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Summary: Bogart Lives!
Review: It is impossible to read this novel without imagining Bogart in the role of Harry Niles. The secret to Martin Cruz Smith's success as a novelist is that his books are character driven and at the same time well informed about foreign cultures: Russian, Cuban, and now Japanese. December 6 is one of Smith's best. I suspect a sequel is in the works. I hope so. Harry Niles in post war Japan?
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Summary: Wait for the movie
Review: This book was so boring it's crazy. I bought it thanks to a review I read in the Economist magazine and boy was I wrong! This is one of those books that come out so much better in the movie.
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Summary: The abridged audio version is brilliant...
Review: I will simply say that the abridged audio version is brilliant as written by Martin Smith and excitingly realized in audio by John Slattery. Smith picks a relatively unexplored historical niche as his venue for capturing the giddiness and sentiments of pre-war Japan while Slattery's talent create a masterful performance that is rare for audiobooks. You can nitpick all you want, but this one stands out as a real treat.
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Summary: Well researched wartime Japan
Review: Harry Niles, the son of white missionaries to Japan, was raised by a native nurse and has remained in Japan all his life, more Japanese than American. Early December, 1941, finds him in Tokyo just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, running the Happy Paris club and struggling to maintain his relationship with his beautiful and emotional mistress, Michiko, who also works in the club, playing the juke box. With talk of war everywhere, Harry is intent on leaving. But how? And can he, using his cunning and knowledge of politics, con his adopted country out of fatal combat with the powerful America? And escape the honor bound military man, Ishigami, who's stalking him with a mind poisoned by past wrongs and a sword bent on revenge? While DECEMBER 6 does not live up to GORKY PARK, and while Harry Niles is no match for Arkady Renko, Martin Cruz Smith's latest effort is stamped with his distinctive use of details. His prose is clean and reflective, never coarse or unfinished or abrasive. The plot is not linear but rather slips back and forth, weaving time, place, and characters into a novel that some will find confusing, others beautiful. Me, I ended up somewhere between confused and awed. Smith's touch is magic, but the sheer volume of research included in DECEMBER 6 made it at times read more like a school paper than a novel. One paragraph, which detailed some gruesome beheadings, managed to stretch more than two pages. Plus, during some points Harry Niles came across as unemotional and detached, although I was aware of churning undercurrents. The dialogue disappointed me as well. Still, I felt the ending was a fitting finale to an intriguing story of love, violence, and politics. A newcomer to Smith's writing may be overwhelmed by this fact packed thriller, but Smith's fans, as well as anyone interested in wartime Japan, will find DECEMBER 6 absorbing and thought provoking.
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Summary: Harry's run
Review: Harry Niles is rarely at rest. Life has offered too many distractions for him to pause and reflect. Cruz Smith has drawn him as a man seemingly devoid of values - opportunist, womanizer, manipulator. If Harry was truly that simple, we would be unlikely to follow him through his complex life or along the twists of Tokyo's back alleys. The son of Baptist missionaries, his childhood allowed him opportunity to become virtually Japanese. He played "the 47 Ronin" with schoolmates, keeps his living quarters impeccably Japanese, when even his neighbours maintain a "Western" room, has a Japanese lover and is fluent in the language. He even addresses a businessmen's club extolling Japan's desire to oust Western imperialists from Asia. But he knows war is imminent, and he's keen to know the initial target. It's his mission. Smith presents a story deeply researched and fluently expressed. There's never a dull moment, even during the flashbacks to Harry's youth. He becomes a hustler early, attracted to the "floating world" of Tokyo's theatre, art and gambling circles. These many facets of underworld life gain him entrance to a wide cross-section of a society distrustful of "gaijins" - foreign barbarians. Harry encounters Tojo, plays poker with Yamamoto, watches the con of a scientist looking for military support, and money. On the other hand, there's the nagging sensation that Harry has another agenda. He has suffered much at the hands of Japanese, and will endure more if war comes. He tries to maintain his "cool" even at the expense of dignity. The modern "thriller" is only mildly concerned with characterisation or even plot. Harry becomes Cruz Smith's vehicle for showing off his research. That's not a fault, but the unprepared reader can be overwhelmed. Smith has detailed prewar Japanese life, both civilian and military, high and low, to an amazing degree. He understands the theatre, woodblock art production, military attitudes and the impact of America's embargoes on pre-war Japan. In a surprise flash, Cruz Smith even dredges up Archbishop James Ussher's pinpointing the date of the onset of the Biblical Flood. He uses this point to give Harry the edge in a gambling dispute. Now that's research! Books such as this are an escape. You tuck away your reservations about what's plausible and let yourself sink into the narrative. Turning pages to encounter the next episode, you are caught up in events right along with the protagonist. If the writer is skilled, as Cruz Smith certainly is, distractions are rebuffed as you follow the adventure. Only after the last page is closed do you sit back to consider whether the book reflects any level of reality. No matter. If the author has kept your mind captive through his tale, he's accomplished what he set out to do. Sink yourself into this book. Ignore the little quirks of impossibility and enjoy a fine story. It's well written and exciting stuff. Never mind that you know how it will turn out.
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Summary: Smith's Best Since Gorky Park, a must read.
Review: Let Martin Cruz Smith take you on a walk through Japan just before Pearl Harbor. You'll enjoy and you'll learn. Smith uses a character not unlike Rick in 'Casablanca' to take the reader to Tokyo in 1941. You'll take some time and feel the Rape of Nanking up close. You'll explore the 'inscrutable' geisha personality. You'll look into the Japanese psyche and understand why the attack on Pearl was inevitable. And if you believe that President Roosevelt knew that we needed to enter World War II, then you'll understand why economic sanctions worked in 1941, probably for the only time in history. Cruz' wonderful style brings his characters to life as well as ever. If you've enjoyed anything Martin Cruz Smith has written you need to read "December 6".
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Summary: Not the Smith you're used to
Review: Martin Cruz Smith is one of my favorite authors, a writer who can truly craft story and character. Gorky Park, Polar Star and Havana Bay are lush, descriptive and spellbinding. However, December 6 reads as if it were written by someone else entirely!
The exposition is thin, the dialog wooden and the characters stereotypical. This is not the Martin Cruz Smith you're used to. Let's hope he brings back Arkady Renko next time. Pass on this one and reread one of his older novels!
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Summary: The Con Man and the Patriot
Review: It is the year 1922 in Tokyo. Harry Niles is 11 years old and at the beginning of his career as a supreme con man. After meeting his various Japanese friends, we switch to December 6, 1941 two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Harry now owns and runs the Happy Paris nightclub. His sidekick is Michiko, a rough and tumble Japanese woman of many native talents. But then there is colonel Ishigami, a throwback to the old samurais with their finely honed swords. He is after Harry and wants to slice off his head. He travels around the Asakusa district with a head box, in case he is successful. The author gives us incredible descriptions of pre-war Tokyo, the artisans in the neighborhood, the geishas in the willow houses, the stuck-up military, and all the little folk teeming around. And then we get to December 6. Harry clearly sees that any war can only be fought because and for oil. Japan cannot sustain a war, not having any oil. Harry cons the Japanese navy into believing that large quantities of oil are stored in Hawaii: Destroy it, and the US Pacific Fleet is grounded. The attack on Pearl Harbor fails to find or destroy these reserves and the Japanese leaders realize that the war is already lost. All this sounds rather simple. But Mr.Smith painstakingly researched this book and made it authentic and believable. On a personal note: Negotiations between the US and Japan had been going on since June, 1941; why then did Roosevelt put the whole Pacific Fleet in one big heap into Pearl Harbor? This book is a show stopper. Don't miss it!
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Summary: I Hated This Book
Review: I have been a fan of Martin Cruz Smith since I first read Gorky Park many years ago. I've enjoyed his other books (Havana Bay,Polar Star, etc) but I just couldn't get through this book. I actually did finish it eventually but it took a lot of effort.This is just not up to what I expect from Smith. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
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Summary: December 6: A Novel
Review: As usual, Martin Cruz Smith provides a backdrop story that leaves you believing that it could only be done by a native. What a great story woven around the pending war with the U.S. Also, a terrific job of providing some insights from the Japanese prospective
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