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Sayonara (1954)

door James A. Michener

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5941139,573 (3.57)12
From a great master of historical fiction comes a brilliant tale of love amid war. James A. Michener combines powerful storytelling with deep sensitivity in this novel of a U.S. Army man who, against all odds, falls for a fascinating Japanese woman. Stationed in the exotic Far East, Major Lloyd Gruver considers himself lucky. The son of a general, dating the daughter of another powerful military family, he can look forward to a bright future. And he just can't understand guys like Private Joe Kelly, who throw away their lives in the States by marrying local girls. But then Lloyd meets Hana-ogi. After that, nothing matters anymore . . . nothing but her.   Praise for James A. Michener   "A master storyteller . . . Michener, by any standards, is a phenomenon."--The Wall Street Journal   "Sentence for sentence, writing's fastest attention grabber."--The New York Times   "Michener has become an institution in America, ranking somewhere between Disneyland and the Library of Congress. You learn a lot from him."--Chicago Tribune   "While he fascinates and engrosses, Michener also educates."--Los Angeles Times… (meer)
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1-5 van 11 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
Story: 7.0 / 10
Characters: 7.0
Setting: 7.0
Prose: 7.0

Tags: Japan, love, obligation, other, race, ethnicity, war, tradition, career ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
There was a time around 20 years ago when I read several of Michener's epic historical novels, but none since I finished The Source in January 2004. So after a gap of 18 and a half years, I am reading this shorter novel, inspired by seeing the musical South Pacific last weekend. And yes I know that musical is based on a different Michener book, but this one has similar themes, specifically racial tension between US military forces and the native populations of, in the case of this book, Japan in the early 1950s.

Major Ace Gruver is the son of a four star general, engaged to Eileen Webster, daughter of a slightly less highly ranked US general. He is posted to Kobe in Japan to help to dissuade an acquaintance and former member of his unit in the war in Korea, Joe Kelly, from marrying a Japanese woman, Katsumi. This argument is advanced partly on simple racist grounds, but also on not embarrassing the US and its armed forced by fraternising with "the enemy" (though the war is in the past and Japan and the US are allies in the war against the communists in Korea). But as he gets to know them better as a married couple, he comes to recognise the quality of their union, which he contrasts favourably with his relationship with Eileen, who he sees as becoming like her battle-axe of a mother, a woman whose overriding concern is to promote her husband's military career and to preserve the proprieties of military life, including not "consorting" with Japanese women.

Gruver in turn falls in love with a beautiful classical dancer, Hana-ogi and wishes to marry her, even at the cost of abandoning his military career and not returning to the States. Eventually Kelly's and Gruver's relationships with their Japanese partners reach a tragic crisis point due to the pressures they are placed under (the film version, as so often, ends in a more upbeat way). This novel explores racial and cultural tensions very movingly and effectively, with Gruver coming to appreciate what he sees as the simple and honest life of the ordinary Japanese people compared to the complex and manipulative lives of his American compatriots, combined with anger at the naked racism of many of his military superiors. At the end, when he is parted from Hana-ogi seemingly permanently, he presciently remarks that "All this should have happened fifty years from now. Then maybe there would have been a chance. In my day there was no chance for such a marriage.” A moving and powerful novel about love across racial and cultural boundaries. ( )
  john257hopper | Aug 3, 2022 |
847530365X
  archivomorero | Jun 27, 2022 |
Here's what I wrote about this after reading in 1981: "Good. American stationed in Japan post-WWII falls in love with local girl." ( )
  MGADMJK | Aug 28, 2021 |
Really enjoyed this. Reminds me a little of Madame Butterfly, tragic love between an American military man and a Japanese woman.

Very good. ( )
  SFGale | Mar 23, 2021 |
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Sayonara is een droevig laatste woord: "En jij, Japan, overbevolkte eilanden, tragisch land: sayonara, jij vijand, jij vriend."
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From a great master of historical fiction comes a brilliant tale of love amid war. James A. Michener combines powerful storytelling with deep sensitivity in this novel of a U.S. Army man who, against all odds, falls for a fascinating Japanese woman. Stationed in the exotic Far East, Major Lloyd Gruver considers himself lucky. The son of a general, dating the daughter of another powerful military family, he can look forward to a bright future. And he just can't understand guys like Private Joe Kelly, who throw away their lives in the States by marrying local girls. But then Lloyd meets Hana-ogi. After that, nothing matters anymore . . . nothing but her.   Praise for James A. Michener   "A master storyteller . . . Michener, by any standards, is a phenomenon."--The Wall Street Journal   "Sentence for sentence, writing's fastest attention grabber."--The New York Times   "Michener has become an institution in America, ranking somewhere between Disneyland and the Library of Congress. You learn a lot from him."--Chicago Tribune   "While he fascinates and engrosses, Michener also educates."--Los Angeles Times

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Majoor Lloyd Gruver komt in het Japanse Kobe onder de hoede van de Amerikaanse generaal Webster, met wiens dochter hij verloofd is. Vervelend is alleen dat hij naar Kobe gaat met soldaat Joe Kelly, een knaap die geen blad voor de mond neemt en die geen gelegenheid onbenut laat om hem te vertellen dat hij perse wil trouwen met één van die in Gruvers ogen zo lompe Japanse meisjes, totdat Gruver zelf valt voor de exquise schoonheid van Hana-ogi, een Japanse danseres...

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