James Clavell: On the Asian Paths

By Travelingbook @travelingbook


Some time ago I accidentally came across a miniseries called Noble House, starring Pierce Brosnan. The story is based on the novel by James Clavell and it’s placed in Hong Kong.

Although, it’s funny that on the book, published in 1983, the events happen during the 1960′s, whereas in the TV version of the title, everything happens in the 1980′s.

Anyways, the story keeps its interest on the main issue that is the financial side of a growing country and the several personal interests that are involve in such transactions among international companies.

It took me a little while to get into the story, but once I passed the first chapters, I just couldn’t stop until I finish all of them. I enjoyed it so much that it got stock in my mind with that nice flavor that good stories leave behind.

It was so that some weeks ago when having the TV on I listened to the first lines of a program and I immediately recognized Clavell’s well detailed style. This time the story was Shogun, another miniseries bases on one of Clavell’s novels.

Born in Australia, Clavell spent many years in Japan while fighting World War II, and later on being held captive in that country. It was all this time he spent there what let him know its culture and language very well.

With this knowledge and experiences Clavell wrote Shogun, a novel placed in the 17th century, in the time when the European explorers travel by ship to the other side of the world and got some times amazed and some other cultural shocked by the beauty of the Japanese landscapes, its culture and traditions.

The story simply capture my attention from the begining to the end and left in my the same nice taste that Noble House, and this led me to look into Clavell’s life and look at him as a gifted writer.

Twitter @travelingbook

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