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J'ai lu 100 pages et c'était incroyablement mal écrit et inintéressant
Ok wow... just amazingly vivid and almost poignant in that this could be today’s political movers and shakers. This book has no age or time... well it set during the war but it feels timeless and has such a fascinating story that you could put the mother company and just look at what’s happening today in America and the Middle East and just think.... damn there is no change... it’s moving it’s replete with witty sarcastic humour and through it all the threat of death and loss and wow it delivers. I now want to read it’s sequel. Brilliant... 10/10
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s certainly a strange book. The style is great and I love satire when it’s well done, but the satire in Shibumi is almost overcooked. The distribution of the plot is similar to Steinbeck with the action rising and falling in like the last 70 pages. The themes get a little muddled and the absolute hatred of America gets a little annoying. A good portion of the book is just about spelunking, and I truly didn’t expect it to go on for as long as it did. Of course the social aspects in regards to race and gender are outdated, but that was to be expected. The two action scenes in what is marketed as a spy novel are very good and show just how Trevanian can weave elements together in a way that isn’t too expected and is entertaining. Sometimes the line is toed so delicately between satire and sincerity that it can be a little concerning, but for my own enjoyment I take it all as a lark.
This and its prequel were name dropped in a book on Hideo Kojima's favorites and influences, and I spied it in the background as a prop in last summer's Bullet Train, so I decided to check it out.
The first half, where we cut back and forth between learning of superspy/superassassin Nicholai Hel's origin story, and of The Company's desire to either put him under their thumb, or take him out. Great if slightly verbose buildup. A few pieces felt painfully dated, due to shifting geopolitics, misogyny, and racism. But there are some rather astute observations made about man's reliance on oil, destruction of nature, and how governments and organizations are willing to deal behind closed doors for the right price, and how this is dangerous and deadly.
Then we hit the second half, which slows down as we learn about spelunking and how mindblowingly amazing Hel is at sex - he can ruin sex for someone for life if he unleashes his full abilities. Stage four sex ability, or something. The action sequence in the last fifth is quite good and worthy of a Bond novel, but after we had a great and sympathetic buildup in the first half, Hel's situational awareness and sex-god status read like spy parody and took me out of the story.
I can see why Kojima loves it, between the politics and action, but it descends too far into self-parody or genre-commentary for me to recommend it. At least with James Bond novels I have nostalgia for when I first encountered them as a teen. I lack that here, and I struggle to overcome the novel's flaws as a result.
The first half, where we cut back and forth between learning of superspy/superassassin Nicholai Hel's origin story, and of The Company's desire to either put him under their thumb, or take him out. Great if slightly verbose buildup. A few pieces felt painfully dated, due to shifting geopolitics, misogyny, and racism. But there are some rather astute observations made about man's reliance on oil, destruction of nature, and how governments and organizations are willing to deal behind closed doors for the right price, and how this is dangerous and deadly.
Then we hit the second half, which slows down as we learn about spelunking and how mindblowingly amazing Hel is at sex - he can ruin sex for someone for life if he unleashes his full abilities. Stage four sex ability, or something. The action sequence in the last fifth is quite good and worthy of a Bond novel, but after we had a great and sympathetic buildup in the first half, Hel's situational awareness and sex-god status read like spy parody and took me out of the story.
I can see why Kojima loves it, between the politics and action, but it descends too far into self-parody or genre-commentary for me to recommend it. At least with James Bond novels I have nostalgia for when I first encountered them as a teen. I lack that here, and I struggle to overcome the novel's flaws as a result.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
Usually, when a book can't seem to decide what it's about, the result is a terrible book.
In the case of Shibumi, Trevanian has managed to weave several very different, seemingly incompatible stories into a cohesive whole. Along the way, he manages to raise expectations that things will be a certain way, only to subvert them.
The book's opening is reminiscent of pulp spy thriller series like The Destroyer. Complete with a larger than life hypercompetent POV character, shadowy government agencies, and global conspiracy.
This soon digresses into a wartime biography of a boy whose birth renders him without a country. He's the son of a Russian aristocrat and (probably) a minor German noble, born in Shanghai where his mother fled after the Bolshevik revolution. After the city falls to the Japanese, he becomes friends with the commander of the occupying force who has commandeered his mother's home as his base of operations. By the time the war ends, his mother has died and he is living in Japan, studying go.
This back-and-forth between the (now obviously satirical) high testosterone, white supremacist spy fantasy and the slower paced, aesthetic journey of Niko to manhood transforms several more times, and incorporates more themes and subjects as it develops. By the end, we have explored caving, Basque separatists, esoteric sex techniques, and more.
Trevanian does a pretty good job of keeping things interesting despite this pastiche. He spends enough time with each subject that it doesn't feel abrupt, but changes often enough to remind you of the other threads.
It's also, in my opinion, a subtle spoof of the spy/action genre in general. This leads to certain choices in characterization which make sense in this context, but which result in an aesthetically flawed product. The antagonists, in particular, tend to be somewhat flat, extremely racist, and comically villainous/corrupt.
Trevanian's own elitism and anti-American sentiment is on display quite prominently, too. Though a salient factor of Niko's personality, the repeated nature of it is definitely a flaw.
It occurs to me that despite its name, Shibumi displays more wabi-sabi than its eponymous aesthetic.
In the case of Shibumi, Trevanian has managed to weave several very different, seemingly incompatible stories into a cohesive whole. Along the way, he manages to raise expectations that things will be a certain way, only to subvert them.
The book's opening is reminiscent of pulp spy thriller series like The Destroyer. Complete with a larger than life hypercompetent POV character, shadowy government agencies, and global conspiracy.
This soon digresses into a wartime biography of a boy whose birth renders him without a country. He's the son of a Russian aristocrat and (probably) a minor German noble, born in Shanghai where his mother fled after the Bolshevik revolution. After the city falls to the Japanese, he becomes friends with the commander of the occupying force who has commandeered his mother's home as his base of operations. By the time the war ends, his mother has died and he is living in Japan, studying go.
This back-and-forth between the (now obviously satirical) high testosterone, white supremacist spy fantasy and the slower paced, aesthetic journey of Niko to manhood transforms several more times, and incorporates more themes and subjects as it develops. By the end, we have explored caving, Basque separatists, esoteric sex techniques, and more.
Trevanian does a pretty good job of keeping things interesting despite this pastiche. He spends enough time with each subject that it doesn't feel abrupt, but changes often enough to remind you of the other threads.
It's also, in my opinion, a subtle spoof of the spy/action genre in general. This leads to certain choices in characterization which make sense in this context, but which result in an aesthetically flawed product. The antagonists, in particular, tend to be somewhat flat, extremely racist, and comically villainous/corrupt.
Trevanian's own elitism and anti-American sentiment is on display quite prominently, too. Though a salient factor of Niko's personality, the repeated nature of it is definitely a flaw.
It occurs to me that despite its name, Shibumi displays more wabi-sabi than its eponymous aesthetic.