Customer Reviews

Sayonara

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is not my Japan - I was stationed there a generation later. Michener's prose describes Japan as it was during the Korean war. I still remember the vendors selling roasted chestnuts or skewers of yakitori beside the street. Today we have, God forbid, MacDonalds and Starbucks on the streets of Hiroshima.
These are not my girls - most of the Japanese women I met, outside of the bar scene, were students in English classes. Their reasons for speaking with gaijin (foreigners) were varied. Some wanted to learn English for work. Some expected to travel. One had a sister who was married to an American. The girl who is now my wife of 25 years was a rebel who just did not want to conform to the strictures of Japanese society. I have to admit, I was first attracted because she was the cutest girl I had ever seen. She's still is, for me. Were there communication problems? Yes, at first. Now, probably no different from any other couple. Could Gruver's attraction to Hana Ogi have been purely physical? Maybe. Probably not.
Sayonara isn't history - but the "tea ceremony" I saw in Kyoto last week wasn't real either.
Enjoy this book - it's a window on a different time and a different place and a different people. It's a wonderful read if you can shift your perspecive and accept things as they were.

In a supposed small world intent on globalization, reading a novel
like James A. Michener's, "Sayonara", although set in 1950s Japan,
suggests that in spite of each human's desire for the basic
necessities of life, racial and cultural differences may forever
divide and inhibit an ultimate understanding of another person in
terms of their all important concept of self-identity.

In the novel, Major Lloyd Gruver speaks, in first person prose of his prominent position in a post WW2 world. Symbolic of the America
of that time period, he scintillates with all the sparkling promise
of the American dream. Educated at West Point like his
distinguished father, and touted as an ace Air Force pilot for
shooting down MIGS in the Korean War, he appears to have it all,
especially since he is engaged to the beautiful socially acceptable
daughter of a general. A cushy conventional existence looms in his
future, but the routine and boring familiarity of this supposed
perfect life perturbs him. He finds himself immobilized and
uncertain of moving towards what he thinks of as a repeat of his
parents' lives. He finds himself asking why embrace a mindset and lifestyle for which he has little passion?

From the moment he sets foot in Japan, Gruver, defends his shaky
brand of the American dream; he has little understanding for the
countless GIs romancing "indigenous personnel." When one of his
men, Airman Joe Kelly asks him to stand up for him at his marriage
to a Japanese girl, Gruver is appalled. Rather than the
stereotypical Oriental doll expected, Katsumi, Kelly's bride,
borders on dowdy, the big gold tooth in the front of her mouth
wreaks havoc on Gruver's idea of beauty. The comparison between
this girl and Eileen, his fiancée, epitomizes for him the differences
between the East and the West.

Ironically, when Gruver meets and falls in love with Hana-Ogi, his
impressions of the Japanese change, as do his thoughts for his own
future. Ultimately, Gruver is faced with a few of the big questions-
-can he forgo the life for which he was groomed for an existence
that at that time would have been thought racially and socially
unacceptable? Would the erotic sense of unconditional love that he
feels for this girl, circumvent the problems he would encounter
because of the sensibilities of the day?

Bottom line: Published in 1953, and supposedly (according to "Out
of an Obscure Place: Japanese War Brides and Cultural Pluralism in
the 1950s" by Caroline Chung Simpson) reflective of Michener's
mindset regarding the survival rate of such interracial marriages,
this novel presages the author's growing interest in Japanese war
brides and his own change of heart regarding their success. In 1955
he married Japanese American Mari Yoriko Sabusawa. His
novel, "Sayonara," then magnificently details his personal struggle
to understand a culture much different from his own as he tests his
own self-identity. Recommended to read over and over again.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc@mindspring.com"

To me, Sayonara is an amazing story of a very unlikely couple. Maybe it is simply the woman in me that enjoys reading of a great love tale, but this novel truly hit me. In the beginning Lloyd is a man that would not think twice about dating a Japanese woman simply because of her race. But as time goes on, and the storyline progresses, his perspective begins to shift. He sees Hana-ogi not as a JAPANESE woman, but as a warm-hearted, loving human being. And although both of their careers forbid their relationship, neither one of them is willing to give up the bond they share. Their friends Joe Kelly and Katsumi are only another example of how love conquers, or rather, should conquer, all. Sayonara is not just a sappy love story. It is a tale of struggle and the overcoming of obstacles merely to be with the one you were meant to be with.

Let's get one thing straight: the Marlon Brando film, while largely remaining true to the book, failed to stay faithful to the most important scene in the latter: the ending. If Brando and the film's producers had maintained the ending, it would have been a much better, more believable movie, even with Brando's horrible, whiny Southern accent.

Back to the book: a surprisingly moving and (even more surprising) short novel from Michener, the king of historical epics. The characters are finely drawn, even the two primary Japanese women, Hana-ogi and Katsumi. Tightly written, without the lush hypersentimentality of the film. The bittersweet ending isn't surprising, but it still catches your throat and makes you wish things had been different then, both in the book and in real life. Ace Gruver is a more complex character than the standard issue romance novel hero, and his relationship with the enigmatic Hana-ogi is given delicate treatment. You could imagine this book being longer, giving more depth to the affair and the marriage between Katsumi and Joe Kelly, but it probably wouldn't have improved on the story. Michener excels in creating those lush, heavily researched, sweeping doorstoppers, but in this, one of his earlier novels, his gift as a storyteller really shines.

MRA

I have just began to read Michener's novels, but have enjoyed none more than Sayonara. It varies from his typical writing style... he writes with passionate human emotion to describe racism, love, and culture. This is an amazing and important novel for Americans. Although the story line is somewhat predictable, the language is simple and graceful. It glows with insight on contrasting Japanese ideas on land, country, and marriage. I couldn't get enough of this book. It was spectacular.

This is a beautiful tale of love and war. Though I am young, I have enjoyed the powerful way James Michener had written 'Sayonara'. I feel symphatetic towards the end for the dashing Major Llyod Gruver and his beautiful Hana-ogi. This has been a very enjoyable book and I recommend other people to read it.

This is a fine story. The book moves along at a steady pace and has plenty of interesting moments. A couple of these: when the hero hides in a cupboard from the Military Police and has a breakthrough in his thinking (freedom from the fear of the heavy boot steps in the middle of the night), and when he is reprimanded by his father and forced to realize that there are all sorts of people needed in this world to make it go 'round. The characters are diverse though the Japanese community seems weakly done. This book is recommended for those interested in the Korean war, Japan, love, or sad endings.

I enjoyed the book very much. Although the ending was very sad, the message was a very important one. The book was intriguing from the first page. It was not dull or boring at any moment. Major Gruver was a very accomplished and intelligent man. In the book it was interesting to see the changes he underwent; at first, this man would not even acknowledge a Japanese woman in public but after he opened up and gave these women a second look, he not only talked to them, but he fell in love. More people need to make that change in life because so many times people get overlooked and pushed aside because they are of a different race. In this book it was not only individuals who did not agree with the entangling of people from two totally different cultures, but the United States Air Force as a group did not agree with it either; they did not understand the strength that love has on mankind. Sayonara is a truly amazing love story who's message and lessons should be known world-wide.

at how great this novel turned out to be and I really like being surprised in reading. I had a box of unread mass market paperbacks lying around for over a year. I was bored yesterday and picked up several to choose from. I started on the first couple of pages of "Sayonara" and I simply couldn't put it down. I thought the themes were very contemporary and the writing style seemed modern. I was surprised to see the publish date in the 1950s! I was drawn into a beautiful foreign world seen through the eyes of a staunch military man. His metamorphasis into a human being was beautiful. Stereotypes are common among nearly everyone, even if they are unfair. We can learn, like Gruver, to see past the image we are told to see. Even all American women are not carbon copies.

I read this book in high school (in the 60's) and saw the movie several years after that (the endings are not the same), and must confess I'd forgotten just how racist and how chauvinistic even the sympathetic characters are. What's not in question is that things really WERE this way in 1953 when the book was published - what is in question is whether the average reader understood what Michener was trying to do in pointing it out. Given that racism (and chauvinism)are still problems in American society today, 45 years later, I'd say they didn't.