Customer Reviews

The New Bedford Samurai

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It's a shame that the other reviews for this book focus on the historical accuracy of this "non-fiction" novel--not because it didn't clearly involve a great deal of impressive research, but because the book is not a history text but a serious page-turner, a beautifully written and incredibly gripping re-imagining of the amazing but true meeting of people from two completely different worlds: a young man, hardly more than a boy, from the closed-to-the-west Japan of the early 1800s, and a New England whaling-boat captain--both of them far ahead of their time. The novel takes you on a compelling journey through these characters' adventures, intermingling their stories with vivid scenes that illustrate the consequences, historical and ecological, of globalization (part of which started when these two characters met). From a never-to-be-forgotten scene of the capture of a shark on the whaling vessel to stunning descriptions of land- and sea-life to powerful conversations between individuals reaching across cultures, this book brings the past--real and imagined--vibrantly to life. Just don't start reading this when you have something else to do--you won't be able to pull yourself away!

Anca Vlasopolos has immersed her reader through her massive research on a historical character into the connecting oceanic link between Japan and America. Manjiro Nakahama, a man without a culture who is no longer Japanese and never an American, links the two cultures through his American acquired technology and Japanese diplomacy. My gratitude this Christmas followed my precious plastic through the gifting of two copies for my daughters.

A fascinating story of Manjiro Nakahama, a not so well known but important link between the US and Japan, told in admirable style with deep understanding of some of the issues involved, including destruction of our living environement and the effects of globalization.