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Notes -
Shogun by Clavell. Someone mentioned a new miniseries being created based on it, which I will never see (have never seen the original miniseries, either), but it reminded me of the book's existence. It seemed like every household I visited as a kid had a copy, and it was easy to spot because it was massive.
I'm half done. It's entertaining but far from high literature. The political parts are very well-written and he picked good surnames for the Japanese characters so it's easy to remember them all. No massive battles so far, but the little fights have not been well-written. Definitely his weak point. All the ways the two cultures view each other as horrific barbarians is enjoyable, but the Japanese overall come out looking better (so far).
The anti-Catholic animus is prominent and amusing. It's basically the Predator 2-arm meme between the Japanese and Protestants for hating the Catholics. I've read out-there criticism of the Jews that could be swapped for what everyone in the book thinks of the Jesuits.
I can't imagine it's all that historically accurate (and I don't mean his descriptions of castles or the messenger pigeons, which the wiki entry fixates on), so I mentally think about it as an early-1600s-Englishman traveling to the fantastic land of Nippon, where instead of elves, orcs, or dwarves, there are Nipponese creatures. Someone here mentioned wanting a high fantasy work set in 1600s Europe instead of a fictional medieval Europe where most fantasy tends to take place and I try to view it through that lens.
I loved Shogun, but I understood it completely differently after reading King Rat, Clavell's first and largely autobiographical novel. Viewing Shogun as the work of a man who lived through imprisonment by the Japanese, I think it's asking much more interesting literary questions. The book is about forgiveness,How can Blackthorne ever forgive the Japanese for boiling his crewman alive and pissing on him? Meaning how can Clavell forgive the Japanese for what he went through in Changi? And how, in turn, can the Japanese forgive the West for Hiroshima? Clavell, personally, experienced having his life saved by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can the Japanese forgive that?
Viewed as Clavell working through those questions psychologically, I think the book is much more interesting.
What's always disappointed me about Clavell is that I read Shogun first, and all his other books are only half as good by comparison.
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