Корпорация "Самурай"

by David Klass, Петко Петков (Translator)

Това, което не знаеше за японците, можеше да му струва живота...

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

David Klass is the author of many young adult novels, including You Don’t Know Me, Dark Angel, and Firestorm (The Caretaker Trilogy). He is also a Hollywood screenwriter, having written more than twenty-five action screenplays, including Kiss the Girls, starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, Walking Tall, starring The Rock, and Desperate Measures, starring Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia. Klass grew up in a family that loved literature and theater—his parents were both college professors and writers—but he was a reluctant reader, preferring sports to books. But he started loving the adventure stories his parents would bring home from the library—particularly Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson and Alexandre Dumas. After his sister twice won a story contest in Seventeen magazine, Klass decided he would win it too, and when he was a senior in high school, he did, publishing his first story, “Ringtoss,” in the magazine. He studied at Yale University, where he won the Veech Award for Best Imaginative Writing. He taught English in Japan, and wrote his first novel, The Atami Dragons, about that experience. He now lives in New York with his wife and two children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidk...

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of seemingly-unrelated deaths, culminating with that of his own father by apparent suicide, drives FBI agent Jack Graham across the Pacific to Atami, Japan. There, he discovers a country rife with economic success (this is the early 90's, remember, where the limits of Japan's bubbling economy had yet to be touched) which has bred corruption into the very fabric of society. Chief among them are the zaibatsu, a group of extremely old, and extremely wealthy, family-owned corporations which exert influence across the strata of Japanese business, politics, and even law enforcement.

Working alone, without the backing of the FBI or even his own government, Graham's search for his father's killer takes him deeper and deeper into a culture he barely understands, where he does not speak the language, and is instantly recognized as an outsider. Confronted by deadly assassins, watched by the yakuza, and paired with a lovely young policewoman with whom he finds himself falling in love, Graham has vowed to close this case or die trying -- and there are dozens of people in Japan who are more than happy to assist him with the latter.

* * * * *

An American cop on the loose in Japan on a personal vendetta while being pursued by the yakuza. Hmmm, I wonder if David Klass saw Black Rain and decided, "I could do better than that." It would have been hard to miss, since Michael Douglas was everywhere in the late 80's, but if that was what drove Klass to pen Samurai, Inc., then I'm glad to say he succeeded. Americans running around Japan, solving problems the Japanese are incapable or unwilling to solve is a hoary trope these days, but since Klass spent several years living and teaching in Japan, he's better suited to write a story like this. Think of it as a less-philosophical take on Eric Van Lustbader's The Ninja, with some light sex and a couple of stand-out death scenes (the opening airplane crash is a doozy!), and you'll have a fine time.

There's a secondary plot running through the story about a mysterious kid in a Swiss boarding school that doesn't seem related to anything at first, but this side-plot actually consumes the final third of the book, and though I guessed the reveal before Klass got there with Graham and Misako, it's still a well-executed rail jump. The only real complaint I have with the story is how fast Misako and Graham fall in love, and a couple of clumsy sex scenes including one which comes entirely out of left field towards the end of the book. Espionage and police procedure are Klass's strong suits -- romance, at least here, is entirely out of his league.

That said, if you are interested in Japanese culture, especially a snapshot of what it looked like during the boom of the late 80's and early 90's before the bubble burst, Samurai, Inc. is a competent little thriller. Klass got his start writing young adult literature, which he still does today. Samurai, Inc. appears to be his lone adult novel before he went back to writing more for teens. Whether he prefers writing for a younger audience (and there's nothing wrong with that, since he seems to have found great success doing it) or this novel just didn't sell very well so he didn't bother with another try, it's worth tracking down if you're a fan of his other books. An easy four out of five from me.

[Michelle DePaepe · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have any interest in traditional Japanese culture, this thriller will give you a fascinating dose. The author was a teacher in Atami, Japan (the setting for much of the story) and includes explicit details about life there, including the seamy side. You will get a satisfying meal of murder, modern-day samurai, mafia, ninjas,sex,and a bit of a history in this action-packed thriller. You will also route for Jack to solve the case while shaking your head a few times at how much of a risk-taker he is, and how he sometimes comes across to the natives as a stereotypical American whose less than suave in a country where old traditions die hard.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fairly bland undercurrent type intrigue. Saved for me only by the setting being Japan. A few poignant quotes and points about Japanese culture and interesting notes about the history of Japan.

[Brian J. Shoopman · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Christopher Hivner · Rating 3 out of 5]

FBI agent Jack Graham goes to LA to see his police detective father, who he quietly hates. While there his father commits suicide by shooting himself. Graham, however, doesn't believe it was suicide and begins looking into his father's life. The last case he was working on is the death of a beautiful woman who stabbed herself in the throat. Curiously, Graham's father didn't believe it was a suicide. The woman's husband goes to a small town in Japan and kills himself by jumping off a cliff. All these suspicious deaths lead Graham to go to Japan to find out what his father had gotten into. There he runs into corrupt cops, an assassin who follows the old ways of the ninja and the Japanese yakuza. He gets help from a lovely female cop and finds himself falling in love with her, but also discovers he may not be able to trust her fully.

Samurai, Inc. is a pretty good thriller. Klass generally creates clear characters and there are a lot of twists and turns that are handled well. The only thing I didn't buy was Graham falling so quickly for the Japanese police woman. It seemed contrived just to become part of the plot.