The Last Samurai - General No Spoilers

[Jason]

Hi everyone - I'm new to leading a discussion, but I'm going to put a few articles and interesting things I've found after reading this strange and compelling novel.

Goodreads page: The Last Samurai

Vulture chose it as the Best book of the 21st Century (for now) in 2018:
https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/helen...

The Paris Review "The Trouble of Rational Thought"
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...

Bookmarks collection of reviews:
https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/all...

The Millions "Knowledge Porn"
https://themillions.com/2016/06/knowl...

Interview from 2019
https://www.full-stop.net/2019/06/05/...

The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

The Seven Samurai
Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/product/seven-...
HBOMax: https://play.hbomax.com/feature/urn:h...

[Bretnie]

Thanks for the links Jason! I plan on joining, but likely late since I just got the book from the library.

[Mark]

Well.... I'm in~ im about 20% through, and I'm not in love as much as Vulture thinks I should be. The tone reminds me of Infinite Jest (a DNF for me), but I'll stick with it, as the titles in this group have generally been remarkable. Seeing Seven Samurai is definitely recommended; this book has clear descriptions, but they are more vivid with the film in your "memory bank".

[Jason]

I found the beginning off kilter from any regular novel for sure, but it grows on you. I'd say don't read too closely the pages of languages instruction and number calculations unless you are trying to learn it. It picks up for sure.

[Gregory]

About half-way through, I'm finding an interesting mix of pain and pleasure in this quirky tale. Sibylla’s an Oxford classics grad and single mom scraping by in London on meager pay typing manuscripts with titles like Advanced Angling and Practical Caravanning. Without any apparent friends, unwilling to seek support from young son Ludo’s well-off dad, yet so poor that they spend whole days on the tube to stay warm, she still decides to home-school him in Greek, Icelandic, Kurosawa films, etc. Much of their dialogue is warm and witty so far, but Ludo’s searches for a father figure have started getting rather repetitious, and my search for some racial, ethnic or class diversity in the characters has so far come up empty. But I’m intrigued enough to persist.

[Adina]

Hi, when I saw the group’s choice for this month I knew I had to join. I had this on my TBR and Kindle for a while and I doubt I would have started it anytime soon if it weren’t for this incentive. I only read around 10% so far and I have mixed feelings. I like the writing style but some parts are challenging and not that interesting. I plan to get to 20% and then decide if I continue. This conversation might help me persevere. And as Jason instructed I am skipping stuff.

[Bretnie]

I'm about halfway and it definitely picks up!

[LindaJ^]

Thanks Jason for those links. DeWitt is a fascinating person. Not sure I could carry on a conversation with her! I finished the book a few days ago. I enjoyed it. I have not watched movie yet. Look forward to discussing.

[Sam]

(view spoiler)[I finished this a week ago and have been letting my thoughts run around it. I liked the early chapters far more than the latter. They seemed fresh and challenging both in style and content. When the novel changes focus to Ludo's quest for a father surrogate I became very bored. I am not sure whether this was because of the novel or because I was drained by current event distractions, but overall I found it well worth my time even if I wouldn't rate it the best of the 21st Century,
I am not well read in late 20th or 21st century Postmodern or metafiction, especially women authors and I am curious how others would judge this comparatively.
I am not sure the allusion to Seven Samurai film works well for me. I found it contrived and had to stretch to make it work at all. I hope it was smoother for others. I did like the way the author tried to involve the film though even if it failed for me, and mentioning Donald Ritchie's book brought back fun memories of a time before videotapes, dvds, or streaming when a description of a film from the book was the closest I ever expected to get to the actual film.
Overall this was a good choice and the background story of DeWitt's fight with editors to retain her vision is interesting as well (hide spoiler)]

[Bretnie]

When will we start with the "spoilers ok" discussions? I'm anxious to get other people's thoughts on some of the early content!

[Sam]

Oops my apologies, I thought we were just doing one topic combining spoilers and no spoilers

[Jason]

I'll start it now.