Shibumi

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Summary: I sprained my wrists turning the pages. Read it three times
Review: This is a great book. My all time favorite and I'm addicted to the genre. I can never look at a volvo without thinking of Hel (and possibly giving it a punch or kick). The caving episode was a wonderful word picture. ALthough the reader knows Hel will survive, the pages flew by in my wonder at how he would succeed. Please, Trevaian, write some more.

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Summary: A book which can captivate the reader long-term.
Review: This book can put the unwitting reader through a process in which he is first spellbound (1st reading), then hooked (next several readings). This is followed by continued fascination with a touch of embarassment (which may include replacement of the worn-out paperback). If this continues, you end up here, reading the reviews of others. One can even proceed further and find similarities between Trevanian and the mauve-carded Hel. Try doing a web search on Trevanian (who may be one Rodney Whitacker) and see what I mean.

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Summary: This is the Shibumi of books!
Review: A Haiku (little japanese poem) of 200 pages. "Shibumi" is like water "very calm, yet very powerfull", my underestanding of life came to a hold for one night of pure reading (or should i say learning) when i opened this book, it made me think of what drives people to live for, the meaning of shibumi is not just perfection (because perfection cannot be reached), but to allways give it your very best at everything you do specialy to oneself, one must fight to improve, one must fight to underestand, and most importantly to live for shibumi.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read
Review: Shibumi is a classic! One of the few books I've ever read more than once. Although the main character (Nicholai Hel) is larger than life, the book sets forth an ideal - a life of shibumi - that should be the goal of every human being. A must-read for that alone. The author's view of Western culture, of the strength of mediocrity, was never said better. The descriptions of Hel's caving expeditions are spell-binding. Whatever happened to Trevanian? I suspect he purchased a home in the Basque country, and is himself enjoying a life of shibumi.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but inferior to the primes of Robert Ludlums'
Review: I've read this book long long time ago. SHIBUMI in Japanese means "BLACK-the total darkness". Did it mean for the dungeon, tunnel or cave usually appeared in his books? The typical problem of Trevanian's books was the characters creation. The main character usually were very interesting, but they were always with some weird superiors who either deformed or sexually twisted, therefore, more dangerous to be the manipulating handlers. In other words, Trevanian did not seem to have actual intelligence background, thus the made-up characters and scenarios he created sometimes lost reality and focus completely. "The Summer of Kataya" proved to be a downfall readings since then. If I'm in for more paranoia reads, I'd try David Morrell's "Extreme Denial"

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Summary: Good read for leftist, socialist sympathisers
Review: Even if you are an incorrigible libertarian capitalist, this book is worth reading just for the author's brilliant and incisive penetration into the nature of cultures and the human character. If you are of a leftist, scocialist,anti-corporporation bent, you'll probably love this book. Trevanian's mordant disdain for capitalism is the overriding theme of this book. Regrettably, his choice to equip his hero, Nicholai Hel, with supernatural qualities of mysticism and extrasensory perception pushes the characacter out of the bounds of reality. If it's any consolation to jingoistic Americans, Trevanian takes his share of jabs at other cultures as well (and not just out of a sense of fair play). I found it difficult to identify with Nicholai Hel, and found myself occasionally rooting for the story's antagonist, Mr. Diamond, until near the end of the book. If one is looking for the antithesis of Trevanian's hero in Shibumi, look no further than Ayn Rand's John Galt, in her epic, Atlas Shrugged.

Rating:
Summary: 'Shibumi' is a compelling, tightly-written novel.
Review: 'Shibumi' wraps the reader in an invisible cover of deafness to the outside world so that they are whisked along the storyline without remembering that they have turned the pages. The character development and historical perspective are revealed in such a manner that one feels that they have met the characters in real life and developed a sense of them over time.

A score of '8' may not seem like much for a work that was enjoyed as much as this one, but I have given very few authors/novels this score. None have received a '9' or '10'.

This is one of the few books I have read twice. All would be advised to give this book (and themselves) a good try. You may be surprised at what you discover.

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Summary: This screed was a national bestseller?
Review: Let's give Trevanian credit where it is due. He's created a compelling lead character, and runs us through some beautiful curves and contours of Japanese culture. But really. Here in the 1990s, post-Olver Stone, post-X Files, this book's paranoia with the Corporation That Runs The World is remarkable only in its prediction of how other slick hacks 15-20 years later would try to convince us that They control us. Besides the depth of research Trevanian obviously had to undergo to write the book, what's really so special about it? A disappointing, anti-climactic ending; a *very* liberal dose of America-bashing (well the book was written in the mid-70s so I guess we can look at Trevanian as a victim of his time); no female characters of substance, including the concubine. But, what the Hel, I can't say the book's all bad. Where else could we get an apology for the Japanese occupational forces, the rape of Nanking, and the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity sphere? Only Trevanian could have the sheer chutzpah to take on those tasks.

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Summary: Shibumi is the bomb
Review: By the virtual balls of Saint Steve of Jobs! I am glad to have an opportunity to profess my 15-year-old love affair with Trevenian's masterpiece! I only wish there were more works of art of this level around.

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Summary: Raving about how excellent this book was!
Review: This book was one of the most inpirational books I as a 14 year old have ever read! This is not meerly a book but a bible on which you should base your entire life! This book taught me more than I shall ever need to know about life as we know it! The author best sums up my feelings when Niiko says that he would rather fail at becoming a man of shibumi than suceed at any other goal! A marvelous work of literature!