Full Review
"Shibumi has to do with great refinement
underlying commonplace appearances. ...Shibumi is
understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. ...One
must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity."
If this seems like a vague definition, it is meant to
be. The Japanese army general explaining this to a partially
western child also explains that the concept is too foreign to
be put into western words. A westerner has almost no chance of
ever understanding, much less achieving it. Yet, this child,
the main character of the novel "Shibumi", is so fascinated by
the concept that he decides to spend his entire life obtaining
it.
This novel could probably be best called a 'spy
novel', but it is far more literary than the genre normally
sees. The book is clever, detailed, historical, exciting,
educational and above all interesting.
The book starts
with a clever countdown of numbers. This is in itself a joke
to the characters in the book for it is a movie leader on a
CIA film of a recent killing they organized in Italy. There is
a detached feeling by all of the characters over how much of
the world's happenings they seem to be involved with.
The novel is critical of many things. People, places,
items. You name it. The main character has disdain for
everything, but then again I think every character here
has disdain for everything. I don't know if a
compliment is ever passed between two people for the entire
novel.
The only thing Nicholai likes about America is
that its drivers are experienced and that it has added the
wonderful 'snack' to world cuisine. The author states that
Arabs prefer virgins because they dread comparison. He also
states that the Arab body was not designed for clothes that
require posture and discipline. He also insults political
groups. The IRA has no competence in acting out a plan. The
Arabs cannot get proper intelligence. References are made to
the British all being closet homosexuals.
The author
must truly believe that all big business is corrupt and
willing to sacrifice humanity for their ends. No names are
mentioned, but there is a certain feeling that the oil
companies own the media and government offices, and will do
anything to maintain their lofty positions.
The
primary business organization here is wonderfully called, "The
Mother Company". It is a fascinating concept, which may not be
too far from the truth. This largest of companies controls the
oil distribution chains, the media, banking, and etc.. Their
computer is named 'big boy', and is the most complete database
ever. It is so powerful that it is able to impress even its
operators by the fact that it is almost able to think by
itself. The Mother Company has divisions inside itself that
actually kill members as they reach their 50s and are no
longer able to perform as well as the younger generations. It
considers this a superior alternative to retirement benefits.
I loved the scene where the Mother Company quickly
takes control over the CIA by simply walking in after doing
severe damage to their overseas intelligence organization and
says it will now be at the Mother Company's beck & call.
They offer little resistance, like most of the intelligence
organizations around the world.
Throughout the whole
novel, there is great detail in all the people and places he
writes about. I don't know how much of this is made up, but
Trevanian brings a sense of detail that makes each opinion
about the culture seem true. He seems to truly understand the
Japanese, and to a lesser extent the Chinese cultures. He even
seems to make brief, but accurate assessments of Russian,
Palestinian, and yes, American culture. The most obscure
culture he delves into is the Basque. I learned more about the
Basque culture here than anything else I've ever read. As a
matter of fact, I've mentioned Basque to many people who still
have never seemed to have heard of it. I'm not sure if
Trevanian has a love for Basque culture, or just wanted to
choose one that was so obscure that few would have even heard
of it before. It reminds me of the film "Once Around" where
they made an easy target out of references to Lithuania, or
"Wag the Dog" with their choice of Albania as a safe country
that no has ever heard of.
The lead character is
Nicholai Hel. He born and raised by a Russian mother, from a
German suitor. Later a Japanese general becomes his surrogate
father of sorts, even paying for his education in the game of
Go. He has no country he belongs to, and is considered a Rogue
agent because of his lack of loyalty to anyone except whoever
pays him. This could be to give him the unusual vantage point
of being able to criticize everyone.
He is a master of
language and cultures, and this serves him well. He is able to
survive the post war American occupied Japan with this
knowledge. He is also a master of sex, and there are a few
unusual scenes involving great detail about obscure sex games.
With one woman he reminds himself not to please her too much,
or else she will spend the rest of her life futily trying to
obtain that level of sexual gratification again. He doesn't
state this with arrogance, but more like it is a form of
punishment that he enacts on the deserving.
He is also
the master of Spelunking (cave exploring), because it enables
him to be 'alone' while in the company of friends. His genius
at Go is what makes him able to escape the bombed urban areas
during the war. And of course he is an expert killer. He is
actually referred to as the world's most highly paid assassin,
specializing in killing terrorists. He also specializes in a
rare martial art, which makes it possible for him to use
ordinary household items as methods of killing. The author
warns in a footnote that he will not give details to this for
fear of some reader causing harm to others.
This book
contains a lot of intelligent action. Nicholai's method of
travelling is difficult since the Mother Company controls most
means of travel, and the local intelligence agencies. One of
my favorite scenes has him eluding clumsy agents at an
airport. By changing his name to Helm, he is able to identify
the agents who refer to him correctly as 'Hel'. To keep them
from boarding the plane, he puts a flat piece of aluminum
shaped like a gun into their belongings which shows up on
x-ray as a gun, even though none can be found.
This
book was my first introduction to the Japanese game 'Go'. It
is sometimes called the Japanese chess, which isn't quite
accurate. Chess seems more mathematical, while Go is rather
fascinating in its open-ended nature. A later book, "Jian", by
another author I like, Eric Van Lustbader, also featured 'Go'
as a lifelong obsession of its lead character, and seemed
influenced by this book.
The book is exciting almost
throughout, but both times I read it, I found one long boring
scene involving cave exploration. I know it was important to
the story later, but it just seemed to drag on and on, in an
otherwise fast paced book.
Another flaw that I found
unusually distracting, even when reading it for the first time
at a young age, was that everything mentioned earlier in the
book has a purpose later. Anything mentioned that seems minor,
can be expected to turn up later. I remember nearing the end
and thinking that there was at least one very interesting
mention of a letter of official regret taken from a dignified
dead old man that shows up, although on the last page.
Flaws aside, this is an entertaining book that holds
up well to multiple reads.
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