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Title: December 6: A Novel by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 0-684-87253-6 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 30 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.79 (52 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Complex and Intelligent Read
Comment: Martin Cruz Smith is one of the most the most skillful and versatile writers of contemporary fiction. His work is painfully researched (accounting for the relatively short list of published works) and beautifully written. 'December 6' is no exception, as Smith again demonstrates the range of his talents, this time setting the story in 1941 Tokyo. He spins the unusual story of Harry Niles, the son of American missionaries stationed in Japan. Alienated from his parents as they are off proselytizing in rural Japan, Harry is left to grow up on the streets of Tokyo. Much more Japanese in culture and beliefs than American, the enigmatic Niles, now an adult Tokyo nightclub owner, finds himself in a precarious situation on the eve of the Pacific World War II.
Give Smith credit for creativity: this is certainly an unusual, if not bizarre, subject for a story. Harry Niles is a mysterious main character. Accepted fully by neither western nor eastern cultures, perpetually only a step ahead of (or behind) the law, the reader never knows exactly where to categorize Niles: hero, spy, traitor, patriot?. Supporting characters are likewise complex and unable to be easily quantified. Michiko, Harry's mistress: the cool and aloof juke-box jockey, yet also the submissive geisha. Ishigami, the sword-yielding samurai demon with a uniquely Japanese penchant for both honor and terror. Smith adroitly blends Japanese tradition in the background, avoiding the tendancy of many western authors writing of Japan to allow the culture to overshadow the story. The imminent war is portrayed from a uniquely Japanese, and fatalistic, perspective. Like all of Smith's novels, the characters and events are intricately woven in a complex fabric of intrigue and suspense, leading to a surreal, nearly mystical, climax.
What 'December 6' lacks in sheer thrills and fast action of Gorky Park is compensated by the intelligent and convoluted story line and though-provoking characters. As with all of Smith's novels, 'December 6' leaves the reader anxiously awaiting his next effort.
Rating: 4
Summary: Well researched wartime Japan
Comment: Harry Niles, the son of white missionaries to Japan, was raised by a native nurse and has remained in Japan all his life, more Japanese than American. Early December, 1941, finds him in Tokyo just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, running the Happy Paris club and struggling to maintain his relationship with his beautiful and emotional mistress, Michiko, who also works in the club, playing the juke box. With talk of war everywhere, Harry is intent on leaving. But how? And can he, using his cunning and knowledge of politics, con his adopted country out of fatal combat with the powerful America? And escape the honor bound military man, Ishigami, who's stalking him with a mind poisoned by past wrongs and a sword bent on revenge?
While DECEMBER 6 does not live up to GORKY PARK, and while Harry Niles is no match for Arkady Renko, Martin Cruz Smith's latest effort is stamped with his distinctive use of details. His prose is clean and reflective, never coarse or unfinished or abrasive. The plot is not linear but rather slips back and forth, weaving time, place, and characters into a novel that some will find confusing, others beautiful.
Me, I ended up somewhere between confused and awed. Smith's touch is magic, but the sheer volume of research included in DECEMBER 6 made it at times read more like a school paper than a novel. One paragraph, which detailed some gruesome beheadings, managed to stretch more than two pages. Plus, during some points Harry Niles came across as unemotional and detached, although I was aware of churning undercurrents. The dialogue disappointed me as well. Still, I felt the ending was a fitting finale to an intriguing story of love, violence, and politics.
A newcomer to Smith's writing may be overwhelmed by this fact packed thriller, but Smith's fans, as well as anyone interested in wartime Japan, will find DECEMBER 6 absorbing and thought provoking.
Rating: 1
Summary: Deception
Comment: Amazon also sells this book under the title "Tokyo Station." They won't tell you this, and if you order the book and you've read "Tokyo Station" and complain to Amazon, you'll be told you should have read pages from inside the book before ordering. This, I imagine, will be true for other books published under more than one title. So beware.
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Title: Bangkok 8 by John Burdett ISBN: 1400040442 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Rose by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 034542252X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Blood of Victory : A Novel by Alan Furst ISBN: 0812968727 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 0345390458 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Winter Queen : A Novel by Boris Akunin, Andrew Bromfield ISBN: 1400060494 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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