Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show

by Richard Wiley and Richard Wiley

In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay and "opened" Japan to trade with America. As entertainment for the treaty-signing ceremony, Perry brought a white-men-in-black-face minstrel show--and thereby confirmed the widely whispered Japanese belief that trade with the American "barbarians" could only lead to cultural ruin. Yet the pawns in this clash of cultures--the minstrels, Ace Bledsoe and Ned Clark, and the Japanese interpreter, Manjiro...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 029271470X
• ISBN13: 9780292714700
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 3.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

An action-adventure, literary historical novel

If you love historical fiction, Japanese film, period literature, great writing with themes of class, culture and Asia, this is a rare find that you won't want to put down once the story gets going. Wiley's first book, SOLDIERS IN HIDING, deservedly won the PEN/Faulkner award and this historical fiction, a prequel of sorts, matches the quality of that writing, the depth of character development and thorough infusion of culture, adding to it a fascinating take on a historical event: Perry's groundbreaking trade agreement with Japan which set the precedent for Western thought and change to a recently unified nation. Seen through the eyes of major players, the story of the dying Samurai era and a nation in flux is told by strong women, precocious children, ronin (Samurai without affiliation), fathers and sons in a noble and honorable family, and surprisingly, two Westerners, singers in the minstrel show that Perry brought east to entertain the Japanese. The cultural nuance, visual and historical details and social mores of the period feel absolutely authentic, carefully researched and applied to every aspect of the story, bringing a rich background to a thrilling, nearly swashbuckling story of fate, political intrigue, love, honor and revenge. Themes of class, destiny, man's value in relationship to one another, sacrifice, the search for truth in life--all this amidst a radical collide of cultures--make this story resonate much farther than its compelling plot of how a family copes and evolves in the face of several kinds of death and the renewal it inevitably brings. Wiley writes with density: there is little in his language that is extraneous, and some readers may find the sheer number of characters and the immediate immersion into a different period and culture to be daunting, but perseverance in the beginning reaps the incredible reward of dramatically described action (you could see this as a terrific edge-of-your-seat movie), a compelling and fully realized plot, wonderfully complex characters, a book that gives that great satisfied sigh at the end--a sigh that says the story has reached its amazing completion, yet I was sorry that my engagement with it had to end.

Wonderful, breathtaking - Japan in 19th Century

Richard Wiley's novel takes you to a time of great change in Japan, the opening to the west. You will see history through the eyes of memorable vivid characters - and you will feel attached to these people - their strengths and foibles - their love affairs, rip-roaring bloody battles and roll on the floor laughing scenes as well. It's got something for everyone and just beautifully written.

A Strange and Wonderful Delight

I've read all of Richard Wiley's books, and like anyone else, I have my favorites. Soldiers in Hiding is, of course, a fine book. Fool's Gold is a beauty, and Festival for 3,000 Maidens is a great little Peace Corps Novel. I have to ask myself whether Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is now my favorite because I've just finished it, but it's a strange and wonderful delight. Who else would write about such an unusual subject? And what makes the book such a pleasure? It has to do with the beauty of the characters and the language, both light as a feather and yet capable of great and sudden strength. I've rarely seen a book with such a texture, bright and dark, comic and serious, distant and close, ridiculous and urgent. At times I found myself wondering why I became so involved with this odd bunch of characters from the mid 1800's Japan, but generally I was too involved to ask the question. Of course, it's no wonder, since Richard Wiley has lived in, visited, and obviously loved Japan over the years. But what surprised me the most was the book's ability to make me gasp now and again. And to curse the writer for having received, worked for, and developed such a gift.

Clear sailing with Commodore Perry

The novelist Richard Bausch once remarked that a reader is always guaranteed to learn something new in any novel written by Richard Wiley. Wiley shepherds us into a foreign landscape and introduces us to a culture that is strikingly remote from our own yet is so intimately and recognizably human that we close the book with the realization that not only are we more savvy about the workings of the world at large, but we have a rich new insight into ourselves as well. These two feats can be achieved only by a literary master capable of topnotch entertainment who also has his thumb firmly on the pulse of humanity. In Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show, Richard Wiley outdoes himself. The novel abounds in characters who will live in the reader's mind long after finishing that last page; a plot that is riveting in terms of tragedy, comedy, and samurai action; if that's not enough, this novel is one of the most poetically rendered achievements I've read in the past year. Each sentence is carefully crafted and is in full service to a compelling story about the cultural clashes, tribal rivalries, and familial conflicts that occur when Commodore Perry and his unlikely crew sail into Japan's Edo Bay in 1854 to open trade with the United States. Along the way we are treated to sex, romance, swordplay, deapitation, high and low comedy, and a sense of history whose heartbeat resounds through the ages to make it all feel insistently modern. I recommend this book without reservation to anyone who cares about excellent storytelling.