Tokyo Station

by Martin Cruz Smith

Book Overview

Amid the imperialist fervor of late 1941 Tokyo, Harry Niles is a man with a mission -- self-preservation. But Niles was raised by missionary parents and educated in the shadows of Tokyo's underworld... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0330488813
• ISBN13: 9780330488815
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Pan Publishing
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece of character, setting, and story

I found the book riveting from page one. It works on so many levels, from its atmospheric setting in Japan to its exciting story lines, set both in the childhood past of American Harry Niles and the present, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the intriguing characters in the novel are what drive the story. Harry Niles is by far one of the most interesting characters I've encountered lately. So is his Japanese mistress, the unpredictable and scary Michiko. One of the most suspensful and delicious scenes in the novel takes place in a Willow House, where Harry is forced to make small talk and observe Japanese decorum while knowing he has just minutes to live. He has been lured to the Willow House by his lover, at first unrecognized because of her geisha makeup and demeanor. There, he encounters bitter enemy, Ishigami, the master swordsman who has sworn to behead him. Ishigami is like a cat playing with the mouse before pouncing. The reader cannot help but wonder throughout the book how Harry will survive.I read a huge number of books, both fiction and non, and this one is a gem. (Another great novel set around the time of WWII is Joseph Kanon's "The Good German"). December 6 is one of the few books that I will actually go back and reread, slowly, to figure out how the author managed to put it all together. Finally, as a response to the reader who claimed he was not an old white man and why should this book be on his "must read" list, I am not an old white man either. If a reviewer is going to give one star and a grumpy one-liner, but no concrete criticisms at all, his review enlightens no one.

Great story! One of this year's best novels.

The story is set in Tokyo on December 6, 1941. Harry Niles owns the Happy Paris saloon in the Asakusa district, a nightless city where sheltered libidos roam unfettered. Harry learned to adapt early in life growing up as the gaifin son of American missionaries in post WWI Japan. In flashbacks we see how much Harry will take and improvise to avoid submitting when his boyhood "friends" make him the target of their samurai games. The same friends are in his life on December 6th": Hajimai, a soldier about to ship out and Gen, an aide to Admiral Yamomoto who recognizes and uses the talents of Harry the businessman. They are hooked up with Col. Ishigami, a sadistic veteran of the rape of Nanking who is particularly good at beheading people with his saber.While trying to wrap things up over the weekend and make the Monday morning clipper flight to Hong Kong, Harry will confirm his suspicions that Pearl Harbor is to be attacked. Again through flashbacks we learn how powerbrokers on both sides of the coming conflict know Harry and why he knows things they would like to know. His relationship with Michiko, the part Communist part geisha "Record Girl" who tends the Happy Paris jukebox, and efforts to stay out from under Ishigami's sword are part of a pace that keeps you excited and surprised by what happens next.The ending is jst plain phenomenal. Smith puts his hero in a box he'll never get out of. Then ... I'll say no more except that you'll want to experience the finale for yourself.P.S. Smith has created his best ever character in Harry Niles, and John Slattery (narrator of the audiobook) captures Harry's personality perfectly with a comfortable, believable delivery of the con man's lines combined with unobtrusive yet distinct voices and accents that set Harry apart from the rest of the cast. I hope there's a movie and Slattery gets the part.