Cloud of Sparrows is the story of the meeting of two cultures, and it’s also the story of a love triangle that never really is.
Crossing an unknown river far from your domain, observe the surface turbulence, and note the clarity of the water. Heed the demeanor of the horses. Beware of massed ambush.
At a familiar ford near home, look deep into the shadows on the far bank, and watch the movement of the tall grass. Listen to the breathing of your nearest companions. Beware of the lone assassin.
SUZUME-NO-KUMO (1491)
A few weeks ago, a friend lent me a bunch of books in Spanish, ’cause he wanted me to read something in Spanish so I’d write it up for my other blog, which is in…Spanish :) The problem with his assumption was that…I found the book (called “Honor del Samurai” in Spanish) in English too, and I read it in English lol! So, unfortunately for his plan, and fortunately for the three people that read this blog when I’m not posting about linux, the review for the book is going to be in english and in this blog :)
I’m a big fan of Samurai books, for some reason…well…most feudal societies fascinate me, which includes Japan during the samurai era.
This book is set during Late Tokugawa shogunate, or so I think (there’s no timeline fixing events mentioned in the book, except for a vague one-line reference to the American Civil War (1861-1865) at the end of the book). The descriptions of the people and sites of the book pull you into feudal Japan with ease, making it easy to see the commonalities and the differences between the way of thought of oriental people and occidental people.
The Great Lord of Akaoka, Lord Genji of the Okumichi clan, is newly come to power, after his grandfather, Lord Kiyori, died. We meet him as his geisha, Heiko, notices him waking up besides herself as she pretends to sleep. Outside the window of the bedroom they are shareing, westerner ships can be seen, among them a merchant ship that arrived during the night.
In the ship, we meet The Right Reverend Zephaniah Cromwell, humble servant of the Light of the True Word of the Prophets of Christ Our Lord (damn, what a long title for a humble reverend, uh? :) his fiancee, Emily Gibson and Stark, who we first meet with a knife in his left hand and a gun in his right hand as he is awakaned by Reverend Cromwell’s loud prayers.
We later on meet different Great Lords, both alies and enemies of Lord Genji, as well as the samurai leaders of his House.
Takashi Matsuoka’s narrative is easy and simple, but complex and complete at the same time. The development of the story is fast paced, and it takes you through the actions and thoughts of the characters in a very straight way…until he drops an unexpected change of direction on you. By the time you read the first 10 paragraphs, you are thinking that you *know* without a doubt, what is coming next; by paragraph 20, you are convinced that *now* you really know what is coming next; by paragraph 30, you are convinced that you finally found what the thread of the book is…and by the end of the book, you are still surprised of the way things went. You go back to parts, trying to convince yourself that you actually read correctly what you thought had given away the story…and yes, you read it correctly, and no, the story wasn’t what you thought at that point it was going to be.
The more important thing is that said changes in the direction of the story are neither distracting nor unwarranted…Matsuoka is just playing you along, bringing you to the story *he* wants to tell you, by a road that makes you think you can guess what comes next. Once you have read the whole book, and start thinking back, you realize that the story was coherent from start to finish, it was just that you saw shadows and thought you knew what the shadows where of.
I trully enjoyed this book, and I’m pretty sure that if you like feudal societies, so will you. I’m really looking forward to reading the second part of this story, called Autumn Bridge…now I just need to find it offline so I can :) And, BTW, the quotes at the begining of each section also rock :)
Technorati Tags: samurai, takashi matsuoka, cloud of sparrows, fiction, book, tokugawa shogunate
Tags: Books, Reviews
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