An exciting tale with an engaging young hero, grounded in a well-informed understanding of Japanese culture.
After his parents’ deaths, an American boy goes to live with his grandfather in postwar Japan and attends an elite boarding school in Mather’s debut novel.
Jonathan is only 6 years old in 1948 when political violence in Boston kills his father and blinds his mother, destroying her emotionally. After her death, he’s sent to Japan to live with his grandfather, an ambassador and judge in Japan’s war-crimes trials, who’s married to a Japanese woman with connections to the royal family. He arranges for the boy to be sent to the Dai Kan, a school “only for the sons of our Imperial Family, our top army and navy officers, and our most respected families,” as a family retainer explains. Although it isn’t made explicit in the novel, all military and martial arts schools were banned in the immediate postwar period; the Dai Kan is allowed to continue “through your grandfather’s direct intervention alone,” says the school’s head. “It was his wish that you become the first non-Japanese to study here…to build a better understanding between our two nations.” As the only gaijin, or foreigner, Jonathan makes some enemies, but he studies hard to learn his academic subjects. He also excels at traditional Japanese martial arts, going on to the even more elite Kami Kan school, where he learns modern techniques and weapons handling. When yakuza gang members stage a daring kidnapping of two young members of the imperial family, Jonathan’s skills are put to the test. Overall, his orphan status, his difference from other students, his affection for his few friends and his earnest desire to succeed make him a sympathetic character. The story might have more clearly indicated the passage of time, however; readers may find themselves guessing at Jonathan’s age from chapter to chapter. Mather, who holds the highest possible karate title of hanshi, uses his knowledge of martial arts and Japanese culture well, providing many fascinating details of instruction, beliefs and practices. The fight scenes, whether during practice or for real, are consistently exciting, and the author makes unfamiliar techniques and complicated maneuvers easy to follow.
An exciting tale with an engaging young hero, grounded in a well-informed understanding of Japanese culture.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491011393
Page Count: 268
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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