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Title: December 6: A Novel by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 0-671-77592-8 Publisher: Pocket Star Books Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (56 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Between Two Times and Two Worlds
Comment: Perhaps no American memory is as deeply engraved as the one showing Japanese bombers destroying most of the Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In the background is a memory of seemingly dishonest negotiations with Japanese diplomats in Washington, D.C. while the Japanese fleet got ready for its sneak attack.
But equally strong memories must exist among Japanese who were in Japan at the time, as their nation was in the process of starting the great Pacific war. Martin Cruz Smith does something that's almost impossible. He takes us to the Tokyo of December 6, 1941 and lets us perceive what was going on in the minds of the Japanese as their Imperial expansion began its final, unsuccessful phase. Even more remarkable, he creates a character who's part American (by birth, tradition and family heritage) and part Japanese (by experience, friendship and preference).
Inevitably, readers will be reminded of Casablanca's Rick waiting in Paris as the Nazis march in, planning to catch the last train with his new love. But our Harry is planning to get on the last plane out instead, and alone. He's got some complications to deal with . . . including an angry mistress who doesn't want to be left behind, the Japanese authorities looking into irregularities, a samurai with a grudge, and criminal interests on the look out for themselves. Like Rick, he's a saloonkeeper with an eye to the main chance . . . as well as a keen sense of survival. You'll see a seamier side of Tokyo than most tourists did, so the book is not for those with delicate tastes.
You probably won't read a book this year that will shift your orientation as much as this one. The story's fascinating, the culture's strange but attractive, and the moment will be burned in your mind . . . just like the Day of Infamy itself.
If you liked Gorky Park, you will probably find many of the same sorts of appeal here as we see the all-to-human side of our once bitter enemy . . . and now firm ally.
After you finish this story, I suggest that you think about what benefits countries would gain from having more citizens who find themselves able to operate and live comfortably in either land. How can you become one of those citizens? What benefits can you provide?
Sayonara.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Complex and Intelligent Read
Comment: Martin Cruz Smith is one of the most the most skillful and versatile writers of contemporary fiction. His work is painfully researched (accounting for the relatively short list of published works) and beautifully written. 'December 6' is no exception, as Smith again demonstrates the range of his talents, this time setting the story in 1941 Tokyo. He spins the unusual story of Harry Niles, the son of American missionaries stationed in Japan. Alienated from his parents as they are off proselytizing in rural Japan, Harry is left to grow up on the streets of Tokyo. Much more Japanese in culture and beliefs than American, the enigmatic Niles, now an adult Tokyo nightclub owner, finds himself in a precarious situation on the eve of the Pacific World War II.
Give Smith credit for creativity: this is certainly an unusual, if not bizarre, subject for a story. Harry Niles is a mysterious main character. Accepted fully by neither western nor eastern cultures, perpetually only a step ahead of (or behind) the law, the reader never knows exactly where to categorize Niles: hero, spy, traitor, patriot?. Supporting characters are likewise complex and unable to be easily quantified. Michiko, Harry's mistress: the cool and aloof juke-box jockey, yet also the submissive geisha. Ishigami, the sword-yielding samurai demon with a uniquely Japanese penchant for both honor and terror. Smith adroitly blends Japanese tradition in the background, avoiding the tendancy of many western authors writing of Japan to allow the culture to overshadow the story. The imminent war is portrayed from a uniquely Japanese, and fatalistic, perspective. Like all of Smith's novels, the characters and events are intricately woven in a complex fabric of intrigue and suspense, leading to a surreal, nearly mystical, climax.
What 'December 6' lacks in sheer thrills and fast action of Gorky Park is compensated by the intelligent and convoluted story line and though-provoking characters. As with all of Smith's novels, 'December 6' leaves the reader anxiously awaiting his next effort.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Mesmerizing Look Into Pre-war Japan
Comment: Many of the other reviewers here have already hit some of the flaws in December 6 right on the head: not everyone is really going to know, four years in advance, just how the war will end. And the closing of the novel leaves too much unanswered, with some characters' fates not clearly delineated.
What really made December 6 an interesting read for me were the flashback chapters which alternated with the present-day chapters (i.e., 1941). It is these chapters that show the young Harry Niles, outwardly a gaijin in a country that will never fully accept him, but inwardly just as Japanese as his ethnically Japanese friends. Smith renders with unsparing detail the artsy community of Asakusa and the people who are the greatest influences on the young Harry Niles, the witty artist Kato and the beautiful Oharu. These chapters do a remarkable job of drawing parallels between what happens to Harry in 1941 and his childhood, and showing just how and why Harry the boy becomes the man he is by the time Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.
Overall a very absorbing read, even if flawed, for anyone who is interested in the years that led up to the clash of Japan's empire and America's "Arsenal of Democracy."
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Title: Rose by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 034542252X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Havana Bay by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 0345390458 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 0345384733 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Hornet Flight by Ken Follett ISBN: 0451210743 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Stallion Gate by Martin Cruz Smith ISBN: 0345310799 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1987 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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