Shogun is a gripping, ridiculously ambitious novel with the vast scope and political maneuvering of Game of Thrones and Stephen King's character growth.
The book has multiple povs and delves deep into 1600 feudal Japan with reasonable historical accuracy. Yet, it stays at heart the story of one man, which is what made me really fall for this novel.
The man in question is John Blackthorne, a driven and bold naval pilot who gets stranded on the coast of Japan and taken captive by the locals. Blackthorne is soon renamed Anjin-san (Mr. Pilot) by the Japanese unable to twist their tongues around the Ls and Rs of his name and he struggles with his sudden lack of freedom and trying to keep his crew safe. Then, he catches the interest of Lord Toranaga, the eponymous Shogun of the book, a brilliant strategist and politician who is on his own quest for power. In deciding Blackthorne could prove useful for his own goals, Toranaga allows him to live and thrive.
There were other great povs: Mariko, a Japanese woman serving as Blackthorne's interpreter, is a resourceful, fascinating character who shines even brighter in a society dominated by men.
Still, the slow trust and later tentative friendship that builds between Blackthrone and Toranaga were what kept me reading this book deep at night.
The plot is engaging, has plenty of riveting action and the politics, however complex, weren't too hard to follow.
The other aspect of Shogun I absolutely loved though was the culture clash between western and eastern culture and the way it was portrayed.
It's the 17th century, there are only a few westerners in Japan and the country is a confusing puzzle for Blackthorne and his crew. The Japanese bathe regularly (which every European knows is a health hazard), eat obnoxious amounts of raw fish, are quite sexually free and show a baffling disregard for human life. There were misunderstandings ensuing because of cultural and language barriers that had me rolling. Some of those scenes were truly the highlights of the book.
Get to the part where Blackthorne gets at long last some meat to eat and starts butchering a pheasant in front of the horrified locals and thank me later.
Edit: I had to specify that Blackthorne was a naval pilot because a lot of people were asking if he got to Japan on a hot air balloon lol
Edit 2: also u/robaato72 suggested this free PDF called 'Learning from Shogun', which sounds super interesting: [http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/learning/i
... keep reading on reddit β‘
It's very clear that he really does not want to kill lupe and the Children. The scene where Palma finds him at the shoe store he just accepts his fate.
and then Felix just leaves him out to dry to after he accomplishes the task which makes it burn even more
ShΕgun is one of the best books I have read. I stumbled upon it on this subreddit and purchased it on a whim. I did not expect to take on a masterfully crafted journey of power, passion, honor, love, and religion. I am glad that I did.
ShΕgun narrates the story of Jon Blackthorne, an English sea pilot who finds himself and his withering scurvey-struck Dutch crew on the shores of 1600s Japan.
The book's many characters, their legacies, and arcs are delicately spun into a compelling storyline. The story is chronologically divided into six books, each better than the last.
Character growth is portrayed through actions, dialogues, and especially enjoyable internal monologues. There is a healthy smattering of elementary Japanese in the dialogues, and the effortless transition between English and Japanese is a treat to read.
Though terribly dynamic, all characters, including eclectic Europeans, are bounded by the socio-cultural mores of 17th century Japan. Concepts such as bushido (Way of the Samurai) and wa (harmony) are recurring themes and govern actions and interactions, even power struggles among Samurai highlords.
Like most fiction authors I admire, Clavell gave me a philosophy lesson through his characters, and asked me to take from it what I will. On several occasions, I stopped and wondered what modern society and my own life would look like if it operated on the principles of honor and duty over all else.
ShΕgun was a good way to spend my COVID isolation. I hope to slowly savor the other books in the Asian Saga and celebrate the day I finish all of them.
Great read, highly recommend. Wakarimasu ka?
I am on a rewatch today and it seemed that the scene where Palma beats Clavel to death with a baseball bat no longer has that pretty classical score. (It was one of my favorite parts of the scene.) I thought I was crazy, but just found the prior version that I remembered with the classical sounding score on youtube, but as of the last couple days they seem to have a different song with words playing during the scene on netflix. Has anyone else noticed this? This is watching it on netflix, so it seems so weird that they would randomly change it now, but the original score of the scene that was used until a couple of days ago on netflix is on the youtube videos.
And it is one of the best novels I've ever read and probably the best in the historical fiction category. It might just be the best story ever told. Never before has a book gripped me this much. It contains all these devious, entertaining, bloodthirsty and incomprehensible and unpredictable characters who drive the conspiracy and blood laced plot that's over too soon, despite being a full 1150 pages long and covering over a year. >!The only problem I had was that the book doesn't really have a climax. It has mini climaxes and scenes of hair raising tension but no ultimate climax. The resolution is in one page and the final chapter is just a monologue of things that could happen.Considering the book is already this long,!< it's understandable but I wish Clavell wrote a direct sequel, for the book is a great example of how incredible storytelling can overcome the lack of beautiful prose and a lot of plot and how for a novel to be entertaining, the art of storytelling is the key. The japanese short story writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa had a literary feud in the early 1920s with his contemporary Junichiro Tanizaki over whether story was more important than the way the story was told. Akutagawa held the latter position and I think he was right, after reading this book.10/10 from me.
βA ti, clavel ardiente, envidia de la llama y de la aurora...β
Gracias!!
Here is my story: Instituto Clavel. The revision was done by Dr Svante Berg in Stockholm.
Failure by Dr Pablo Clavel and Ignasi Catala at Instituto Clavel
