Book Review: Shōgun by James Clavell

Book #38 of 2023:

Shōgun by James Clavell (Asian Saga #1)

I went into this 1975 bestseller somewhat skeptically, both for its length at 1152 pages and for its potential Orientalism, being a white British writer’s take on feudal Japan circa the early 17th century. And it is firmly a work of historical fiction, albeit one based upon the life of the first Englishman to visit the island nation and the local warlord who rose to power around that time. Yet author James Clavell seems to have done his research and approached his subject with care and respect, such that the various technical inaccuracies tend to register as deliberate creative choices and not anything especially stereotypical or offensive (at least to this white American reader a few decades later).

I think it helps that Clavell presents us with a large cast of fleshed-out characters, most of them Japanese, with clear differences of philosophy and temperament across the lot. While the novel engages in some broad East/West dichotomies, neither side of the cultural exchange is portrayed as wholly good or bad, and the primary arc of the piece involves the European protagonist gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation for the people around him. Likewise, his own reputation gradually shifts from that of an uncivilized curiosity to a strange but honorable outsider, particularly after he agrees to start bathing more than once a year.

Against that framework, the story is a slow-burning coil of intrigues and oblique threats punctuated by sudden outbursts of graphic violence a la Game of Thrones or Red Rising, with tensions among rival samurai factions as well as the respective representatives of the Anglican, Catholic, and Shinto religions. Plots are hatched, vengeance is wreaked, seppuku is required, and honor is upheld. It’s definitely a romanticized view of the era, but as an immersive and swashbuckling adventure, it holds up pretty nicely.

[Content warning for slavery, rape, torture, suicide, gun violence, gore, pedophilia, racism, and homophobia.]

★★★★☆

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