grimjack2's Full Review: Trevanian - Shibumi: A Novel
"Shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. ...Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. ...One must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity."
If this seems like a vague definition, it is meant to be. The Japanese army general explaining this to a partially western child also explains that the concept is too foreign to be put into western words. A westerner has almost no chance of ever understanding, much less achieving it. Yet, this child, the main character of the novel "Shibumi", is so fascinated by the concept that he decides to spend his entire life obtaining it.
This novel could probably be best called a 'spy novel', but it is far more literary than the genre normally sees. The book is clever, detailed, historical, exciting, educational and above all interesting.
The book starts with a clever countdown of numbers. This is in itself a joke to the characters in the book for it is a movie leader on a CIA film of a recent killing they organized in Italy. There is a detached feeling by all of the characters over how much of the world's happenings they seem to be involved with.
The novel is critical of many things. People, places, items. You name it. The main character has disdain for everything, but then again I think every character here has disdain for everything. I don't know if a compliment is ever passed between two people for the entire novel.
The only thing Nicholai likes about America is that its drivers are experienced and that it has added the wonderful 'snack' to world cuisine. The author states that Arabs prefer virgins because they dread comparison. He also states that the Arab body was not designed for clothes that require posture and discipline. He also insults political groups. The IRA has no competence in acting out a plan. The Arabs cannot get proper intelligence. References are made to the British all being closet homosexuals.
The author must truly believe that all big business is corrupt and willing to sacrifice humanity for their ends. No names are mentioned, but there is a certain feeling that the oil companies own the media and government offices, and will do anything to maintain their lofty positions.
The primary business organization here is wonderfully called, "The Mother Company". It is a fascinating concept, which may not be too far from the truth. This largest of companies controls the oil distribution chains, the media, banking, and etc.. Their computer is named 'big boy', and is the most complete database ever. It is so powerful that it is able to impress even its operators by the fact that it is almost able to think by itself. The Mother Company has divisions inside itself that actually kill members as they reach their 50s and are no longer able to perform as well as the younger generations. It considers this a superior alternative to retirement benefits.
I loved the scene where the Mother Company quickly takes control over the CIA by simply walking in after doing severe damage to their overseas intelligence organization and says it will now be at the Mother Company's beck & call. They offer little resistance, like most of the intelligence organizations around the world.
Throughout the whole novel, there is great detail in all the people and places he writes about. I don't know how much of this is made up, but Trevanian brings a sense of detail that makes each opinion about the culture seem true. He seems to truly understand the Japanese, and to a lesser extent the Chinese cultures. He even seems to make brief, but accurate assessments of Russian, Palestinian, and yes, American culture. The most obscure culture he delves into is the Basque. I learned more about the Basque culture here than anything else I've ever read. As a matter of fact, I've mentioned Basque to many people who still have never seemed to have heard of it. I'm not sure if Trevanian has a love for Basque culture, or just wanted to choose one that was so obscure that few would have even heard of it before. It reminds me of the film "Once Around" where they made an easy target out of references to Lithuania, or "Wag the Dog" with their choice of Albania as a safe country that no has ever heard of.
The lead character is Nicholai Hel. He born and raised by a Russian mother, from a German suitor. Later a Japanese general becomes his surrogate father of sorts, even paying for his education in the game of Go. He has no country he belongs to, and is considered a Rogue agent because of his lack of loyalty to anyone except whoever pays him. This could be to give him the unusual vantage point of being able to criticize everyone.
He is a master of language and cultures, and this serves him well. He is able to survive the post war American occupied Japan with this knowledge. He is also a master of sex, and there are a few unusual scenes involving great detail about obscure sex games. With one woman he reminds himself not to please her too much, or else she will spend the rest of her life futily trying to obtain that level of sexual gratification again. He doesn't state this with arrogance, but more like it is a form of punishment that he enacts on the deserving.
He is also the master of Spelunking (cave exploring), because it enables him to be 'alone' while in the company of friends. His genius at Go is what makes him able to escape the bombed urban areas during the war. And of course he is an expert killer. He is actually referred to as the world's most highly paid assassin, specializing in killing terrorists. He also specializes in a rare martial art, which makes it possible for him to use ordinary household items as methods of killing. The author warns in a footnote that he will not give details to this for fear of some reader causing harm to others.
This book contains a lot of intelligent action. Nicholai's method of travelling is difficult since the Mother Company controls most means of travel, and the local intelligence agencies. One of my favorite scenes has him eluding clumsy agents at an airport. By changing his name to Helm, he is able to identify the agents who refer to him correctly as 'Hel'. To keep them from boarding the plane, he puts a flat piece of aluminum shaped like a gun into their belongings which shows up on x-ray as a gun, even though none can be found.
This book was my first introduction to the Japanese game 'Go'. It is sometimes called the Japanese chess, which isn't quite accurate. Chess seems more mathematical, while Go is rather fascinating in its open-ended nature. A later book, "Jian", by another author I like, Eric Van Lustbader, also featured 'Go' as a lifelong obsession of its lead character, and seemed influenced by this book.
The book is exciting almost throughout, but both times I read it, I found one long boring scene involving cave exploration. I know it was important to the story later, but it just seemed to drag on and on, in an otherwise fast paced book.
Another flaw that I found unusually distracting, even when reading it for the first time at a young age, was that everything mentioned earlier in the book has a purpose later. Anything mentioned that seems minor, can be expected to turn up later. I remember nearing the end and thinking that there was at least one very interesting mention of a letter of official regret taken from a dignified dead old man that shows up, although on the last page.
Flaws aside, this is an entertaining book that holds up well to multiple reads.
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