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Helen Dewitt

The Last Samurai Paperback – May 31, 2016

by Helen DeWitt (Author)

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Called “remarkable” (The Wall Street Journal) and “an ambitious, colossal debut novel” (Publishers Weekly), Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai is back in print at last

Helen DeWitt’s 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was “destined to become a cult classic” (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so “Why not just, ‘destined to become a classic?’” (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise?

Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo’s shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa’s masterpiece Seven Samurai. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn’t know: his father’s name. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. He’ll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. He may not live to see twelve. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death.

Print length

576 pages
Language

English
Publisher

New Directions
Publication date

May 31, 2016
Dimensions

5.2 x 1.4 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

081122550X
ISBN-13

978-0811225502
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[...] a Molotov cocktail of a book, an incendiary experience for readers that breaks through the mundanity of life, work, and love to achieve greatness."
― Off the Shelf

"A triumph―a genuinely new story, a genuinely new form."
― A. S. Byatt, The New Yorker

"The Last Samurai is an original work of brilliance about, in part, the limits of brilliance."
― Time

"The book has been a great source of motivation for me. I must outdo Ludo, because he is younger than I am but smarter than I am. My father says that this is ridiculous, as Ludo is a fictional character. But this is precisely my point: how can I let a character who isn’t even real outdo me?"
― Daniel (age 14)

About the Author

Helen DeWitt was born in a suburb of Washington, DC. Daughter of American diplomats, she grew up mainly in Latin America, living in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. She went to Oxford to study classics for a BA and D.Phil. She left academia to try to write a novel, moving eventually to London and acquiring UK citizenship. She had some 100 fragments of novels when she began work in 1995 on the novel that was published as The Last Samurai in 2000. The book caused a sensation at the Frankfurt Bookfair 1999, going on to be translated in 20 languages (DeWitt reads some 15 languages to various degrees of fluency). On the reissue of The Last Samurai by New Directions in 2016 it was hailed by Vulture Magazine as The Best Book of the Century. She is also the author of Lightning Rods, a Mel Brooksian satire on sexual harassment, and Some Trick, a collection of stories. She has been based in Berlin since 2004, but also spends time at a cottage in the woods of Vermont improving her chainsaw skills.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions; Reprint edition (May 31, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 081122550X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811225502
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 1.4 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #55,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,480 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #1,923 in American Literature (Books)
- #2,962 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Top reviews from the United States

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mmlvx

Out, standing in her field

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 24, 2022

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It would be ridiculous for me to attempt in 20 words what the world has not done in 20 years.

Ok, sorry, that was flippant and probably unhelpful to folks deciding whether to invest time in reading "The Last Samurai" (or perhaps trying to decide whether to buy it as a gift for someone). I like this book. I like it so much that I have given away a half-dozen copies to various friends and family. I like it so much that I have re-read it five or six times myself.

I like it for its unflinching treatment of depression and related psychological illness in loved ones. I like it for its unorthodox protagonists. I like its twisted take on The Hero's Journey. Actually, trying to think of something about this book I *don't* like, I'm coming up short.

It doesn't mention Linux, at all. (But then, it's not really much about computers. And it was written before I'd even installed Mandrake for the first time. So, it's totally unfair to hold such a triviality against the author.)

Who is this book for? I would say, it's for "effete intellectual snobs", and friends of said. And it's for people who think the world would be better if we did a better job of *not* discouraging the curiosity of children.

Who is this book *not* for? I would say, it's not for the kind of political leaders who win their elections with 99.9% of the vote of their adoring public. And it's not for the people who think that the world would be better with more tyranny. (And it's probably not a great choice for people with logophobia.)

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jens B. Fiederer

"A good samurai will parry the blow"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 3, 2011

Verified Purchase

(Reviewed this on my blog, might as well copy the review here where people might actually read it)

She must have loved that quote, I lost track of how often she quoted it. It can't have been too many, because that would be wrong -- and for me there was nothing wrong with this book. I'm not sure which book this one pushes off my top ten list, but it's position is secure.

Art, science, religion, philosophy, growing up, settling vs. striving....this book weaves them all into a fabric that wraps reality and dreams together. At various points I might have told friends what I though this book was about, but that changes as you read it. Unlike Cien Años de Soledad, which also follows a family through the generations, this book comes into sharper and sharper focus as the years go by, and you realize the character you at first enjoyed is really background for the more vibrant character you are enjoying now.

One point that should be kept in mind: this book has no relation to the Tom Cruise movie of the same name, and only a passing relation to samurais - the title is an allusion to the Kurosawa movie "The Seven Samurai", which is a favorite of one of the characters. It does have some negative criticism for the movie:
Cast your mind back to this film for one moment. Identify, if you can, a suitable moment at which to place your arm around the shoulders of your companion and kiss her. You cannot? No more could I. After half an hour, no suitable moment presenting itself, I chose an unsuitable moment -- I was rebuked.
I really want to recommend this book, but I'm not sure that everybody can appreciate it. Although the book has no sluggish parts, it does use some techniques that might be confusing and off-putting if you don't get them. There will be things beyond your comprehension you might want to just skip over, but they are brief. If you are contemplating suicide, there are some helpful techniques to avoid it (for example, watching "The Importance of Being Earnest"), but they might not work -- but if you do commit suicide after reading this book, it is not because the book depressed you, it is because the depression was just too deep for the book to lift.

10 people found this helpful

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M. A. Krul

Masterful and entertaining novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 16, 2008

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Although much has been said already in the glowing reviews this book has justly gotten, I want to add my own voice to the chorus of praise. Helen De Witt's late debut (it's not polite to point out a lady's age but one can say most writers debut quite earlier than she did) is one of the most entertaining novels I have read in a long time.

The book is about Sybilla, an American single mother eking out an existence in London as a transscriber of old magazines while at the same time trying to deal with having a miraculously smart child, Ludo. Since Ludo lacks a father, she raises him on countless viewings of Akira Kurosawa's masterwork "The Seven Samurai", as well as spending her little income on buying second-hand books on languages, physics, astronomy and other subjects. Ludo masters all these things at a shockingly young age; so much so in fact that his short attempt to attend an actual school is a dismal failure. As he grows up though, Ludo wants to find out who his father is, hoping to find a rolemodel in him as well as a support for his often despondent and potentially suicidal mother, for whom "boredom is a fate worse than death".

The book traces Ludo's quest for his father and the various odd and over the top characters that he considers, while at the same time describing the intense bond between a single mother and her son. De Witt's writing is highly inventive and original and makes maximal use of page layout and changes in pace and style, without this becoming a gimmick like it does with Danielewski. Although the mother Sybilla is unabashedly based on herself, the way De Witt captures the mind of the strong-willed wunderkind is definitely the best characterization in the book, and this alone makes it worth reading. Add to that the solid structure of the book (I don't understand why some reviewers found this meandering, when it's more compact and structured than most famous 19th century novels put together), the inspiring erudition of the various interludes on linguistics, foreign lands, physics, astronomy, and Kurosawa, and finally the unpredictability and novelty of the book as a whole, and you have a definite masterpiece. If it is true that a writer's first book is usually one of their weaker ones, then we have a enormous talent in Helen De Witt.

16 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

seeker

Poignant, funny, challenging. Full of ideas

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

I came across Helen Dewitt in a Vulture.com blog post that asked authors and critics to rate the BEST BOOKS OF THE CENTURY SO FAR. THIS BOOK WAS #1.

If you didn't understand the reviewer who said "Haven’t been this excited since discovering DFW" then this book is probably not for you. You'll only buy it and give it a poor review which, given the economics of Amazon and the book trade in general, will only damage the author - who is in my opinion a genius. David Foster Wallace was a different kind of writer, but had the same restless approach to his craft.

If the idea that the form of the novel can be disassembled and reconstructed in a way that challenges the intellect and basic aesthetic comprehension - a process that has been going on for well over a hundred years - then don't buy this book. You'll only mistake its formal playfulness and experimentation for typos (see other Amazon reviewers), and you'll give it a poor rating.

Please buy the book if you have an open mind, love literature and want to support it. We need people like DeWitt who think in new ways, even if it does outrage the 'general public'.

6 people found this helpful

Jack Ireland

A lot of promise...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book has probably my favourite prologue of any book I have read. I would probably buy the book again for the prologue alone. However the initial focus and tight writing style, which so captured me with its momentum, dissipates quickly. It is replaced by a sprawly narrative full of interesting insights, impressive knowledge and cute observations - but with no clear direction, and worse, possibly no clear purpose but to showcase the writer's range (this is her first book I believe). I had to pick up this book again a number of times before I could finish it but I would read more of her work based on that initial promise...

3 people found this helpful

Tarot Scribe

Not for me, sorry :/

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

This book just isn't my cup of tea. Parts of it were great, other parts just felt pretentious to me. However, it did make me think that I could possibly get to grips with the Greek alphabet in a weekend if I put my mind to it. Have an open mind and try the book for yourself - if you don't like it, then at least you gave it a go :)

4 people found this helpful

izzy

buried treasures of wit and meaning

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 27, 2002

Verified Purchase

Helen DeWitt as writer of The Last Samurai goes straight to the top to join Swift, Joyce & Beckett as my literary heroes. This work of black humour and dead-pan virtuosity brings the Enlightenment into the present day vernacular.
The selection sequence from Kurasawa's movie the 7 Samurai provides the frame by which the boy Ludo explores the seven potential candidates for the role of father. Each man is tested by his ability to "parry the blow" of paternity, so prove himself a real samurai. Each of these encounters is a tragi-comic gem in its own right up to the final one, the Last Samurai, the one who has the answers. The elan with which DeWitt sustains the development of plot and character up to the triumphant last word is breathtaking. Yet there is more to it than the intricacies of the story. The understanding of language, art, music, games is underpinned with passages of astounding beauty. It is also profound. Whether in Tescos or the steppes of Asia, there is cruelty and heroism, suicidal despair and life-redeeming hope.
Buy the hardback version. This is a book to cherish, buried treasures of wit and meaning emerging with each re-reading, and the decorative character of the typography, pages of Japanese characters and mathematical calculations inserted seamlessly as integral illustrations, as pictures of the mind at work, is enhanced by the quality of print and paper, worthy of a present-day Gutenberg.

14 people found this helpful

Sammie

very boring!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is a HUGE disappointment. I couldn't even get into it, it's really boring and the story doesn't really make sense at the start. I think this is the only book I've ever bought where I've genuinely just given up reading it. I wouldn't buy this book unless you really enjoy reading non-fiction.

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