More like 3.5

Another good read by Crichton, thought provoking in terms of where our economy is headed, but turned out not to come to fruition as well as Crichton thought. Regardless of this was defiantly a page turner with many twists and turns in the plot.

"Americans are eager to sell. It amazes the Japanese. They think we're committing economic suicide." (pg. 45)

I should have known better than to doubt Michael Crichton. Rising Sun looked, on the face of it, like an outdated and middle-ranked thriller. Despite the author's reputation, it certainly wasn't one of his most praised works and, what was more, it has been regularly accused of being a racist, or at least a reactionary, polemic. Even leaving aside my scepticism about that last point, as we're in a 'boy who cried wolf' situation regarding accusations of racism nowadays and it usually just means someone's said something interesting or mildly controversial, I had read that the book sacrificed its plot and characters for clumsy digressions into economics and anti-Japanese slurs.

All of which is complete bollocks. I ended up doing a complete 180 degrees on my impressions of Rising Sun, going from complete scepticism (picking up the book in a why-the-hell-not moment, more than a year after buying it in a charity shop) to being completely engrossed in its plotting and its purpose. It is a fine piece of thriller-writing – as you would imagine from someone who had just finished writing Jurassic Park – and it has a substantial message besides.

I won't go into that message too much, because, by God, Michael Crichton will, but suffice to say it's about the Japanese economic influence on America. "Business is war" to the Japanese, as Crichton repeatedly says (pg. 152), and his novel goes into shady and ruthless Japanese corporate practices, predatory investment strategies, the collusion and weakness of American regulators and businesses, and ultimately the almost wholly negative effect this has on the working man, the American taxpayer. "We don't make things anymore," one character laments (pg. 217), and though we've long been conditioned by our bought media and our political betters to scoff at this train of thought, it's a legitimate viewpoint. In the Fifties, a single paycheck could support an entire family and a house (pg. 109), and that just isn't the case anymore. And it's not an 'aw, shucks, what can ya do?' dilemma; Crichton shows how this is because of very definite economic and corporate practices.

Trade deficits, purchasing power, corporate takeovers and the like might not sound like the most compelling ingredients for a thriller, but Crichton leans heavily on the ruthlessness and the high stakes of the game and it's often arresting to read. Even if it's sometimes an over-simplification, there's a sort of thrill you get from thinking you're getting the skinny, the inside scoop. And as for this 1992 book being outdated, well, consider that accusations of racism are thrown at some of the characters to silence and intimidate them (which is about as contemporary as it gets in 2021), or that you could replace every mention of 'Japan' with 'China' and get something completely up to date, and even more concerning.

Aside from the stimulation these ideas provide in Crichton's pages (and the polemical asides and info-dumps are much more naturalistic and entertaining than most reviewers allow), Rising Sun is just a cracking good thriller. Crichton's writing style, even when discussing a difficult concept, is clean and simple, and the pages fly by. The murder of the young woman in the offices of a Japanese corporation is, commendably, kept front and centre throughout: the reader cares about the mystery and it's not just an excuse, a starting gun, for Crichton's story. There are some stellar plot twists, and the importance of Japanese cultural mores allows for some original dynamics between characters (as well as being something of a crash-course in Japanese etiquette). The characterisation is better than your average thriller, though I felt the protagonist, Peter Smith, was not very credible as a detective – he always seemed to be slow on the uptake. This, however, is in large part because of his role as an audience surrogate. He asks simple questions and has things explained to him because someone has to perform that role, if the reader isn't to lose their way.

Ultimately, however, it's the message that decides whether Rising Sun succeeds or fails, and whether it endures into our own times. Though its sun seems to have been eclipsed by Crichton's more well-known works, the labels of 'controversial', 'problematic' and particularly 'racist' are deeply unfair. The book is a provocative and well-written thriller that delivers an earnest and important message about American decline. Far from being racist, Crichton even raises the important point that most of this decline is self-inflicted (see my opening quote) and America needs to step it up, both in hard work and in countering its naivety and ignorance. "In no other country in the world… would you hear people calmly discussing the fact that their cities and states were sold to foreigners" (pg. 44). To which I can only say: Hello, America, greetings from England. It's just about the only point Crichton gets wrong.

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The book starts out with promise but later fizzles out. The author seemed to be paranoid about Japan taking over America while he was writing the book. It is virtually impossible to believe about American colonisation by Japan. The book has more Japanese characters than Americans. It is a story on the investigation of a murder of an American woman. However, must give it to the author who has researched well on culture and life in Japan through American eyes.

I have to be in the mood to read Crichton & I had this book around for years before I got to it. It was very absorbing. Nothing too special, but a well done thriller.

Well, this my first book by Michael Crichton and I enjoyed it. My rating would have to be closer to three stars but it had a nice plot, fast pace, something easy to get into but not to figure out. Recommended.

In the early to mid-1990's a wave of anti-Japan hysteria swept through some segments of the American population. I distinctly remember watching two newscasts from this time concerning Japan. One talked about people's fear of Japanese 'interests' buying up significant portions of the U.S. The other showed video clip of people venting their anger over Japanese imports by destroying a Toyota pickup with baseball bats and the reporter (off-screen) explaining that the truck was built in the U.S. at the time.

This book was written during this time period and I felt that Crichton was at best exploiting an irrational fear of some people that was also a 'hot topic' at the time. At worst, this book was racist towards Japanese. Not sure which it was, but was not impressed either way. The inclusion of certain sexual practices into the murder mystery did not help either.

After two duds in a row I felt like something snappy and Michael Crichton will certainly deliver snappy.

If I had ever read this book before, it was at least 8 to 10 years ago but I kept thinking how familiar the story was, and after just a few pages it dawned on me that I had watched the movie a gazillion times. As soon as I made that connection (how could I have forgotten?!) I saw the movie in my head as I read the book. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it meant I already knew whodunnit, why they dunnit, and what happened after they dunnit, so reading was a little bit more of a simple tidy-up than would have been the case otherwise.

I didn't let my advance knowledge keep me from enjoying this fast and furious mystery, though. I actually liked the visions of Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes dancing snappily in my head as they rushed around trying to catch up to the killer. They always seemed to be just a few minutes too late,
whichever way they turned.

I did wonder if America was ever as scared of the Japanese as the author seemed to feel, and sometimes the fear seemed blown way out of proportion, but I liked the book almost as much as I liked the movie.

(And I am only putting it on my dar shelf to give away because I don't think I could manage another reading, Connery and Snipes in my head or not.)

One more title to review and I will be caught up with the reading I have done since Nov 13th. Whew!

Crichton I think was a hit-or-miss author, he was either really good and in his element or flailed and failed. I think this one was a failure. It comes across as sounding the alarm on the Japanese, all while having some very anti-Japanese characters. It just reads more like an alarmist book trying to turn people against Japan. And since, what, 20-25 years have passed since this book was published, the alarmism comes across more as fear-mongering racism that tried to shroud itself in fiction.

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This was my #2 Michael Crichton experience, and he didn't let me down.
Crichton is truly a masterful writer. He knows his stuff and he's done his research. I don't have much to say; I think the reviews on the back of the book can express exactly how I feel about this novel:

This is my first Crichton book. I tried to read this book in the 90s around the time the movie was released. The movie wasn't too bad from what I remember. This appears to be one of the rare instances in which the movie is BETTER than the book. It's a standard murder novel and the story isn't horrible, but every other page is a conversation between the characters about how Japan is becoming an economic superpower and how underhanded the Japanese are in business dealings. Very preachy.