first reading it I very much recommend "Shogun" to anyone loving historical fiction and just plain good adventure. If all you know of the story is the miniseries -- well, that was a great one, but they left a lot of the book out of it. Do yourself a favor -- find and read it.

[Otter]

Read my copy several times and as with you enjoyed each new read.

[beowulf]

good piece of writing ! ranks right up there with lonsome dove, lord of the rings ,or the wheel of time ! you know they are good when you catch yourself reading them more than once 

[Rev]

Never read it, & I have read just about everything...

[Red Badger]

Rev,  You should pick up a copy it is a great read!  Mike actually understates how good it is...  I have gone through my copy several times and the next time I see a copy in a used bookstore or sale I will probably pick up another one !