Hey, that's my neighborhood....In the valley of the Cagayan, deep in the jungles of the Philipines
Hey, that's my neighborhood....In the valley of the Cagayan, deep in the jungles of the Philipines
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
small world
If the protagonist was a fictional former kempeitai in the seventies, he's probably even more fictional now. So you're probably okay. Unless...you're not over seven feet tall perchance?Originally Posted by Dayuhan
Amok - amazonThe centerpiece of the plot - a Japanese holdout soldier named Kurusu - was probably inspired by a couple of discoveries of Japanese holdouts in the 70s. The most famous was a Lieutenant Onoda, found in the Philipines.
I'm not certain how to classify the book - historical fiction, action/adventure, etc - and it touches on several topics without going overboard, to its credit. These topics include the politics of a country dealing with having been a former colony, the former colonial settlers (in this case, American landowning farmers) who remained behind after independence, culture clashes (Japanese bushido juxtaposed with the tight American expatriate community and juxtaposed with the local Filipino culture, etc etc - you'll figure it out....
Its easy to view the book as a shallow 70s work (and a discerning reader will see some of that in the style; it has some elements of old chauvanism and "macho" mentality) but its main theme seems to be one of a search for belonging: outcast soldier Kurusu found it as a Japanese Kempentai warrant officer and maintained it while terroizing the locals for 30+ years as a holdout, American Mike Brandon's search for his place in life before he returned to his "home" (the Philipines), the American community's desperate charade of colonial power after the Philipines became independent, Capt Shimura's coming to terms with his wartime activities when he comes to search for Kurusu....etc etc. But none of this gets too deep - the action flows along and it all balances. There is also a minor romantic sub plot. (amazon reader review)
Last edited by Backwards Observer; 01-06-2013 at 05:46 AM.
I probably look seven feet tall to some of the locals, but... no. I don't think anyone in the kempetai was either, but fiction carries a certain license. That reaches beyond improbable height: anyone terrorizing the locals in these parts would likely have ended up with their head on a spear, tall or not... but that might not have made such good fiction. The term "amok" is also not used in the local dialects, but that's picking nits.
I'd read the book if I had it, being interested in the period and the location!
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
don't make amokery
That may have been a marketing gambit to use a somewhat loaded term that was 'exotic' but still in fairly common parlance. The cover hype suggests the publishers were going for a Peter Benchley size audience (also see: James Clavell, Wilbur Smith, etc.) Nitpicking would've been questioning why the logically puzzling 'Jaws' comparison could be expected to hold much water. The weird thing is, it probably drove more than a few sales back in the day. Maybe.
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