Customer Reviews

Ransom

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very good, not brilliant, very rereadable. Ransom tells the story of a young American ex-pat living in Japan, who tries to lose himself in an ascetic existence, and the study of Karate. There's a certain inevitability to the story, but the end is no less forceful for being predictable. Like its protagonist, the book has a quiet, calm charm. The writing is simple and lucid, and carries you along easily. As always in McInerney novels, the sadder whole is leavened with plenty of humour. The ways in which East and West romanticize each others' cultures provide for some side-splitting moments. The Japanese in the novel are all trying for American cool, and the Americans are all trying to reach Nirvana. A quiet, compelling, entertaining read. Recommended.

Although I am a fan of the author's sense of humor and writing style, I'm often kind of embarassed about sitting down to read another book about a brooding, sarcastic, over-privilidged, young, white male. Ransom is in line with all of the above, which as I previously admitted, I tend to enjoy (albeit abashedly). But each time I turned a page of Ransom, I felt like I was staring at a bad accident. Americans in Japan walking around wearing top knots, kimono and carrying swords? Come on! The author worked in every silly notion about Japan that Americans love to generalize and exaggerate. Bath houses, martial arts, poisonous blowfish, yakuza tattoos...McInerny threw them all into this one, allowing us not a glimpse of Japan but a cross between a bad James Clavell novel and a comic book. Of couse there were a few of those classic quips that you have to read twice so that you can quote them at "the right" moments. Beyond that, this book represents an adolescent, often insensitive few of Japan that, if it wasn't so laughable, would be completely disappointing.

Jay McInerney does for karate what Robert Pirsig did for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The book centers around the experiences of an American expatriate recovering from a tragic experience in the Himalayas. Ransom's chosen vehicle -- the study of karate under a sadistic sensei -- illuminates his own character and, through the use of flashbacks, how he became who he is. The book's slow and inevitable climax is no less intense for being utterly predictable. Well-written, by turns screamingly funny and achingly touching, this novel deserves a wider audience than it has

This is was actually a very enjoyable and engaging read. I enjoyed the keen descriptions, the insights of an outsider in Japan and some of the clever dialogue. The disturbing flashbacks to the Pakistani border, a hint of some past trauma, reminded me of Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilamanjaro."

But the ending was strange, almost dream-like. Without giving it away, there is a violent martial arts duel. Was it real? It was disappointing. Give credit to McInerney for trying to do something different and unusual, but he didn't quite pull it off. It felt like the characters and the plot were left a little too unresolved, disjointed.

Overall, a very talented, funny writer with a good skill for fluid, engaging reading. I hope to read his other works.

After reading Bright Lights, Big City and Story of My Life, I went into this novel thinking I had an idea of what to expect. Very wrong. This novel is quite different from those too, and I can't say that that's really a good thing.

It felt to me like McInerney's style of writing falls a little flat when trying to deal with too many complex issues at once. He's got some flashbacks of a tragedy that took place between the main character and some friends in Afghanistan, the issue of Ransom and his father, Ransom and his karate class, his feelings of separation from the people around him in Japan (does he enjoy this or not?), and then finally, the semi-romantic character of Marilyn that never seems to add up.

McInerney has trouble bringing all of these plotlines together for a solid story, and it always seems like not very much is happening, but too much is happening. The character of Ransom is never developed enough to justify the flashbacks, and his problems with his father don't seem very well founded. Because of this it's difficult to get interested in the story.

The first 2/3 of the book feel like very slow, empty exposition in which you don't know if anything is ever really going to happen, but it keeps feeling as if something is right around the corner. The last 1/3 of the book is pretty interesting and I moved through it pretty quickly, but ultimately it's disappointing.

The most interesting part of this book is the description of the Japanese lifestyle, and Ransom's feelings about it. It feels very well researched and understood, however, that doesn't make this a good novel. If you're really interested in checking out all of Jay McInerney's stuff, go for it, but otherwise, I'd suggest skipping this one and going for stories that McInerney feels more comfortable writing: Big City, Big Money, Spoiled Kids... etc. I think he aimed high on this one and fell quite short.

I think that most people have missed the point of the book. It is a simple and elegant story. It is not biting social commentary. It does not give pat and easy answers. It does not beat you over the head with message. It is slow, short and meditative. If you feel that a great book must be "clever" or "shocking", look elsewhere.

Many people seem upset that the characters and plot were not fully developed. This is not a story about personalities or a series of events. It is the story of a man driven by memories and circumstance into a search for validation.

Good, descriptive narrative, but it doesn't overcome the predictability of the story.

Christopher Ransom, son of an American movie executive, lives in Japan and supports himself by teaching at the A-OK English Language School. He devotes his free time to karate and socializing at a strange bar called the Buffalo Rome. He lost two friends -- Annette and Ian -- who had gone to Pakistan to seek drugs to sell direct from the producers. To overcome the horror, he moves to Japan to simplify and purify his life. Instead, he must deal with man's dark side once again in the character "DeVito".

By the end of the story, Ransom has chosen to confront DeVito, strangely choosing to fight with swords instead of karate. I interpret this decision as his choice to -- perhaps -- give up on life; as McInerney has created a character with nothing left to do but confront and face death, and accept it if it comes for him.

Which, in the end, well -- you'll have to read the book to see how it ends... (smile)

R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University

Moment by moment I was holding out hope for this book until I got to the WTF ending which rushed at me freight train style on the last page, and then I retroactively lost all patience with the pointless 290-page trip I took with Jay Mcinerney, and actually felt miffed at the man, whom we all know can do so much better. All along I kept thinking that surely there was more to Ransom than what I was reading, right? I supposed that given the talent of the author the conclusion of Ransom would the remedy the tedium and justify the optimism I had to resuscitate several times while keeping track of his sidestepping micro-plot. The only reason I am rating this book three stars instead of two is for the fact it was an interesting travelogue that gave good and seemingly realistic depictions of life in Japan in the late 1970's. The actual story here of the free-falling American ex-pat Chris Ransom and his thinly-explained retreat from life, a symptom of his self-destructive quest for redemption in the face of the guilt he has needlessly put onto himself, well, that was but a ghostly presence throughout the book and in the end the entire story in Ransom proved aggravatingly empty of merit. May the gods of post-Brat Pack literature save us all from another Mcinerney novel this hollow.

I was curious how it would be to read a story that takes place in Kyoto, Japan, which is written by an American. In 1977, Christopher Ransom has lived in an ancient Japanese capital, Kyoto, after his "north-west frontier province" to Pakistan in 1975 where he lost his Austrian friends. The reason he had traveled Asia and settled down in Japan was that Ransom wanted to stay away from U.S., where his father, a successful TV director, lived. Ransom felt as if he were captured by his father, the millionaire. Actually, he was still in father's hands, and was damaged by him even though he was physically far away from him and totally had believed he was living by himself. The practice of karate represents Ransom's aim to live in Japan: It is not only physically but also spiritually purifying and strengthening. Jay McInerney, in third person's point of view, pictured this naive guy's life in an exotic historical town, contrasting aggressive Americans and patient Japanese. It was exciting to find unexpected facts out about Ransom; it's easy to see why McInerney is praised as "a born novelist whom we'll be hearing more and more" by The New York Review Of Books for his first novel Bright Lights, Big City. I was disappointed that the setting was not completely portrayed. As a native Japanese, I felt he did not perfectly draw out the mood of Japan. Bringing in karate as the most effective symbol of Ransom's life in Japan might not let readers understand the setting exactly.

A great read. One learns a great deal about Japanese Culture in this novel. Jay McInerney once again succeeds in putting the reader in needles with his witty social commentary. The circumstances of the plot keeps the pages turning and the reader guessing. The ending shocks the reader and McInerney's clever prose make the book a must-read for McInerney disciples and those who would like some insight into Japanese Culture.