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Asian Saga 03 - Gai-Jin

by: James Clavell
en

044021680X  9780440216803 

Gai-Jin
By James Clavell




Product Description:

In the Japan of the 1860s, Malcolm Struan, the heir to the title of Tai-Pan within the Nobel House, meets a young French woman who will alter his destiny and the entire family legacy. Reprint. NYT. PW.




Summary: In spite of an great start more than half of "Gai-Jin" gets bogged down in tedium, making it not James Clavell's best book
Rating: 3

I don't think it's a stretch to say that if you love historical epics at some point you're going to make the acquaintance of James Clavell. His six volume Asian saga is legendary; has been made into movies and mini-series and gone through countless printings. And as someone who loves nothing more than an absorbing historical epic (especially a nice long one) it was inevitable that I would get around to the series one day.

But though they may be famous and revered, Clavell's books are also a lot of work to read. Crammed full of history, cultural details and political machination they can be tiring to read so even though I really, really loved "Shogun" it was a long time before I sought out the sequel, "Tai-Pan", which, while not as action packed as its predecessor (in fact it was a little tedious at times), was still strangely wonderful. And then I moved on to "Gai-Jin."

Spanning four months the novel reveals the tensions and struggles of the isolationist Japan against the white men determined to break into the trading markets. Most of these traders are either characters from "Tai-Pan", now 21 years older and hopefully wiser, or their descendents. Basically the novel is made up of the strife between the Japanese and the Gai-Jin (the white men), Japanese fractions against other Japanese fractions, the lives of the white people living in their designated village and an assortment of not so romantic romances.

Clavell's writing style is very soothing and descriptive and has always reminded me of James Michener. But in this novel, which boasts an imive page count of 1236, the writing becomes tedious. Yes, there is action, adventure; romance, family conflict and a great deal of political strife but after about 500 pages it all started to loose its appeal and I started counting down to when I'd be finished. By page 1000 I had no more will to go on.

To be clear, there's nothing really objectionable about the rest of the book; but after a certain point reading this novel became a chore instead of a joy. And just dragging myself through the dry spots, as I sometimes had to do in "Tai-Pan" didn't work here because there were just too many stretches where nothing happened. In addition there was not nearly enough character development. From the very beginning of the novel to after the ordeals the principal players went through most of the characters were flat and uninteresting. The exception to that rule was that what small changes that did occur in certain characters were completely inconsistent and constantly shifting.

I enjoyed a great deal of this book, really I did. But the tedium of the last 1/3 or so of the book made it something to slog through instead of enjoy. The experience of reading this did have me thinking for a time that I should give up on Clavell's saga, but my experience with Shogun and Tai-Pan, as well as the favorable reviews for King Rat, "Noble Houseand Whirlwind: A Novel of the Iranian Revolution helped me quickly discarded that notion.

Three stars and the possibility that someday I'll give it another shot to see if my perception of it could be changed.

If you want to read this book make sure to read "Tai-Pan" first, or most of the relationships between the trader's families just won't make sense. Reading "Shogun" isn't necessary to understand the story but it makes an excellent background to the culture and history of Japan. And it's a truly excellent book.



Summary: Good Read
Rating: 4

Aside a few mistakes (contradictions with earlier novels, such as the mention of May-May being Gordon Chen's mother when in Tai-Pan, she was not, among other things), this was a decent read.

Like Tai-Pan, this plodded in some places. In my opinion, Shogun remains the best of the lot - though I have yet to read King Rat and Noble House. I am reading them in the order that the books were set in, not written, hence this.

Like Tai-Pan, the ending disappointed me. The reason I loved Shogon so much was because Blackthorne was completely immersed in Japanese culture and had to learn his way through or die. In Tai-Pan and Gai-Jin, much of the novel is centered on the actions of the Europeans, something I did not have too much interest in.

The writing style though is solid, and is clearly well-researched, a definite plus for this book. I only wish that there was at least a short chapter from Culum, Tess, and Gordon Chen's points of views, to show what has happened to them since Tai-Pan, and what happened to the deal set between Dirk and Jianqua, of which there is NO mention at all in Gai-Jin. It was a decent continuation of Tai-Pan and a bit better in my opinion, not not as wonderful as Shogun. Overall, four out of five stars for a good and entertaining read.



Summary: Great followup to Tai Pan
Rating: 4

This is more of the twisting tale that had me enthralled in Tai Pan. He makes many references to events that would only make sense if you Read Tai Pan. I began to notice a literary device he uses which I enjoyed in this story was to have a character make a statement, then pre some background on what the person was really thinking. This would be especially interesting when it was a Asian character because many times they would show the European compliance and respect while they really were thinking foolish, no class, barbarians. I found the ending not completely to my liking, but it was surprising. I guess the next stop would be on to the Noble House. My advice; try and read the novels in their chronological order.



Summary: Good But Somewhat Tiresome
Rating: 4

I purchassed Gai-Jin years ago in the 90's but just got around to reading it. I finished it 07102008. First, it has been years since I read Clavell. When I first read Sho-Gun - back in 1977 - I didn't have the questions I have now concerning the Japanese. The two questions I have now are did they really think this way concerning politics and sex?

I recommend this book as I do all of James Clavell's works. I think that people should read these in chronological order though, not in the order they were published. Though I recommend the book, I only gave it 4 stars because with 1,000 plus pages, after awhile, the intrigue, double-plots, spies plans and counter-plans become somewhat tiresome.



Summary: Slow and boring
Rating: 2

I love history and was really imed by Clavell in Shogun and Tai-Pan, though I never understood the need for renaming the true historical characters such as Tokugawa vs. Toranaga, etc...

In any case - this book is horrendously slow. The last half is just being plain awful. It fills like Clavell was being paid per word and had to come up with as many of them as he could describing totally ordinary events that hardly deserve mentioning, while leaving aside so much that could be very interesting.

Definitely NOT RECOMMENDED, especially if you value your time.