The life story of an unlikely voyager from Japan provides a fascinating look into 16th-century geopolitics.
An account of a 16th-century enslaved Japanese man who endured abduction and hard labor among pirates to become the first documented Asian to learn English and set foot in North and South America and Britain.
Historian Lockley, co-author of African Samurai, found reports of "Christopher" from archived private diaries and letters and presents the young man's life as close to fact as possible. Enslaved by an Andalucian merchant in Manila, Christopher was bound aboard the Spanish ship Santa Ana in 1587 when it was overtaken in waters offshore Cabo San Lucas by English "privateers" working for an expedition led by Thomas Cavendish. As the author recounts, Christopher translated some prized booty into English: a map of China that formed the basis for charts later used by Westerners. Brought to England in 1588, he made a sensation in his “exotic robes” and "innate nobility,” and he was granted an audience with Queen Elizabeth. Lockley narrates parts of the story close to Christopher's perspective, emphasizing his discoveries and insights. For example, as a guest of London society, Christopher marveled that the English seldom bathed and lived with indoor animals. Pressed into service in Cavendish's next attempt to reach the Far East, he "almost definitely succumbed to the perils of the voyage," which was storm-tossed, violent, and, ultimately, doomed. However, in his adventures, Christopher inadvertently became a "pioneer in global travel, technology transfer, international relations, and cross-cultural communication." Lockley succeeds in focusing his history on the contributions of the "oppressed, trafficked and marginalized" who have otherwise left no record. In the process, he tells a lively tale of maritime adventure, piracy, and advancements in science and global economics. Extensive notes and bibliographies help fill in the political and cultural landscape.
The life story of an unlikely voyager from Japan provides a fascinating look into 16th-century geopolitics.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781335016713
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
