Çabuk okunan keyifli bir macera romanı. Süper kahraman, komplo teorileri, cinayetler, terör eylemleri, aşk, cinsellik, üstüne bir de batı düşmanlığı ve mistisizm.

Kitabı gömmek istemem çünkü okurken, bazı kısımlar hariç gerçekten keyif aldım. İlk yarısında, yani kahramanın Japonya’daki hayatının anlatıldığı kısımda Nicholai Hel karakterinin geçmişi ve kişiliğini oluşturan ögeler ilgi çekiciydi. General ve Go ustası ile diyalogları çok güzeldi. Şibumi’nin anlatımı efsaneydi.

İkinci yarıda ise detaylı ve uzun mağara bölümleri sıktı beni. Bu kısımları atlayarak geri kalanını ise bir macera filmi izliyormuş gibi sürüklenerek okudum. Süper kahramanlı macera filmlerini de, komplo teorilerini de çok severim. Son beş yıldır küresel elitler, reptilyanlar, büyük sıfırlama, annunakiler…vs. konularına kendimi biraz fazla maruz bıraktığımdan mı  bilmem kitaptaki Ana şirket, CIA, OPEC’in dahil olduğu alengirli olaylar pek yavan geldi. CIA ve şirket adamları karikatürize, diyaloglar klişeydi.

Kitabın ilk yarısını okurken hikâyeden ve karakterlerden etkilenmişken kitap bittiğinde ne yazık ki o etki silindi gitti.

Welp, this is what I get for judging a book by its cover. I thought this would be a cool spy novel with some sort of Go tie-in, but I couldn't get past the first few chapters because of the casual racism and sexism in it. The actual CIA spy plot also seemed like a terrible setup. At first, I read this thinking it was parody, but after checking the publish date and reading some reviews of the book, I guess it's in earnest. Some would say this was a product of its time, so maybe it should just stay in that time because it's definitely not 2020 material.

It reads like some sort of male power fantasy fulfillment (if you're into that type of thing) so...maybe not for me.

YouTube kitap kanalımda Şibumi kitabını önerdim : https://youtu.be/4MDrPGq8_R0

Şibumi öyle garip bir kitap ki zamanın kitapta kullanımı olarak "Her Şey Aydınlandı" romanına benziyor. Karakterler ve siyasi olayların düzenlenmesi olarak "Yüzyıllık Yalnızlık" ve "1984" gibi romanları hissettiğiniz yerler var. Fakat garip olan şu ki kitap bir film gibi. Yani kime sorsam ya da nerede görsem filminin çekilmediğine şaşırıyor. Ben kitapta bir "Old Man" filmi de gördüm. Lafı uzatmadan artı ve eksi yönlerine geçiyorum :

Artı yönleri :
- Romanda çok sayıda kültürle iç içe olabiliyorsunuz bunun içinde Amerikan kültüründen Japon kültürüne, Bask kültüründen Fransız kültürüne ya da Kosta Rika kültürüne kadar çok sayıda kültür bulunmakta. Bunun nedeni kitabın ana karakteri Nicholai Hel'in bu kültürlerin hepsinden birer parçası olması. Özellikle de Japon kültürüne ait "Go" oyunuyla beraber hayatını da buna göre düzenleyip hareketlerini buna göre belirleyebilmesi, algılarını buna göre geliştirebilmesi kitabın ana konularından biri.

- Kitabın adı aslında aş��rı bilgelikten basitliği yakalamaya yönelim anlamı taşısa da kitabın vermek istediği mesajlar başka konularda ve çok fazla bulunuyor. Roman bilgilerden geçip basitliğe varmak dışında Amerikan kültürü eleştirisi, modernizmin getirdiği kahramanların klişe özelliklerine eleştiriler, CIA ve FBI gibi örgütlerin Arap kültürlerine bakış açıları, Rusların, Japonların, Amerikalıların, Çinlilerin birbirleriyle olan ilişkilerinde birbirlerine karşı bakış açıları gibi çok geniş bir yelpaze var. Yani esas konu dışında kendinizi bazen Pearl Harbor saldırısında da bulabiliyorsunuz Hiroşima'da da bulabiliyorsunuz. Ama dediğim gibi bunlar romanın konusuna o kadar ince serpiştirilmiş ki bu saldırılar salt siyaset olarak verilmemiş. Kitap daha çok bir Batı kültürü eleştirisi ve genel yargı olarak çoğu kitabın hep Batı'ya yönelmiş olması. Romanda çoğu zaman Doğu kültürü ve onun kenara atılan spiritüel özellikleri irdelenmiş.

- Artı yön olarak vermek doğru mu bilmiyorum fakat kitabın son baskılarında ilk baskılarında verilmiş olan Hel'in saldırı taktikleri konuları çıkartılmış. Bunun nedeni olarak bu kitabı okuyan insanların bu taktiklerden etkilenip de cinayetlere sebebiyet olmalarından dolayıymış. Bu kitabın bir yerinde dipnot olarak geçiyor.

- Romanın bende bıraktığı etki olarak uyuduktan sonra diğer günün hemen gelmesini istedim çünkü bu kadar interaktif bir karakteri okumak gerçekten çok zevkli. İçinde mağaracılık hobisi bulunan bir adamın meditasyon anılarından savaş zamanlarındaki düşüncelerine, Go oyununu hayatına yayışına kadar bir çok deneyimleme bulunuyor.

Eksi yönleri :
- Kitabın E Yayınları ile çıkan basımında ufak tefek de olsa imla hataları var. Okumanızı etkilemiyor.
- Romanın bazı yerlerinde abartıya kaçılmış gibi hissettim. Bunda Hel'in yakınlık duygusunun etkisi var. Bu duyguyu bir insana koyunca çevresindeki insanların nerede olduklarını ve nereye gitmek istediklerini anlayan bir adam haline dönüşmüş. Fakat aslında bunun nedeni Hel'in Allah vergisi dil öğrenme ve düşünme yetenekleri ayrıca Go oyununu düşündüğü sırada kendini çok başka yerlerde hissedebilmesinin de etkisi var.

Για το Smassing Culture.

Μια αλληγορική διαμάχη μεταξύ Ανατολής και Δύσης

Όπως αναφέρθηκε στο κείμενο για τη Λεωφόρο (εκδόσεις Πόλις, 2018), ο Trevanian υπήρξε μια ιδιαίτερη συγγραφική προσωπικότητα, κρατώντας κρυφή την πραγματική του ταυτότητα για πολλά χρόνια, δημιουργώντας έτσι έναν μύθο γύρω από το όνομά του, με τα έργα να πουλάνε πολλά αντίτυπα ανά τις δεκαετίες, με το Σιμπούμι να αποτελεί κατά γενική ομολογία το magnum opus του. Το Σιμπούμι δημοσιεύθηκε αρχικά το 1979 και το 1981 κυκλοφορεί για πρώτη φορά στην ελληνική γλώσσα από τις εκδόσεις Πάντερ σε μορφή βιβλίου τσέπης. Μετά από πολλά χρόνια κυκλοφόρησε εκ νέου στα ελληνικά από τις εκδόσεις Πόλις τον Ιούνιο του 2019 σε μετάφραση Αποστόλη Πρίτσα.

Τι είναι το Σιμπούμι όμως; Δεν υπάρχει ακριβής ορισμός για το τι είναι το Σιμπούμι, αν και κατά λέξη στα ιαπωνικά σημαίνει ανεπιτήδευτη τελειότητα. Ο ορισμός που δίνει η Wikipedia είναι: Shibumi (渋 み) είναι ιαπωνικό ουσιαστικό που αναφέρεται σε μια ιδιαίτερη αισθητική απλής, λεπτή και διακριτικής ομορφιάς. Όπως και άλλοι ιαπωνικοί αισθητικοί όροι, όπως iki και wabi-sabi, το shibumi μπορεί να εφαρμοστεί σε μια ευρεία ποικιλία θεμάτων, όχι μόνο την τέχνη ή τη μόδα. Όπως γίνεται εύκολα αντιληπτό είναι ένας αρκετά γενικός όρος που στο έργο του Trevanian χρησιμοποιείται περισσότερο ως φιλοσοφικός όρος και ως τρόπος ζωής.

Πρωταγωνιστής και κύριος εκφραστής του ενός πόλου του βιβλίου, είναι ο Νικολάι «Νίκκο» Χέλ, με την ειδικότητα του πληρωμένου δολοφόνου. Γεννημένος από Γερμανό πατέρα και Ρωσίδα μητέρα, χωρίς όμως να λάβει ποτέ επίσημη υπηκοότητα, μεγάλωσε στην Σαγκάη, μέχρι την κατάληψή της από την Ιαπωνική Αυτοκρατορία και ύστερα στην Ιαπωνία ως προστατευόμενος ενός στρατηγού του Ιαπωνικού Στρατού και ενός φίλου του, δασκάλου του πνευματικού παιχνιδιού Γκο (Gô). Ο Χελ μεγάλωσε με την ανατολίτικη κουλτούρα και φιλοσοφία -κυρίως αυτήν της Ιαπωνίας- ζώντας όλη του τη ζωή ουσιαστικά ως ανατολίτης με δυτικά σωματικά χαρακτηριστικά, μετακομίζοντας ύστερα από χρόνια σε ένα απομακρυσμένο χωριό της Χώρας των Βάσκων.

Έτερος πόλος είναι η επονομαζόμενη Μητρική Εταιρεία η οποία ελέγχει την CIA και κατά συνέπεια σε μεγάλο βαθμό την Αμερικάνικη Κυβέρνηση. Σαφής υπαινιγμός για το ξεπούλημα των κυβερνήσεων προς όφελος των ιδιωτικών επιχειρήσεων, τις περισσότερος φορές εις βάρος των πολιτών. Ο Νικολάι Χελ χρόνιος πολέμιος της δυτικής κουλτούρας (δεν είναι λίγες οι φορές που κρίνει αρκετά σκληρά τη δύση και εκφράζει την απογοήτευση του για την δυτικοποίηση της ιαπωνικής κουλτούρας μετά τον Β’ Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο) θα βρεθεί αντιμέτωπος με την Μητρική Εταιρεία και κυρίως με το υψηλόβαθμο στέλεχός της, τον Ντάιαμοντ, ύστερα από ένα τρομοκρατικό χτύπημα στο αεροδρόμιο της Ρώμης μεταξύ Ισραηλινών και Παλαιστινιακών οργανώσεων.

Ο Trevanian με το Σιμπούμι συνθέτει ένα πολυσέλιδο μυθιστόρημα, χρησιμοποιώντας μια φαινομενικά απλή υπόθεση ώστε να δημιουργήσει ένα βαθιά φιλοσοφικό πρωτίστως αλλά και ιστορικό δευτερευόντως έργο. Οι πνευματικές αναζητήσεις έχουν την μερίδα του λέοντος συγκριτικά με τη δράση, χωρίς ωστόσο να χάνεται ο χαρακτήρας του βιβλίου. Το Σιμπούμι είναι ένα μυθιστόρημα το οποίο έχοντας έντονα ψήγματα κατασκοπευτικής και αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας παραμένει βαθιά noir στην αισθητική του, ξεπερνώντας όμως τα στενά όρια (αν θεωρήσουμε ότι μπορεί να υπάρχουν τέτοια) των εν λόγω ειδών λογοτεχνίας.

Η διαχρονικότητα του Σιμπούμι ως έργο μπορεί να φανεί στις αναφορές και στα cameo του σε άλλα είδη τεχνών όπως η μεγάλη οθόνη, με την παρουσία του μεταξύ άλλων στο John Wick (2014) και το The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) του Wes Anderson.

Εν κατακλείδι, όπως και με τη Λεωφόρο έτσι και με το Σιμπούμι ο Trevanian παρουσίασε ένα μυθιστόρημα όπου το βάθος των χαρακτήρων κερδίζει την άτυπη μάχη με τη δράση. Οι φιλοσοφικές και πνευματικές αναζητήσεις παρέα με το χιούμορ και τη συγκίνηση που προσφέρονται άπλετα, καθιστούν το Σιμπούμι ένα από τα σημαντικότερα έργα της noir αισθητικής στην αστυνομική, κατασκοπευτική αλλά και στη γενικότερη λογοτεχνία.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5! Senses Working Overtime!

SEE the assassin in his youth! see him as a child in war-torn Shanghai, as a young Go-Master in Japan, as a dutiful son and as a tortured prisoner, as an expert caver in Basque Spain, as an equally expert Stage IV Lovemaker! see him enact the "Delight of the Razor" upon his lovely and loving concubine! see him destroy his enemies in an equally subtle fashion!

HEAR the clock ticking! an assassin does not live forever! shall he go to his grave as a disposable pawn to the malevolent Mother Company? or shall he go to his grave in a state of meditative bliss? shall he go to his grave at all? listen to the sound of your heartbeat as you await his decision! he hears you, hiding in that cave, blind and foolish and terminally Western in your inability to truly listen. die, deaf Westerner, die!

SMELL the sour tang of fear, the smell of sweat flowing from under your arms to soak your expensive business suit as you contemplate who exactly you have crossed! you have crossed a Master of the "Naked/Kill" technique! smell yourself, businessman! you smell like a fool. die, fool, die!

TASTE the sumptuous flavors served to you in an assassin's lair! do they remind you of the unctuous flavors of french cuisine or the brassy flavors of american bbq? you are being served the flavors of the two nations our assassin despises the most! notice the meals of the assassin and his concubine: simple brown rice and sauteed vegetables. enjoy your fatty decadence, Westerner! will it be your last?

FEEL the calm and warming presence of the sublime meadow that is the assassin's mystical meditative psychic retreat. and what shall come to those blundering dolts who dare encroach upon this special Happy Place? you have one guess! it is a word that starts with D, foolish Company Man!

you think this is a tale of a deadly assassin forced into battle with evil corporate interests; forces that are set upon his destruction in order to further their evil corporate goals of fascist world domination. YOU ARE WRONG. this is a story that is about n  stylen. style over substance. style that equals substance. style that is superior to the whinging, entitled, utterly deluded and very Western sense of "substance" - substance that actually equals grandiose self-absorption. style that equals form and form that equals meaning. if you are looking for a book that will give you a fast-paced tale of devious dark deeds and sweet revenge and justice righteously served... look elsewhere, dum-dum! but if you are looking for a novel that takes you to a place of contemplation, a place of understanding that the things we do may not amount to much but the way we do things - the meaning that is implicit in how we actually move about in the world and how that represents what is truly important - that that is what is important, that that is what is genuinely meaningful... well, this is the book for you.

n  "...To be truthful, I hadn't expected such good form from you. Most people of your age and class are so wrapped up in themselves - so concerned with what they're 'into' - that they fail to realize that style and form are everything, and substance a passing myth." He opened his eyes and smiled as he made a pallid effort to imitate the American accent: "It ain't what you do, it's how you do it."n

plus, a special bonus Sixth Sense included free of charge!

PROXIMITY AWARENESS

foolish Westerners like to imagine that the sixth sense is telepathy - or perhaps seeing dead people. ha! what use is that exactly? why waste time hearing the despairing dead in their various depressing doldrums? and what is the use of reading the tedious and predictable thoughts of your tedious and predictable fellow humans? i for one am happy to be spared the monotony of those "insights". instead, Shibumi offers a delightful and very useful sixth sense: Proximity Awareness! i would much prefer to be aware of when someone is approaching, or thinking about me, or contemplating using a camera or gun on me. all the better to avoid such monotonous interactions!

What a waste of paper and time.

Much like the Locator "series", our protagonist, Nicholai Hel, is at the end of his career. The first third of the book covers Hel's upbringing in war-torn Japan, then there are 50+ pages of excruciating detail about cave exploration, which seems to be the introduction to a minor character. Following that, the bad guys warn Hel off the job they think he will take to assist the niece of an old friend. More pages about this and that and kicking Volvos before the action happens, but it is all done "off screen".

This is not an action story. It is more of a means for the author to comment about the decline of America, the impotence of the French, the westernization of Japan, the evils of corporate greed, and how the oil cartels are secretly run the world (of the mid-70s). *yawn*

What piqued my interest was something I heard about this book being the basis for John Wick and I love me some John Wick. While I can see that being true, if it is true, this book was far from John Wick or, if anything, reverse John Wick.

It's all tell no show. I understand Nickolai Hel can do all kinds of fancy things, but it's shown maybe once. Even the final climax didn't do much for actual action.

And don't get me wrong, I believe this is all intentional, the more I've read up on this. It's kind of the anti-Bond James Bond/spy. But he's so anti it wears you out just as you're getting interested.

I don't know if I'm even close to making myself clear here. My expectations were completely off with this book, but at the same time it was definitely compelling and I found myself enjoying this book mostly about this guy, Hel's, life. His interests and how he developed his "shibumi" theory or essence of life.

I loved his Basque friends, they definitely made this book worth reading alone.

But in the end, Hel gets annoying. He's so anti-American, which is not unwarranted mind you, that it gets tiresome. At one point he thumbs his nose at barbeques. I can understand going after American consumerism, but barbeques are amazing unless you think you're better than everyone.

And that's the rub for me, Hel is so elitist it just gets frustrating. Hearing about his life his adventures, all very good an interesting, but when his voice is heard, it's annoying. Plus he's hypocritical as well since it clearly takes a lot of materialism to become anti-materialist or do mansions and hectares of land in Wyoming just fall in everyone's laps by being good little anti-consumers?

TL;DR This is really the anti-John Wick who can still kill with anything in the room but you won't ever see it. Materialism is bad except when anti-materialists do it. See...shibumi!

2.5 out of 5 stars (Recommended with lots of reservations)

Final Note: Seriously, who names two characters Hana/Hannah? Are there seriously no other names?

1. İşinin doğru yapılmasını istiyorsan, en meşgul adama yaptır derler, bilmez misiniz?
2. Dilencilik mesleği yasaklanmıştı ama fahişelik tabii devam ediyordu.
3. Askerler de erkeklerin en hayvanca davranan kesimiydi.
4. General tipik Japon baba rolünü üstlendi ve Otake'ye böylesine tembel ve yeteneksiz bir öğrenciyi eğitme yükünü üstlendiği için teşekkürler etti.
5. Bütün savaşlar sonunda kaybedilir. İki taraf da kaybeder, Nikko.
6. Artık profesyenel askerler arasında yapılan meydan savaşlarının günü çoktan geçti. Şimdi savaşlar karşılıklı sanayi kapasiteleri arasında, ülkenin nüfüsları arasında yer alıyor. Ruslar, denizler gibi akıp gelen insanlarıyla Almanları yeneceklerdir. Amerikalılar da anonim fabrikalarıyla bizi yenecekler. Eninde sonunda.
7. Yıllar sonra batılıların vicdanı Hamburg ve Dresden'de olanlar için epey sızladı. Oraların halkı beyaz ırktan olduğu için. Oysa 9 Mart bombardımanından sonra Time dergisi, olayı " gerçekleşen bir rüya" diye tanımlıyor, Japon kentlerinin de sonbahar yaprakları gibi yanabileceğinin anlaşıldığını yazıyordu. Üstelik Hiroşima'ya daha vakit vardı.
8. Acaba....acaba Amerikalılar bunları meyve vermiyor diye keserler mi? Herhalde. Hem de iyi niyetle.
9. Diplomaside temel fonksiyon, söylenen şeyin anlamını gizletmekti.
10. Amerikalılarla Ruslar arasında ilikşkiler güvensizlikle ve birbirine karşı korkuyla doluydu. Ufak tefek olaylarda birbirinin vatandaşlarıyla fazla uğraşmıyordu.
11. Bu yüzden kısa zamanda İngilizleri 'beceriksiz Amerikalılar', Avustralyalıları da 'stajyer Amerikalılar' olarak görmeye başlamıştı.
12. Japonların en büyük kültürel kusuru, duygularını ifade ederken duydukları rahatsızlıktı. Bir kısmı hislerini taş gibi bir sessizliğin arkasına saklarken, diğerleri ya aşırı terbiyenin, ya da aşırı minnet ve ya üzüntünün arkasına gizlenmeye çabalardı.
13. Sizler ve Ruslar, aynı şeyin biraz deyişik iki örneği gibisiniz. Orta düzeydeki kişilerin zorbalığını temsil ediyorsunuz.
14. Zaman ancak, içi boş olduğu zaman ağırdı.
15. Ne de olsa raslantı dediğiniz şey kaderin bir numaralı silahıdır.

This may be the longest book commentary/review I’ve ever written, as priceless quotes abound throughout the book and I plan to include many. All are from the 2011 paperback copy. I’m including numerous info links. Use them after your first read of the review or as you go. You choose.
Trevanian's SHIBUMI. Originally published in 1979. Trevanian is one of the pen names of Rodney William Whitaker (1931-2005). He notably wrote The Eiger Sanction. ”In the process of converting this novel into a vapid film, a fine young climber was killed.” (Author’s footnote pg. 167.) His estate authorized the writing of the prequel to this book, SATORI by Don Winslow. (My Satori comments.)

“…shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances.”

“Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, …it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, …is spiritual tranquility that is not passive, it is being without the angst of becoming.”

“One does not achieve it, one …discovers it.”

“…one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity.”

(All from pg. 77.) (Pudency.)

The book SHIBUMI is the proverbial “…riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…”. (Winston Churchill.) (Proverbial, proverb, epigram, maxim.)

I read SATORI (prequel by another author, links above) and my curiosity was significantly aroused to pursue the story in SHIBUMI.

In my opinion the cover endorsements on the paperback edition get it wrong about the book.

“The only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola, Ian Fleming, Poe, and Chaucer.” –New York Times. Airport paperbacks?!?! Sounds like a barely polite euphemism for pulp fiction. Writers of all genres (including pulp fiction) should be offended to be categorized as being merely worthy of filling airport shelves with illiterate works for passing travelers. But what do you expect from the New York Times and their singular evaluation of their own self-importance. :)

Then there is “It’s hard to imagine a more nearly perfect spy story.” –Milwaukee Journal. What are they smoking, but not reading, up there in Wisconsin? SHIBUMI is barely a spy story at all. I admit after reading SATORI I “expected” a combination espionage/assassin thriller but the actual ‘spy story’, as excellent as it is, probably consumes only 25% or so of the novel. The rest is back (front, and side) story, equally excellent in its own right, but not spy story per se.

Herein lies the riddle, mystery, and enigma. I think the book is the author’s philosophical commentary on life and contemporary humanity, much more than just the brief moralizing you may get in many works of fiction. The caricature shell of a spy story is his method of presenting it. In that respect it reminds me slightly of ISLAND by Aldous Huxley, though it doesn’t wax nearly as philosophical as that thin tome.

A fictional novel about the game Go is a brief part of the story in Shibumi. ”The book was an elaborate joke in the form of a report and commentary on a fictional master’s game played at the turn of the century.” “…The book was in, in fact, a subtle and eloquent parody of the intellectual parasitism of the critic, and much of the delight lay in the knowledge that both the errors of play and the articulate nonsense of the commentary were so arcane that most readers would nod along in grave agreement.” (Pg 130-131.)

Perhaps that is an allusion to SHIBUMI itself. The lead character is a fictional master assassin. There is more intellectual, philosophical critique than I have ever seen in a spy thriller or ‘airport paperback’. I can only speculate what the author’s motives were.

The outright philosophical fiction of Ayn Rand not withstanding (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead, et al), I have never highlighted so many passages in what I thought was going to be light, pure entertainment, reading. (Ayn Rand on the other hand is neither light nor pure entertainment reading.)

Let me present a few passages for you to contemplate, if you will:

“America, after all, was populated by the lees and failures of Europe. Recognizing this, we must see them as innocent. As innocent as the adder, as innocent as the jackal. Dangerous and treacherous, but not sinful. You spoke of them as a despicable race. They are not a race. They are not even a culture. They are a cultural stew of the orts and leavings of the European feast. At best, they are a mannered technology. In place of ethics, they have rules. Size functions for them as quality functions for us. What for us is honor and dishonor, for them is winning and losing.” (Pg 103.)

[I have sometimes contemplated, in the abysmal abyss of my mind, the lack of tangible heritage many of us WASPs derive from. I admire Jews and American Indians for theirs. As an Indian guide once noted on a tour I did of pueblo ruins, "You have no roots". No grounding, no foundation, no guideposts. Advantage, or disadvantage? Still contemplating.]

“You can gain experience, if you are careful to avoid empty redundancy. Do not fall into the error of the artisan who boasts of twenty years experience in craft while in fact he has had only one year of experience–twenty times. And never resent the advantge of experience your elders have. Recall that they have paid for this experience in the coin of life, and have emptied a purse that cannot be refilled.” (Pg 109.)

“(He) arrived at a kind of emotional truce with the Americans among whom he worked. This is not to say that he came to like them, or to trust them; but he came to realize that they were not the amoral, depraved people their political and military behavior suggest they were. True, they were culturally immature, brash, and clumsy, materialistic and historically myopic, loud, bold, and endlessly tiresome in social encounters; but at the bottom they were good-hearted and hospitable; willing to share–indeed insistent upon sharing–their wealth and ideology with all the world.
Above all, he came to recognize that all Americans were merchants, that the core of the American Genius, of the Yankee Spirit, was buying and selling. They vended their democratic ideology like hucksters, supported by the great protection racket of armaments deals and economic pressures. Their wars were monumental exercises in production and supply. Their government was a series of social contracts. Their education was sold as so much per unit hour. There marriages were emotional deals, the contracts easily broken if one party failed in his debt-servicing. Honor for them consisted in fair trading. And they were not, as they thought, a classless society; they were a one-class society–the mercantile.” (Pg 126-127.)

“The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure–in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals.” (Pg 137.)

“We would all be happier if the Palestinian issue (and the Palestinians with it) would simply disappear. They’re a nasty, ill-disciplined, vicious lot who history happened to put in the position of a symbol of Arab unity.” (Pg 228.)

“…and the concept of fair play is totally alien to the mentality of the French, a people who have produced generations of aristocrats, but not a single gentleman; a culture in which the legal substitutes for the fair; a language in which the only word for fair play is the borrowed English.” (Pg 266.)

“It’s not Americans I find annoying; it’s Americanism: a social disease of the postindustrial world that must inevitably infect each of the mercantile nations in turn, and is called ‘American’ only because your nation is the most advanced case of the malady… …Its symptoms are a loss of work ethic, a shrinking of inner resources, and a constant need for external stimulation, followed by spiritual decay and moral narcosis. You can recognize the victim by his constant ifforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experience.” (Pg 306.)

“It is revealing of the American culture that its prototypic hero is the cowboy: an uneducated, boorish, Victorian migrant agricultural worker.” (Pg 341.)

…to cite a few.

This American-born author certainly has his opinions of his fellow countrymen! All of them are still applicable to todays mores. The role and opinions of “big oil” in the book are equally apropos. (Recall the book was published in 1979, 32 years ago.)

In retrospect I’ve revealed practically nothing about the story and will leave it that way. Having a lot of time on my hands at the moment, I inhaled the book in a matter of a few days, which is fast for me. It IS an espionage/assassin thriller, and a very good one, but it does not consume itself with that solely. Don’t expect it to be a Ludlum, Silva, Baldacci, Flynn non-stop action book, though the shell story will not disappoint. The front, back, and side stories (just a little off the top please) are immensely entertaining, and the social/philosophical commentary is priceless.

Airport paperbacks. Give.. me.. a.. break..

Tsuru no Sugomori.

28 November 2018:
I just read this book for the 2nd time. I will add a few comments and then re-read my own first review of 7 1/2 years ago. This is a crafted book. No, not crafty, though it is that, but crafted. Hand-crafted even. Carefully built and constructed. Like the paperback cover says: "The only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola, Ian Fleming, Poe, and Chaucer." --New York Times.

The book held my interest and intrigue as much or more as the first time. I had earmarked numerous passages on the first read, something I don't do for 'regular' fiction very often, and I re-emphasized or added new earmarks. The philosophical insights into various cultures, including my own superficial, American one, are superb.

The book starts with ACTION, as one would expect of what will presumably a spy/assassin thriller. It then segues into a long, calmer middle section, including an extensive part on caving/spelunking. All the loose ends are tidily cleaned up by the end, even though you don't think there will be enough pages left to do so.

How an author learns so much about disparate subjects such as language, cultures, and caving, is beyond me. Alas, this author has passed away. Wikipedia enlightens a little bit, but only a little. I still very highly recommend this book.

Spend first 3/4 of the book explaining how the main character fuckin loves imperial Japan and how he got really good at assassinating people and how he has really good sex. Last quarter is him getting revenge for a girl who's a real hauler who he knew for about 18 hours

Shibumi is, without question, the stupidest book I have ever read. Period. Full stop. It's not close. Shibumi is the 1927 Yankees of stupid books. John Grisham and Dan Brown, working together, operating at the peak of their vaguely misogynist, airport-novel spewing powers, could never hope to approach the mind-exploding stupidity of this book.

The protagonist of Shibumi, Nikolai Hel, is best described as an amalgam of James Bond, Bruce Lee, Robert Mitchum and Jesus Christ. He is the least plausible, most ridiculous character in all of western fiction. He can kill any opponent, bed any woman, and presumably bed any opponent...but only if it was a girl opponent.

Hel is a master of an unnamed (and undescribed) martial art referred to as "Naked/Kill" which allows him to use household objects as deadly weapons, and much as made of the fact that it is completely impossible to defend yourself against him. Riiiiiight.

As the book jacket states, Hel is the ultimate assassin, but he cares not for such things, preferring instead to meditate on eastern philosophy in his enormous Basque castle and go spelunking (yes, seriously) emerging only to collect new female acolytes for sex training. I believe the term "Stage IV Lovemaking ability" is used w/r/t to our hero at one point.

About half the book is devoted to Nikolai's childhood (raised by Japanese prostitutes, of course) and coming of age as master assassin/sex deity, before finally getting to the "plot" in which the "Mother Corporation" tries to hire him, then kill him when he refuses. I will leave it to you bright sparks to figure out who triumphs in the end.

In my research for Shibumi quotes, I came across a wiki on bookshelved.org where the authors refer to Shibumi as a sardonic sendup of the spy novel genre. They express incredulity that Amazon reviews the book as a straight thriller. One refers to the book as"pure camp" and "one long piss take" from cover to cover.

This is food for thought. If Shibumi was written as satire, my rating would immediately go from 1 star to four or 5. There is no denying that this book is funny. If it was MEANT to be funny, I would have to take back most of the bad things I have ever said about it. The Wiki on Trevanian (nee Robert Whitaker, university professor) could be interpreted as evidence. Surely an educated man would not have created this thinly veiled masturbatory fantasy for ineffectual 12 year old boys in earnest? He must be joking...right?

I don't know. I just don't know. Suffice to say, Shibumi stands alone. It is, to borrow from my main man Neal Stephenson, fractally stupid; meaning that if you were to examine any minute aspect of it, that aspect would be as stupid as the book in its entirety.