Rating: 
Summary: Gai-Jin=Chore+Bore
Review: This is probably the most excruciatingly boring book I have ever read. Were it not for the $22.95 that I spent on it and my previous joy with Clavells' work, I would have detached myself from it and thrown it in the trash. The characters are shallow beyond belief, with the men fawning over the resident bimbo with nauseating chivalry. Having read it some time ago, I'm now struggling with any memory I have of this ridiculous story to vent here. Don't waste your time or money!
Rating:
Summary: Big dissappointment
Review: I used to be a fan of Clavell and now could not go past the first few chapters of this book. Authors need to write from their heart and not follow a particular theme or fad just because it seemed to work before.
Rating: 
Summary: NO comparison To Shogun!!!
Review: I am a 16 year old Japanese student and I, like a few other readers, before reading this book, thought Clavell was amazing. NOw I think he is semi-amazing. I read Shogun, and I was completely drowned in the book, I lived it as well as the characters' lives. HOwever, I think Gai-Jin took all the wonderful aspects of Shogun to the extreme.Clavell still takes the reader right into the story, and, as always, thrills us with his understanding of the Japanese way, but he goes a bit too far... I find there is way too much sex and lust... all surrounding the character of Angelique Richaud. I don't understand why he chose to put her in the novel as such a big part of it.. I agree she is a vital part, but I don't understand why every time Clavell would write anything about the gai-jin that he would have to include something about either Andre fantasizng about raping her, or someone else checking her out. Other than that, the book was amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: Clavell has written many great novels - just not this one.
Review: Unlike Shogun or Noble House, two of my favorite books of all time, it was as if Clavell stopped writing 2/3 of the way through and someone who was incredibly rushed finished the book as fast and as awkwardly as possible. I've read just about all of Clavell's works and this one was either finished by someone else who had never read Clavell or was the work of a very sick man with a tight deadline.
Rating:
Summary: disappointint
Review: I can not believe I wasted a month reading this book. It has way too much sex and violence and moves too slowly. It is nothing like Tai-Pan or Noble House (which I am now reading for the second time.) I'm glad I got it at a used book store and did not have to pay full price for it.
Rating:
Summary: Teachers can use this book as an example to scold students .
Review: The author, the late James Clavell, had seven fictions left for us to remember him. And this one is the last one. A little error, timing was not as the actual historical events, the Russian authors, Dostoyevsky(1821-1882) and Tolstoi((1828-1910) mentioned in this book were not in that era, but that didn't affect the readable of this book. Fron this book, we learned that the strong powers, such as Great Britain, France, Prusia, Russia,even the USA, forced Japan to open her doors for foreign trading. Now we know that if, only if, that our ancestors didn't do that, then there wouldn't be the event of Pearl Harbour or Japanese's involvement in the WWII. But from that, we've learned nothing. Or-else, China, a communism Country, a Totalitarian Country wouldn't be a threat to the world peace.
Rating: 
Summary: A defense of Mr. Clavell
Review: Well, i have heard many a scathing remark about Gai-jin. I have read the book and think it deserves to defended. The book is definitely not the sequel to Shogun, but does act as a nice epilogue to the book Taipan (perhaps my favorite of Clavell's books). There are many subtlties to the book, such as the shishi and Yoshi and the Toranagas, and I have heard criticism as the historical innaccuracy behind all this. Clearly, Mr. Clavell did not intend to use the real names or else anyone whose read japanese history would already know the end. Yoshi is clearly not a real name for such a nobleman, but if he were named Yoshinobu, its obvious who he is and what happens to him. This can also be said of Shogun. The toranagas are obviously the Tokugawa family in real life and so on. But anyhow, others criticize the book is too long and could be written half as long. This is true, but Shogun and Noble House were equally. Besides, a book is never fun when its over in 300 pages or less (believe me I know all about it). Is the book racist? I doubt it. It probably wasn't researched as well as it could have been, but then again, since none of use have been there, we don't know if the Japanese really did say "eeeee" and "so sorry" all the time, though the modern day phrases "eee", or yes, and "anou", or excuse me, are probalby what he was trying to use. As for the Chinese, I found them most fascinating. I don't know my Cantonese, or my Hong Kong culture, but I think that Clavell had a great interest in their culture, rather than disdain, otherwise Taipan probalby would not have even been written. So I doubt Mr. Clavell is a asian-hating racist. Most importantly though, remember that he was very sick, and had already written a number of fantastic novels already. I think this was a nice "last novel" and considering the shape he was in, as good a novel as anyone could write.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written novel perpetuates many rascist stereotypes
Review: I was very disappointed to discover that a novelist as famous or hyped as James Clavell appears to be could produce such trite, hackneyed prose which merely serves to perpetuate rascist stereotypes. As a Chinese who has lived in Japan for a number of years, I was dismayed at this poorly researched effort which presents Westerners as implicitly superior to the "natives" who appear spouting pidgin in bizarre and often historically inaccurate situations. Let me give you an example of this: On pg77 of the paperback version, a typical Chinese comment on a European woman is described as "Ah, haughty young Missy who feeds on unrequited lust, Lim thought with vast amusement. I wonder which of these smelly Round Eyes will be the first to spread you wide and enter your equally smelly Jade Gate? ...By all gods great and small, I shall know soon enough because your maid is my sister's third cousin's daughter.." and so forth ad nauseum which is probably not w! orthy of being reprinted. Needless to say, this juvenile, puerile writing is often highly offensive to Asian readers like myself. Clavell's so-called "Asian" vocabulary is also a constant irritant. As far as I know, I have never heard any Chinese say "Ayeeyah". His Japanese characters also seem to have a few set phrases such as "Eeee", "Baka" (stupid) and "So sorry". Clavell seems to have dreamed up dialogue which comes mostly from condescending stereotypes. It would have been easy enough to research this aspect properly. What if some Asian writer wrote a so-called historical romance of the West where a typical English or American comment was only confined to a choice of "Gee whiz","#@!-hole", or "a thousand pardons"? And if these comments appeared not once, not twice but liberally everytime a so-called native character appeared? I think many Westerners would protest that few people con! stantly use such limited, stilted, and peculiar vocabulary.! They would be up in arms that Westerners were portrayed in this crude and one dimensional manner and would be rightly offended.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: After reading Shogun and Tai-pan, I was expecting that Gai-jin would be of the same quality, it wasn't. The story moves far too slowly. This 1200 page novel could easily have been half that size. The story itself was a good one, but I was hard pressed to spend the time to finish it. Gai-jin may be an okay novel, but is doesn't measure up to Clavell's previous works. It's a sad end to the career of a great author.
Rating:
Summary: Not typical of Clavell's quality
Review: I'm a big fan of Clavell and looked forward to reading Gai-jin, but was pretty disappointed. I highly recommend his other books like Noble House, Taipan, Hawaii, Alaska, and King Rat. Pass on this one unless you have time to kill or lower your expectations.
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