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Originally Posted by treadlightly
I've started Shogun and it's sucked me in too! And no, not healthy for my book total. But it did inspire me to go out for sushi.
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It inspired me to live in Japan for fifteen years. (The sushi was great...)
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Originally Posted by HarryT
"Shogun" is a great book, but one thing about it mildly annoys me: why on Earth did the author change the name of real historical people?
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Clevell changes the names of most of the people in his books, but leaves no question about who the real model is. In "Noble House" he even goes so far as to mention the slightly off-set front doorway into "Jardines" building in Central, facing the water, the real Hong Kong trading concern that is THE noble house, leaving no doubt as to players in the story.
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Originally Posted by ATDrake
Possibly because he wanted to do riffs on their backstories and themes for dramatic reasons rather than "pure" historical novels which would have to have stuck reasonably close to real-life events, if they were to remain plausibly "accurate" (or otherwise catch flack from critics and historically knowledgeable Gentle Readers for taking fairly significant liberties).
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There were several other differences in the book that one would only be familiar with if you'd lived in Osaka or Kyoto. References to Osaka Jo (Osaka Castle,) references to the bridges over the Yodogawa, etc. that when you read them and know the area make you wonder if he got lost somewhere. But at the same time, if you walk from the Kyobashi train station to the Donjon at Osaka Castle, you can clearly 'see' the procession where the characters walked through winding stone 'canyons,' passing through massive wooden gates under the eyes of samurai guards. Great place for a picnic!
But it's a fiction book. It's not a history or a geography school book, and these differences didn't change my view of the series... a wonderful read! And Japan is still 'Old Japan,' despite the modern age. I shot this three years ago in Kyoto...
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still haven't done Whirlwind, which appears to be severely out of print,
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There is good reason that it's out of print. It was HORRIBLE! It was as bad as the rest of the series was good. Absolutely boring!
Stitchawl