Rating: 
Summary: A Complex and Intelligent Read
Review: Martin Cruz Smith is one of the most the most skillful and versatile writers of contemporary fiction. His work is painfully researched (accounting for the relatively short list of published works) and beautifully written. 'December 6' is no exception, as Smith again demonstrates the range of his talents, this time setting the story in 1941 Tokyo. He spins the unusual story of Harry Niles, the son of American missionaries stationed in Japan. Alienated from his parents as they are off proselytizing in rural Japan, Harry is left to grow up on the streets of Tokyo. Much more Japanese in culture and beliefs than American, the enigmatic Niles, now an adult Tokyo nightclub owner, finds himself in a precarious situation on the eve of the Pacific World War II. Give Smith credit for creativity: this is certainly an unusual, if not bizarre, subject for a story. Harry Niles is a mysterious main character. Accepted fully by neither western nor eastern cultures, perpetually only a step ahead of (or behind) the law, the reader never knows exactly where to categorize Niles: hero, spy, traitor, patriot?. Supporting characters are likewise complex and unable to be easily quantified. Michiko, Harry's mistress: the cool and aloof juke-box jockey, yet also the submissive geisha. Ishigami, the sword-yielding samurai demon with a uniquely Japanese penchant for both honor and terror. Smith adroitly blends Japanese tradition in the background, avoiding the tendancy of many western authors writing of Japan to allow the culture to overshadow the story. The imminent war is portrayed from a uniquely Japanese, and fatalistic, perspective. Like all of Smith's novels, the characters and events are intricately woven in a complex fabric of intrigue and suspense, leading to a surreal, nearly mystical, climax. What 'December 6' lacks in sheer thrills and fast action of Gorky Park is compensated by the intelligent and convoluted story line and though-provoking characters. As with all of Smith's novels, 'December 6' leaves the reader anxiously awaiting his next effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but flawed
Review: Probably the single most important thing a book can do for you is hold your interest, and this one does. You can get a good idea of the plot by reading one of the other reviews on this site. I've already given this book my praise, that it holds your interest. It's more interesting to me to discuss the flaws. Flaw number one is the godlike omniscience of the hero, Harry Niles. He KNOWS exactly how history will unfold. He knows that America will win the war. It's a slam dunk. And he focuses on oil oil oil oil and oil as the five reasons that America will win. Isn't that topical. It seems to me that the victory over Japan was not a slam dunk. America was aided greatly by breaking the codes and therefore knowing when and where and with what strength Japan would attack. It is just too damn easy, after the fact, to say with certainty how things would develop. Let me suggest a reasonable alternative ending to that war. Let's say that FDR had a more conciliatory personality. He may have arrived at a negotiated peace that allowed Japan, and for that matter Germany, to hold on to some of their early winnings. What I'm saying is that the nearly unconditional surrender of the Japanese and Germans was not a foregone conclusion in 1941, but to Harry Niles it was. Funny how strong hindsight can be. In fact, several other characters in the book also had the same certainty of Japan's ultimate and total defeat, and this greatly impacted the big surprise ending. Sorry, but it's just a bunch of bull. My other complaint with this book is that it has what I call a "too cute" ending, which is rampant in modern novels. They don't tell us how things end. The author leaves us hanging, and we are supposed to draw our own conclusions. What happens to Harry Niles and his girlfriend Michiko? He's writing the damn story so he can tell us the damn ending, doncha think? We're supposed to operate on hints and figure it out for ourselves? No. No. No, I don't think so. Tell us the damn ending. You brought us this far, so tell us your damn ending. Don't just say "guess, stupid".
Rating: 
Summary: Setting and Characters make for a must read.
Review: The setting, Imperial Japan in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor, and the characters, American business man and con artist Harry Niles and his Japanese mistress Michiko, make this a most interesting novel. Martin Cruz Smith has dramatically depicted an American who was raised Japanese -- his Southern Baptist missionary parents abandoned him to a Japanese nanny -- but remains forever an outsider. As the clouds of war gathered, the conflicts that turned Harry Niles inside out and threatened his very life make for a page-turning thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a ggod book
Review: This has got to be the worst book that i have ever read in my life.
I bought it because i like history.
I did not bye it for kids smoking, prostitutes, needless profanity, sexual inuendo, sexual discriptions in detail, [...] women, Oh And My Favorite Harry as a kid has a little girl shove his hand up her dress.
I just hope that those that reade this book think that that is what really happened.
So many historical inacurracies.
This Is The First book i never finished reading
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