This is a great series. The clashing of European and Japanese customs are just one interesting twist in the struggle for power following the death of a great ruler. Another is the depth and power of the female characters. I can’t think of an english speaking war genre with a similar balance of captivating roles.
I remember the splash James Cavell’s novel Shogun made when it was published in 1975. We were also living abroad, and the depiction of cultural interaction was familiar. My brother remembers it as the first novel he could read straight through. The strength of the story lines holds the imagination of all ages, including that of a fourteen-year-old.
Even though a copy of his 1980 book Noble House stakes a spot on my bookshelf, I haven’t thought of James Cavell in years. His background is (perhaps predictably) adventurous.
Imprisoned in Changi[edit]
Shot in the face,[5] he was captured in Java in 1942 and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java. Later, he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore.[6]
In 1981, Clavell recounted:
Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life—the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving, the most important course of all.[5]
Prisoners were fed a quarter of a pound (110 g) of rice per day, one egg per week and occasional vegetables. Clavell believed that if atomic bombs had not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he would not have survived the war.[5]
WIKI
I also did not realize he wrote The Great Escape, another favorite film from my childhood.
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