Hoş ve boş

a hit by the Goodreads rec algorithm, which told me to read Fire on the Deep (yes), Old Man's War (no), and then this (definitely yes). Trevanian is a snob and obsessively masochistically anti-American and pro-Japanese, but his clever "meta-novel" as the wikipedia description goes, "deconstructs" the spy novel. but that might be a little strong...

anyway brilliant description, a keen eye for what goes on in cross-cultural meetings (absolute brilliance: three basque peasants chit-chat about an american tourist girl, concluding she must be a sex worker, and then when the conversation begins in french, it's all bon jour and peaches and pie hahahah).<-- this is brilliant because that's exactly how it works, so to speak, between small linguistic groups and 'the West'<-- i have eavesdropped on tourists and natives in a number of countries, and can report that something similar often happens (!)

only a third of the way through and already confident about the five stars... alas that the book is a full $12 online T.T wahhhhh

11 January 2012-- continuing

okay finished! my first GR review that I wrote in two parts. maybe I should have waited, in order to open the review brilliantly. i could have made this clever and unified but instead.. here goes:

post reading:

'Shibumi' is an instant classic, a thriller and a "deconstruction" of a thriller, a mixup of Crichton (who comes later) and Le Carre and Ian Fleming and Ludlum and maybe a little Grisham (again, a later author). it's an "airport novel" but also a nested story and breakdown of cultural interactions. well-informed about Japanese values and with breathable Japanese characters yet avoiding total fan-boy anime convention cartoonization of the country. exciting scene-by-scene development fairly-tight mixed with commentary on terrorist motivations and caving the sport.

Trevanian's only failure was to understand himself. he attacks the US, but Nicholas Hel (his authorial standin/fantasy other-self) is clearly American in outlook!

Κριτική στο 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.
Πλάνο από την ταινία John Wick (2014)

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.

Recommended by a friend back in 1982 -- this was one novel I pickup and read again every few years.

For those that love Robert Ludlum's, "Jason Bourne" character, Nicholai Hel will captivate you for years to come.

Kitabın ilk yarısını Trevenian, diğer yarısını bir başkası yazmış gibi.

İlk yarısı enfes... Edebi bir şaheser. Her bir cümle, her bir anlatım kayda değer. Hele çiçekli bir yolda yürüme sahnesi var ki, orada geçen diyalogların her bir kesiti için saatlerce düşünmeye değer. Kulağıma küpe olsun ve hayat boyu hatırlayayım diye yaptığım alıntılar vardır.

Öte yandan, kitabın kalan yarısı ise ucuz ve ikinci sınıf bir Hollywood filmine dönüşüyor...

Sadece o ilk yarısı için beş yıldızı hakediyor benden.

Yıllar sonra ikinci kez okuduğumda evet dahaa genç halimin ruhu ile değil ama unutulmuş ilham ile yeniden dolarak bitirdim .

Okunacak o kadar kitap varken eski kitaplara dönüş biraz zaman kaybı gibi gözükebilir ama o ben tabiki ben değilim .

Biraz daha olgun bakış açısı ile bakınca bu kitap bana kişisel gelişim kitaplarını anımsattı ve yan karakterlerin de hikayelerinin kıymetli olduğunu bir hero's journey etrafında dönerken onlarında küçük hero 'lar olduğunu gösterdi.Her biri yazarın çocuğu gibiydi resmen .Ve onlaran ayrılırken ki yoğun duygu yükü bir uzun zaman tanıdığım bir dosttan ayrıldığımdaki duygu yükü ile benzer bir noktadaydı .Aynı hisleri Kara Kule serisini okurken hissetmiştim . Uzun yolculuğumuzda ayrılmak zordu .

Gene bir kitabın sonunda hayat kararları almak ve kendi sibumik hayatımı inşa etmek farz oldu .

Gelelim yazarın hoşlanmadığım tavrına . Vurguladığı politik yargılar bir noktadan sonra tamam anladık şeklinde itici bir yöne geçiyor .Bu kadsr donanımlı olduğunu hayal ettiğim kişinin kör görüş alanları olması hayal kırıklığı gibi .Ama ne yapalım üzüm yemeye geldim .

Velhasıl iyi geldi .

Всички часове нараняват, последният убива: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/s...

“Шибуми” има изчистен и познат сюжет – обучен в източни изкуства наемен убиец, който може да се справи с агентурите на няколко държави едновременно, докато изпълнява мисии по целия свят, в които убива опасни терористи. Треванян движи на две скорости историята. В едната е детството и младостта на Николай Хел, които преминават в Китай и Япония, сред пъстро общество и мъдри наставници, където освен съвършени умения в убиването усвоява и се пристрастява към играта Го. Около нея се върти обичайната за този тип романи подплата с източна духовност, която задължително превъзхожда западния материализъм отвсякъде. Втората линия е в наши дни, когато акция на специалните служби на едно летище се превръща в кървава баня, а единствената оцеляла успява да се добере до замъка на Николай, вече оттеглил се от играта, в баските земи. Там тя моли за помощта му, а нейните врагове му отправят ясно предупреждение какво ще се случи, ако се намеси. Но правят грешката да го засегнат лично. И кървава баня започва.

Издателска къща БАРД
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/s...

“Miss Goodbody was nonplussed.” Pass the Nurofen. 350 pages of seen-it-all-before character work with occasional flashes of action but heavily, heavily, compromised by the pseudonymous international man of mystery “Trevanian” who can’t get out of his own way, raging on and on about every aspect of the twentieth century that rubs him up the wrong way to oppressive, buzz-killing, effect. Schoolboys will lap up the faux-adult cynicism and the unrelenting sexualisation of every single woman in play. Anybody else (apart from Don Winslow) will come away from this thanking their lucky stars they never got stuck in a lift with “Trevanian”. This was “Hai Karate: The Novel” and it was a slog to finish.

The moment I took against protagonist Nicholai Hel (a “professional exterminator of international terrorists” although he spends more time exterminating greenfly in his back yard) was when he behaved like a Jeremy Clarkson-level arsehole to the young girl Hana who flees to Hel’s “physical and emotional fortress against the twentieth century” with obvious PTSD asking for his help. Hel is disinclined to tear himself away from his very 1970s sex games (“The Delight of the Razor culminates in quick oral lovemaking”) with his trafficked concubine – who, colour me bemused, is also called Hannah – and when he does deign to talk to Hana he is outrageously rude, dismissive and thinks only of the impact on himself. Bored, he creepily sexualises the girl and – get this – “punishes” her by making love to her so epically it ruins all other men for her. She then gets shot. See what I mean about schoolboys loving this? Novels with pricks for protagonists can be great fun (certainly more so than novels with pricks for authors) but unfortunately for us “Trevanian” palpably isn’t buying any of this genre stuff (he “read Proust, but not much else written in the 20th century”). Oh no. He’s far too high-minded to actually engage in any of this juvenile, mass market, “Dr No” rubbish and instead would much prefer to spam any of the swineherd who might have picked it up at the airport with his private opinions. So if you decide Nicholai Hel is multi-lingual, Go-playing, proximity-sensing tosser what you’re left with is a lot of so-so story-telling, scads of bogus spirituality and empty intellectualism and an author who is writing like he’s been kicked off Twitter.

What are “Trevanian”’s “strong opinions”? Challenging and thought-provoking? Hopelessly parochial, that’s what. We have  discourses on everything from the evils of capitalism (“Trevanian” biting the hand that paid for his house in the Basque countryside), the received pronunciation of BBC reporters (“the effect of an uncomfortable suppository”), the “vapid” Clint Eastwood adaptation of “Trevanian”’s own “The Eiger Sanction”, Volvos, French versus British drivers, anybody into boring vanilla sex, cowboys (“uneducated, boorish”), Warhol and the provenance of Pop Art, grub and booze (Hel and his squeeze munch salads and rice but intimidate the Americans with fine dining) and so on. No opportunity is missed to throw some snark. Certainly in the hands of, frankly, a better writer this may well have been a hoot. From “Trevanian” it’s eventually boorish and it’s not like he's got much in the story-telling tank to otherwise distract you.

But…is this all ironic? Is all the ludicrousness the point? Wikipedia describes “Shibumi” as “a meta-spy novel” and since I’m a bear of very little brain I’m suddenly wondering if fiendish literary mastermind “Trevanian” is pissing himself laughing at me from beyond the grave. To that, I say “Shibollocks”. I don’t buy this novel as a literary exercise for one moment, that would suggest a level of wit which is not apparent anywhere in the text. “Shibumi” needed to be a lot more heightened – and, crucially, a lot more humorous – for any satire to land and positioning it as an intellectual exercise is just another distancing device, like barricading yourself behind a pretentious pseudonym and refusing to be interviewed. Read “Shibumi” by all means – particularly if you’re 14 and male – but, like Nicholai Hel himself, keep it simple: this is a piece of so-so mass market fiction written by a crank. Pro tip: imagine Peter Wyngarde or Mike Myers is playing Nicholai Hel, particularly whenever there’s a woman in the scene. That’s the tone this sort of thing needed. “Who must do the harsh things? He who can.”

The name reminded me of a Samurai and of what he would have faced during a life time of combat. There can be parallels to this idea in this book but what it is in reality is a totally different beast. Trevanian creates an elaborate joke which scorns at the 'Super Assassin' genre in Shibumi.

Shibumi in simple English means Casual Elegance tells the author. A way of life which in itself sets the dudes aside from the dunderheads. The story is about a man named Nicholai Hel who the author repeatedly reminds us for about 75% of the pages is the most formidable assassin ever. A mystic, a sexually hyper charged alpha male, able to kill with bare hands, world renowned underground cave explorer, well read and a polyglot with a command of over seven languages, able to think in mathematical abstractions owing to his refined state of play in the Japanese game of Go etc. Yes, I am talking about one man and he is not a computer. The back story fills a big chunk of the book and then for about a hundred pages we are given the details of how he discovers an underground cave. Being an assassin, his core competency is examined in roughly about 15 pages towards the end.

For a man of such fine tastes, the way he overcomes his enemies is something that made me blanch. I strongly believe that the final 100 pages of this book was the biggest bunch of hogwash I have ever read in recent times. There is a lot of America bashing in here, Trevanian spares nothing : food,culture,sex,western philosophy, the CIA & even the government is all scorned at. The conclusion : Japan has a kick ass culture & America does not. There are culture comparisons and then there is bitching. A good part of the comments offered here fall into the second category.

For a book that was recommended as a master piece among thrillers, this one was a dud !

90'ların efsane romanı. Ben de o dönem okuyup çarpılmıştım tabii. 30 sene sonra tekrar okurken, niye o zamanlar bu kitaba ve Nicholai Hel karakterine hayran kalmıştık diye düşündüm. Çünkü günümüzde her filmde, dizide rastladığımız bu olağanüstü kişilik o dönem için emsalsizdi :)

Kitabın büyük kısmı Hel'in yaşamını anlatıyor. Gerçek anlamda macerayı ancak kitabın finalinde çok kısa görüyoruz.

90'ların gençliğini alabildiğine etkilemiş sürprizli, zengin bir casusluk romanı.

I picked this up because it's been selected by a group I'm in as a group read. I doubt I'll do much in that conversation as I am MAJORLY disappointed in this book.

You know, since the late 1960s or so the CIA has become the favored "whipping boy" (I apologize for the cliche given my complaints about the book). If the CIA really had as many traitorous, evil, inept and/or downright stupid agents as I've seen in movies, books and on TV there would be no good agents. I was tempted to put in a link to the CIA Memorial Wall. That's the wall where nameless stars are inset in a wall for agents killed in the line of duty.

Need I say that I realize the CIA has some "asses" and that I know some operations were quite probably far from kosher. Then again there are bad cops, soldiers who run or turn traitor and so on. The Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy could never function treated the way the CIA is. I know, I was in the army in the early '70s (discharged in '75). I was once cursed by a teen for wearing my Class A uniform.

Here we open going right down the line with so many clichés I figure they must have come from somewhere like "plots and characters are us". We meet CIA types who are plotting with an Islamic radical against Israel. We are also covering up global warming because we are obviously slaves of the "Military Industrial Complex". To make matters worse one of the CIA types has a southern/country accent. Obviously he's not only evil he's stupid...as all people from anywhere but a coastal city are. We watch as the CIA pulls off an assassination and then kills their own men (the assassins). Just to be sure, you know.

Standard operating procedure.

I mean maybe back in the 1960s and the 1970s the first 10,000 or so times this idea/plot was done it might have been original...but no more.

I find the book derivative, predictable and cliché ridden. Enjoy this if it's what you like. I'm happy for you. I can't recommend it.

Formidable! Opinions arrêtées et critiques. Cynique et irrévérencieux. Philosophique et quantique. La convergence de la puissance de la méditation, de la politique internationale, du « page turner » et de l’érudition au confluent de l’originalité et de l’imprévisible.