The Eclectic Reader

SHOGUN, by James Clavell

It is not often that I write a book review 43 years late. I read this book and saw the mini series while attending beekeeping school at ATI/Ohio State University and living in a trailer in the middle of a corn field on an Ohio dairy farm with my daughter. That’s for background.

Generally, the descriptive blurbs on the back cover of a book are either insanely exaggerated or hysterically erroneous. Often, after the passage of so many years, with the accumulation of well over 1,000 books read, I don’t remember much about a book other than a sort of thumbs up or thumbs down. In spite of my obligations to my apicultural studies, somehow I read the thousand plus pages of this historical novel. To this day, Shogun absolutely shines in memory.

I would describe Shogun as a completely immersive experience. It was the only time I have ever cried because I have finished a book. Reviewers have said it is “not only something you read—you live it.” Also: ” absorbing,” “riveting,” “endlessly compelling.” All true.

From the back cover of this new edition: “Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shogun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book.”

One of my favorite fables/life lessons, “Teaching the Horse to Sing,” appeared in this book.

My only negative comment on Shogun is regarding its brutality.

As a book dealer, this book has been hard to find for years. We have this copy in the store at $10.