Shibumi: Trevanian

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The protagonist is the deadly Nicholai Hel, assassin of terrorists and aspirer to the Japanese state of perfect consciousness, or shibumi. We learn of his birth to a Russian/Aryan/German mother and unknown German father in pre-war Shanghai, the effect of the Japanese invasion on China, his surrogate Japanese father...in fact the book covers a lot of ground between Chinese, Japanese, and Basque culture and history. Hel's life began with a great handicap to obtaining this goal & that's what makes Hel at once both admirable & a selfish bastard. He's the hero & I was rooting for him, but he's never very likable, although certainly competent in this wonderfully cynical world. That's part of the fascination of the story, the cynical dislike that it embodies & gives free rein to. There are no straightforward or patriotic actions, everything is part of a vast conspiracy of expediency & greed. No one has any respect for anyone else, but it is often so artfully phrased that it's almost fun, especially since the insults fall on every nation. ikisi de insanlardan soyutlama cezası almış ve her ikisi de hayata tutunmak için bir zeka oyununa asılmış. Needless to say, there are high moments and low moments in this epic struggle including a long cave sequence (too long?) that becomes critical to one of the key moments late in the plot (No Spoilers, I promise). Along the way, we learn of Hel's few friends: Whitaker died December 14, 2005 in the English West Country. He was survived by his wife and four grown children.

Q:Since I first read Shibumi and then reread it twenty years later, my opinion of the Israeli-Palestinian situation has changed entirely, as a result of becoming much better informed...Has your opinion in this regard at all changed since Shibumi has been published? Sibumi romani, oglanci, mikropenisli, etnik bir espri olan aptal araplarla, nedense herhangi bir sifatla tanimlanmamis olan israilliler arasindaki kavganin, enerji kaynaklarinin, hukumetlerin ve akla gelebilecek her seyin dolayisiyla da tum dunyanin kontrolunu elinde tutan zenginlere sorun cikarmasindan kaynaklanan tatsiz bir durumun, asil ve onurlu japon kulturu etkisinde buyumus, atesli-nuktedan-isyankar ve durust basklara kendini yakin hissettiginden bask bolgesinde bir satoda yasayan, orumcek adamin yakinlik algisini, batmanin dovus tekniklerini, supermanin kisilik degistirme ozelligini, schraderin donuk bakislarini ve calimeronun haksizlik karsisindaki durusunu bunyesinde toplamis, subyanci, zubbe, 7 dil bilen, go oyunu ustadi, sevisgen, sorunlu ve evli kadinlara amator fahise diyen bir ultrakahramanin maceralarini, avrupanin artiklarindan ortaya cikmis amerikalilarin, beceriksiz italyanlarin, duzensiz fransizlarin, bilmem ne olan ingilizlerin, temellerin ve fadimelerin yasadigi bir dunyada, irkci-macist-ozenti bir yazar? tarafindan kaleme alinmis bir kitaptir My original review was wrong in a couple of respects, not bad though for the 25 years or so that had passed since I read it. I'd say it is somewhat closer to Eisler's John Rain than the other authors I mentioned, & it wasn't shibumi that I didn't like, it was Hel's final thoughts & conclusions, although I must admit they fit him well & brings home a point made early on. Truly well done. Here we open going right down the line with so many clichés I figure they must have come from somewhere like "plots and characters are us". We meet CIA types who are plotting with an Islamic radical against Israel. We are also covering up global warming because we are obviously slaves of the "Military Industrial Complex". To make matters worse one of the CIA types has a southern/country accent. Obviously he's not only evil he's stupid...as all people from anywhere but a coastal city are. We watch as the CIA pulls off an assassination and then kills their own men (the assassins). Just to be sure, you know. Hel was born to a exiled Russian countess in Shanghai in the ’20s and a Japanese general thinks the young man has such an exceptional talent for the game Go that he sends him to Japan to train. Hel spends years before and during World War II learning the game and immersing himself in Japanese culture. After the war, he gets on the bad side of the occupation forces and spends years in prison. Once released, he becomes an international assassin.bölümlerde bu adamlar kim, Munih Beşlisi, Kara Eylülcüler kimler, kimin peşindeler anlamaya çalışırken açıkcası biraz sıkılmıştım, ama sonra kitap bir açılmış bir aktmıştı ki , elimden bırakamamıştım. Hele o son bölümdeki eşsiz hayatta kalma mücadelesini soluksuz okumuştum. Nicholai Hel is the world's most wanted man. Born in Shanghai during the chaos of World War I, he is the son of an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father and is the protégé of a Japanese Go master. Hel survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world's most artful lover and its most accomplished-and well-paid-assassin. Hel is a genius, a mystic, and a master of language and culture, and his secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection known only as shibumi. Hei takes this all in stride, but I found myself snorting out loud several times at the Le Cagot wit. Trevanian must have had a giggle or two coming up with some of the Le Cagot expressions.

The main character Nicholai Hel speaks several languages due to his heritage and place of birth, and over the course of the book studies two additional languages: Japanese and Basque. These last two feature prominently in the book. Most of the Japanese in the book centers around the game of Go, which Hel formally studies, and which is used as a metaphor in several points throughout the book. The novel itself is broken down into six books, each of which is named from Japanese Go vocabulary. In the table of contents the author provides his own translation of these six terms, as follows: [2]

About this book

Whitaker also published works as Nicholas Seare and Beñat Le Cagot. He published the non-fiction work The Language of Film under his own name I wonder when this was written, it shows an unlikely trust in the United Nations, which in my opinion, is shamefully bereft of moral purpose.

The novel begins with Hel who is retired in his late fifties in a small castle overlooking a village of the Haute-Soule, in the mountainous Northern Basque Country. He is an honorary member of the local Basque population, and his best friend among them is Beñat Le Cagot, a truculent Basque nationalist and bard, with whom he shares an immense love for freedom and an addiction to spelunking. Hel thinks he is now allowed to enjoy life in a shibumi way (mingling discreet epicureanism with fatalism and detachment). He slowly improves his Japanese garden, enjoys restrictive gastronomy, and practices highly esoteric sex with his concubine. As for the book, the style is very late 70s with loads of sexism (braless boobs, carelessly exposed pubic hair and James Bond-like sex) and loads of clichés (the tired ones about Arabs, but also about Americans and French (see the diatribe by Le Cagot in the cave). Perhaps, it was partly as satire of Bond literature, and there were strong female characters such as Hana (albeit that her position was due to her expertise in sex) and Mrs Perkins, but most of the female characters were relatively superficial (like ill-fated Hannah). So, don't expect the multi-cultural positivity of Leigh Bardugo or Suzanne Collins here. Hel learns that Kishikawa is being held as a prisoner of war by the Russians and faces an ignominious show trial for war crimes. After visiting the General in captivity, he realises that he has provided the Russians a way to hurt the man he respects so much, having confirmed to the Soviet operative in charge of the prosecution the emotional attachment the General has to Hel.

Recommended For You

A classic spy novel from the bestselling author, Trevanian, about a westerner raised in Japan who becomes one of the world's most accomplished assassins. SMELL the sour tang of fear, the smell of sweat flowing from under your arms to soak your expensive business suit as you contemplate who exactly you have crossed! you have crossed a Master of the "Naked/Kill" technique! smell yourself, businessman! you smell like a fool. die, fool, die! The name reminded me of a Samurai and of what he would have faced during a life time of combat. There can be parallels to this idea in this book but what it is in reality is a totally different beast. Trevanian creates an elaborate joke which scorns at the 'Super Assassin' genre in Shibumi. Oh, well. I admit it. It's not completely standard. But, you know, just minor variations on the usual theme.

The writing of this book was mostly heavy-handed 2-star fair (predictable plot, stereotypical characters) with occasional 1-star bits (the protagonist has a sixth "proximity" sense that let's him identify danger in the dark, he was also a mystic, and the world's greatest lover*). The only reason I didn't give it 1 star is that there are brief passages that are well written and offer keen insights into either the human condition or the American personality (in as much as either truly exists). Of course, there are passages where he tries the same and misses (or just beats the Americans-are-shallow angle to death). In the end, I am embarrassed to admit, I did end up rooting for the protagonist and don't entirely regret the time I spent reading this one, so it I'll let him keep the second star for the time being. The first warning sign was that the author goes by only one name. Any guy who attempts this little bit of artifice not doubt has an ego that impedes upon gentle ingress and egress of doors, automobiles, sweaters, etc. Even the people who have pulled off the single moniker still have full names that are known to their most ardent fans (e.g., Elvis Aaron Presley, Jesus Horatio Christ). Still, this was enough to have me determined to root against the guy's protagonist out of sheer spite, but I digress... His best friend is Beñat Le Cagot a self made man, a Basque poet who has an ego larger than Donald Trump only expressed with much more intelligence. He is randy, fun loving, and a spelunking companion for Hei. He likes expressing himself with colorful language such as "By the Two Damp Balls of John the Baptist."

Things have changed almost entirely in Israel/Palestine over the nearly thirty years since I wrote Shibumi: the underdogs have become the bullies, and intractable fundamentalists call the shots in Israel; what in Shibumi we called the Mother Company (the Petro-chemical Mafia) have inserted their creature into the White House; and the greatest potential for ecological disaster is no longer man's lazy thirst for oil, but rather his soaring over-population. FEEL the calm and warming presence of the sublime meadow that is the assassin's mystical meditative psychic retreat. and what shall come to those blundering dolts who dare encroach upon this special Happy Place? you have one guess! it is a word that starts with D, foolish Company Man! Hel tells one American, "Generalization is flawed thinking only when applied to individuals. It is the most accurate way to describe the mass, the Wad. And yours is a democracy, a dictatorship of the Wad." A statement that is both true & thoroughly demeaning to the merchant country that Hel despises in light of this story. Very enjoyable book. First of all, this is really two stories: the surface story of a cool elitist professional assassin; and the second is the narrated story, told by Trevanian, with humor, wit and satire. Honestly the second story, the gem of a storyteller tale was the better. Sometimes it was high adventure and sometimes it was laugh out loud funny, as Trevanian, with a wry wink and nod, reminded the reader that this was a tall tale, have some fun with it. One footnote really was the author, making a left field comment about some of his earlier books. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-12-21 12:06:04 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40315016 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier