The Last Samurai
Ratings17
Average rating4.5
Called “remarkable” (The Wall Street Journal) and “an ambitious, colossal debut novel” (Publishers Weekly), Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai is back in print at last Helen DeWitt’s 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was “destined to become a cult classic” (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so “Why not just, ‘destined to become a classic?’” (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise? Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo’s shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa’s masterpiece Seven Samurai. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn’t know: his father’s name. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. He’ll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. He may not live to see twelve. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death.
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I am sure that a lot of this book went over my head, but it was wonderful and fun to read.
The basic idea is that Sybilla, a highly educated American woman, is living in London in the 90's, doing a menial typing job to support herself and her small son, Ludo. At the beginning, Ludo is 4 and has already learned Greek, Latin, and Hebrew and is reading through a list of classics in order to convince his mother to teach him Japanese. We learn who Ludo's father is and why he isn't involved in his child's life, but Ludo doesn't know these things, although he wants to. The second half of the book is narrated by Ludo, aged 11, as he goes in search of his father, or a father. The Kurosawa film The Seven Samurai is a touchstone for the characters in the book, and I think the second half of the book is a kind of retelling of the film's story.
I skipped over the details of Biblical Hebrew and Japanese grammar, and still enjoyed this hilarious, touching and very, very smart novel.
Wow. How in the world did she tie this whole strange story up so perfectly? So many intricate layers and small inner stories that sort of obfuscated the real story: it's about a small boy trying to save his mother. But while these side stories could have detracted from the main one, somehow it actually added breadth and depth to the story.
The different narrative styles were great, and I just liked how the words looked on the page. It was exactly how the story of these people should have been told. Good job, Dewitt.
This review is jumbled but that's how the book is so get used to it.
