Customer Reviews

Cloud of Sparrows

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

If you've read some of my other reviews (Silent Honor, The Salaryman's Wife) you'll know that I have a short tolerance for people who write about Japan without actually knowing much about the culture. Thankfully, Matsuoka does not fall into this category. Of course, no one alive today has first-hand experience with shogun-era Japan, but Matsuoka doesn't make the mistake of giving western characters Japanese names and then hoping no one will notice. His Japanese are Japanese, his westerners are western, and the whole story flows easily back and forth between the two cultural viewpoints. Other people have summarized the plot, so I'll just say that the story had pretty much everything in it, from large-scale warfare to individual humor. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get an idea of how the Japanese mind works, as well as anyone who just wants to read a good story.

"Cloud of Sparrows" is Takashi Matsuoka's first novel, an ambitious tale set in Japan in the 1860's, as the country is being forcibly opened by "outsiders" and the era of the Shogun and samurai moves toward an end.

The plot involves a trio of American missionaries who go to Japan to set up their church, and the fate of the Tokumichi samurai clan from Akaoka.

The central character is Lord Genji, a minor lord and somewhat of a dilletante of a samurai, more concerned with poetry and lovemaking than swordsmanship. He also happens to have the family curse of seeing visions of the future.

The story of full of plots within plots, characters who are more than they appear to be, and plenty of action. There is subterfuge, counter-plotting, revenge and romance.

In addition to Genji, the other primary characters are Heiko, the most lovely geisha in all Japan, Emily, a beautiful young American perceived as ugly in Japan, and Matthew Stark, a gunfighter seeking revenge on a man who has fled to Japan and become a Buddhist monk. Important sub-characters include Genji's uncle Shigeru, who has horrific visions of a WWII era and overpopulated future Japan. There are also a trio of Genji's captains, Saiki, Kudo and Sohaku, who may or may not be plotting against their lord. Throw in the treacherous Kawakami, the Shogun's chief of secret police, as well as Kuma the Bear, the deadliest ninja in Japan, and Genji has plenty of antagonists.

The story was intriguing, and the plot moved along quickly, with rarely a dull moment. It's a page-turning read. I enjoyed the comparison/contrast of Japan and outside cultures, and Matsuoka went to considerable detail on clothing. Genji is a likable protaganist, who faces a number of challenges, and exhibits some character arc by the end of the story. He makes some unexpected decisions. Emily also grows in the story, and has to make some difficult choices as well.

Matsuoka attempted an third person omniscient point-of-view strategy, getting us into the heads of just about every character in the book. This was sometimes successful in presenting an almost "Rashomon" type review of scenes from different perspectives, but was sometimes confusing as we backtracked to scenes that have already ended. There are also a lot of character histories told in flashback. This is the essential problem with the book. There was more "telling" than "showing" with character emotions and stories, and not enough vivid detail to fully bring me into the character's world.

Also, I felt that the buildup for the relationships was better than the payoff. I was disappointed in the Stark vs. Jimbo showdown.

Finally, the novel is very graphically violent. Especially involving children. So if you are sensitive to that type of thing, beware.

"Cloud of Sparrows," the first novel from Takashi Matsuoka, spins a complex yarn set in 1861 Japan -- this is a classic East Meets West tale, but it is told with brutal clarity and riveting poetry that sets it apart from more mundane works.

While Matsuoka's characters are initially bound by their rigid perceptions of each other (the Japanese see Westerners as uncivilized oafs while the Westerners see the Japanese as heathen wretches crying out for salvation), Matsuoka uses flashbacks and current crises to highlight the underlying similarities between the two cultures. Both groups, Japanese and American, are capable of and commit acts of horrifying barbarity as well as acts of exquisite kindness. Revenge and honor motivate both groups, as well -- the goals are merely pursued in different ways.

The story focuses on the rise of Lord Genji, a Japanese Prince Hal character (who apparently served as his own Falstaff) who must overcome his playboy reputation and lead his clan to victory. The victory he seeks is the conclusion of the Battle of Sekigahara, which was fought over 250 years ago. Lord Genji, cursed and blessed with the gift of prophecy, knows that the balance of Japanese history will be determined by these Westerners, with their lethal machinery and perpetual focus on the future. Japan, as Genji sees it, has cursed itself with its dedication to tradition, honor, and ritualism. And so Genji seeks out the company of the new arrivals, three American missionaries who will each affect the history of Japan in their own way.

Two of the three Americans are characters for the ages. Emily Gibson is a beautiful missionary who has fled to Japan hoping that the Japanese will see her as ugly, since her beauty has only caused her misery back in America. The other American of note is Matthew Stark, who wears a missionary's habit but whose mission is murder. Their fates grow entwined with Genji's as the wheels of fate and consequence turn inexorably.

Also riding shotgun with Genji is his deranged uncle, the mightiest swordsman in Japan since Musashi (and who is also cursed with prophecies of Japan's ultimate fate), and a beautiful geisha/ninja whose darkest secret is unknown even to her.

This is a Japan where men still slit their own throats after learning they have insulted the wrong man, where plots of vengeance grow over decades, and where men and women can still learn astounding new truths about each other and the world around them. Through it all, Matsuoka writes with a brilliant clarity, which brings to life both his visions of beauty and his horrifying battle scenes -- scenes which rival the wonderful Cormac McCarthy in their stark realism.

This novel reads like the first novel in a series, as many loose ends are unresolved at the end. "Autumn Bridge" is apparently the next book in the series, and I can't wait to check it out. Dive in, and enjoy!

This is a very good first novel, and I am highly impressed by that fact. That many people compare this to "Shogun" is utter nonesense and foolishness. One does not compare all fantasy with Lord of the Rings, for the simple reason that it is and always will be the unrivaled master. So too is the case with Shogun, which is the greatest epic novel of Japan ever written. Cloud of Sparrows stands proudly and strongly on its own. The characters are well fleshed out, and I found myself caring about them far more than in most books I read. The plot is not complex, but is told in a way so as to be intricate and filled with surprises. It's the telling of the tale that is most captivating. Some have said that its weak selling is a sign of a bad novel, well, let us not forget that Edgar Allen Poe died penniless and alone, but it is hard to argue that his stories were weak by any stretch of the imagination. Do not let petty popularity contests steer you from what is an excellent tale of love, tragedy, betrayal, vengeance, redemption and most of all...HONOR.

This story of Japans opening of its doors to other countries is a very detailed and in depth tale. It starts off with three travelers three missionaries coming to this newly opened country to salvage the peoples from their sins little do they know that their mission for god is going to end up becoming something much different. This novel is the first of two out of the series and it did very well when it came to the historical correctness. The characters where shown well through the book and it doesn't take away from the story at all it just keeps on going without a stop. The travelers find out that they are the subjects to judgment and they don't even know it, but it is the same for the Japanese when the missionaries are judging the ways of geishas and the way they even look. This is one of the most interesting things that happen in the book but can be very subtle to see while reading. The Japanese characters are definitely the most interesting, Genji a minor lord who is the host to the missionaries can see the future which is the overpopulated Japan during WWII and it happens to be the same for all the men of his family. This story was very easy to read but it could also be very hard to read. It would use story shifts to separate chapters. This story follows the history of Japan very well and the characters of the story can be considered some of the most strange.

This is a very good read. I was very impressed with the quality of this book. I grew quickly attached to the charcters and found the story to be captivating. Some compared it to Shogun, and I have found the comparission to be a good one. While not as grand as Shogun the story and the charcters are so exceptional that I found myself thinking it may be a better book in many ways. I am highly anticipating the sequel Autumn Bridge which was recently released.

I read "Cloud of Sparrows" and the plot, in many ways, parallels the book, "The Golden Crane", which is also for sale on Amazon.com. The "Golden Crane" was copyrighted in 1997, well ahead of Matsuoka; but I find his take-off not as good. His addition of a hardened American gunfighter seems outrageous at best, and completely improbable in tightly controlled Japan. He makes the Japanese protagonist, Lord Genji, a psychotic visionary. This is also highly improbable in a society that reviles anyone different. In mid-nineteenth century Japan, Genji would have probably been killed before he reached adulthood, once his pyschosis became manifest. Matsuoka's work does offer more gratuitious gore, if you are in to gratuitous gore.
However, if you want to read a better story, with many of the same elements, set in the same time period, and with a much more interesting plot, try the "Golden Crane", which is for sale as a less expensive paperback book.

This is a fast-moving, well-written tale with enough intrigue, history, romance, mysticism,and Samurai lore and gore to please just about any reader. Shortly after the opening of Japan to the west, young Lord Genji is sent to the docks of Edo to greet three Christian missionaries. Most of his countrymen see the outsiders as repugnant and their ideas as ridiculous, but Genji intuitively understands the influence they will have on his country's future.

The missionaries are a strange trio who bring their own load of intrigue. Matthew Starke is an ex-gunslinger-at least he says it's a former profession. Emily's beauty has only brought her grief in the United States, and she feels liberated by how ugly the Japanese find her. Zephaniah, their leader, is on fire for Christ but not Emily, even though she is his fiancée. Genji and the beautiful geisha Heiko are thrown in with the missionaries at first because they allegedly speak English (although no one is more amused than they to hear the difference between their book-learned language and the way people actually talk); and then because of the threat they all face from factions attempting to overthrow Genji's ancient clan.

Author Takashi Matsuoka writes with confidence and verve, creating lively, intricate characters whom he places in exciting situations. A great deal of history is imparted, neatly meshed into the narrative, and both Japanese and American characters are fully realized. Nice touches of cross-culture influence are provided in the form of an American who has become a Buddhist monk, and a samurai whose life is transformed by the concept of the pursuit of happiness. "Cloud of Sparrows" is an excellent addition to the historical adventure genre.

A few weeks ago, a friend recommeded a book to me. Cloud of Sparrows. I was curious, and read a few of the reviews here... many of them mentioned another book that I had not read, Shogun, by James Clavell.

Now I have read both, and I can say that while each book is very well written and engaging, Cloud of Sparrows was by far the best of the two.

One important thing to note about CoS, is that while it is a "samurai" book (the same as Shogun) the time periods are vastly different. Shogun dealt with the sixteenth century "sengokou jidai" (Time of Warring States; civil war) in Japan. The names were changed, for example, Ishida became Ishido, Tokugawa became Toranaga, Hiroyoshi became The Taiko, and Oda Nobunaga became "Garuda the dictator." That was confusing, for me at least. Cloud of sparrows takes place nearly 200 years later, in the chaotic times of Japanese history just before the Ishin revolution and the Meiji restoration. The confusion with the names from Clavell's work is thankfully absent, and the author is freed to present the excellent story with an unparalled clarity. It's great.

The best thing I can really say about Matsuoka's Cloud of Sparrows is that I couldn't put it down. Literally. I physically could not stop reading the book, I tried countless times to set it aside and work on other things, but I could not. I read it while in school, while driving, while waiting in a doctor's office, I could not stop.

Never in my life has my will been held hostage like that, it was unbelievable. Now that I'm finally freed from the adhesive, enthralling embrace of Matsuoka's masterpreice, I still find my self on the edge with unbridled anticipation. At the end of Cloud of Sparrows there was an excerpt from Matsuoka's next book, "Autumn Bridge," which is to be published in August of 2004, and it was great. Better, dare I say, than Cloud of Sparrows.

Matsuoka is a brilliant writer, one of the best storytellers that I've ever been priveleged enough to notice. His ability to hijack your mind and force your eyes to wander across the pages of his books, trapped in the world he created... it is something to be feared, anything so powerfull too must be fearfull, but it's also something to look forward to and to love.

I loved it; I can offer no greater praise.

A very well written novel. I could barely put the book down. This also has to do with the clever way the chapters are laid out, so it doesn't give you the traditional breaking point. I loved how he told the same story from different angles throughout the book. He gave a lot of background information, but he gave it as was necessary. Wonderful incorporation of recognizable historical happenings. Great story line. I can't wait to read Autumn Bridge.