Book Meme, Day 5

[selenak]

5. Doesn't belong to me.

Shogun by James Clavell is my father's favorite novel. I don't own a copy, but I've read Dad's copy repeatedly. Not that my AP isn't into book sharing, you understand, but that one he'll always want back, ever since discovering it in the early 80s. When James Clavell was at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the early 90s, I got a signed copy of another Clavell novel for my AP, but Shogun is where Dad's heart is at.

As for myself: I do think it's Clavell's best novel - peace, King Rat fans in my circle! -, and I'm always annoyed when people accuse it of things it's not guilty of. Starting with "white savior". No. Blackthorne is the first pov character we get, yes - though as opposed to the tv version, which mainly sticks with Blackthorne, the novel then gives us the huge ensemble's povs as well, and other than Pater Alvito, they're all Japanese characters - but he doesn't save the day or suddenly aquire martial arts knowledge. He's an outside observer and also a chess piece in the novel's central power struggle between two of the regents, Toranaga and Ishido, as well as in Toranaga's long term strategy to become Shogun. Nor does Mariko, the Japanese lady Blackthorne falls in love with, confirm to the Madame Butterfly cliché, giving all for love etc. In the big climax of the novel, it's Mariko, not Blackthorne, who has the mission given to her by Toranaga who is her liege lord (to get his wives out of the hostage situation they're in in Osaka), and who pulls that off. (Meanwhile, Blackthorne's central goal throughout the novel - to build a ship so he can return home - fails, and through Toranaga's reflections at the end of the novel, the readers learn that this will always be the case.)

(Not that you can't critisize the novel in other regards, mind, but I do suspect that some people who never read it simply make the assumption that if there's a male white character in a historical novel set in Japan, he has to be a white savior etc..)

I mentioned the huge ensemble. It contributes to what this novel does really well, to wit, create a layered narrative reality with lots of shades of grey. It's never as simple as "people our hero hates = bad guys"; and the Japanese politics are easily as interesting and complicated as anything going in Europe at the time.



1. Favorite book from childhood
2. Best Bargain
3. One with a blue cover.
4. Least favorite book by favorite author

6. The one I always give as a gift.
7. Forgot I owned it.
8. Have more than one copy.
9. Film or TV tie-in.
10. Reminds me of someone I love.
11. Secondhand bookshop gem.
12. I pretend to have read it.
13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite fictional father.
16. Can't believe more people haven't read.
17. Future classic.
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.

Comments

[wendelah1]

I read Shogun when it was first published. Borrowed it from my dad, I think. I remember liking it.

[selenak]

When Stan found a copy of Shogun in Martha‘s flat, I had to smile for that reason. :)

[bimo]

I read Clavell's novel a couple of years ago, right after re-watching the TV mini series together with Cavendish, and ended up liking both novel and TV adaption immensely.

That epilogue in which Clavell describes Toranaga's, Ishido's and Blackthorne's ultimate fate is one haunting and powerful bit of writing.

Oh, and don't get me started on the "white savior" trope, because quite a lot of the stuff that I love and enjoy (La La Land for example, or most recently Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs) is extremely problematic in that regard.

[selenak]

Re: the epilogue - the tv producers must have thought so, too, because it‘s the one point where they break with the tv adaption‘s decision to stick with Blackthorne‘s pov (minus a few Alvito scenes) and give us unfilltered Toranaga. Which I can understand. I can‘t imagine the story wrapping up in another way.

Incidentally, have you read any of Clavell‘s other novels?

[pujaemuss]

I have never seen the television adaptation as I love the novel so much that I'm worried it would be infuriating to me. Is it worth watching?

PJW

[selenak]

I thought it was very good, though make sure you get the full tv version, not one of the truncated messes of a cinema version they made for Europe. To this day, it's the only US tv show entirely filmed on location abroad - i.e. Japan; the Japanese characters speak Japanese (and are played by Japanese actors), unless they're translating for Blackthorne, for the entire 13 episodes, which is more common now, post Lost - have regular characters talk to each other in a language not English, I mean - , but then was really rare for Amercan tv. The series offers no less a legend than Toshiro Mifune as Toranaga.

The one downside is that the series sticks to Blackthorne's pov far more than the book does, meaning he's present in most (though not all) of the scenes, so we lose things like the Kiku and Omi subplot (Kiku basically only shows up when Mariko and Blackthorne visit).

[watervole]

I loved Shogun - it was a real window on a totally different culture.

Incidentally, did you know that Blackthorne was based on a real man? William Adams - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(sailor)