Rating: 
Summary: A homage to _Shichinin no samurai_
Review: The Last Samurai explores the relationship between a single mother, Sibylla, and her highly gifted son, Ludo. From the mother's perspective we see the experience of from raising children in one's own image - and from perspective of thirteen year old Ludo, his quest to `elect' an ideal father. The story explores what happens when we are given the opportunity to raise our children using a model different from the one offered to us by society - as well as what could happen when those self same children are given the opportunity to choose their own parents.
The Last Samurai is written in a style that encouraged me to volunteer much more of my emotions into the interpretation of the events. Freed up of cumbersome adjectives, the narrative became a rapid, thrilling journey into the lives of two extraordinary people.
Rating:
Summary: Slow Starting but Worth It.
Review: This is certainly a hard book to summrrize, and definitely isn't for the impateient reader, with stories within stories, a ten year timespan, obscure scholarly references, and a narrative shift midway from an adult woman to her progidy son. Set in London, the story follows a single mother of wild intelligence who brings up Ludo, a boy of prodigal talents in languages, math, and anything else he puts his mind to. The title comes from Kurosawa's masterpiece "The Seven Samurai" which the mother has an almost obsessive reverence for, watching and rewatching it constantly as a mystic might repeat a mantra to reach enlightenment. She feels the film's characters serve as much better male role models to Ludo than his biological father ever could be, and thus refuses to tell him his identity. The second half of the book concerns his self-directed ramblings, as he follows the example of the movie and seeks out seven men to test their worthiness as possible fathers. Once this switch to Ludo's voice is made, the book becomes far more succesful and enjoyable as it leaves the world of ideas and abstraction (and distraction) for the real world of flawed people and messy lives.Both halves are librally peppered with excerpts and quotations from the languages and subjects Ludo learns, sometimes leading to stories within stories. Some might find this challenging, but the truth is, while the subjects Ludo studies are certainly challenging, the story is not at all so. When this multilayered approach is attempted in fiction, it usually leads to an over-richness of prose, one is bludgeoned with erudition and fancy writing (like, say, A.S. Byatt's Possession). DeWitt manages to avoid this for the most part, keeping each tale enjoyable in its own right and never losing track of Ludo's story. It's an admirable acheivment, especially impressive for a first novel. Be warned however, the first few chapters kind of bounce around, and it takes a while to get into the heart and flow of things.
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