“Miss Swivven regretted two
aspects of her career: this getting sunburned every week or so, and the occasional
impersonal use Mr. Diamond made of her to relieve his tensions. Still, she was philosophic.
No job is perfect.”
“Hana laughed softly. “Do call me
Hana. After all, I am not Nicholai’s wife. I am his concubine.”
I’ve read "Shibumi" a long time ago. Its appeal was so great at
the time that immediately after having finished it, I wanted to take up Basque
lessons and learn to play Goo. Apparently and according to Trevanian, chess and Goo are utterly “different”:
‘”How would you compare chess
with Goo?”
Nicholai thought for a second.
“Ah…what Goo is to philosophers and warriors, chess is to accountants and
merchants.”’
After more than 30 years I've read it once again, prior to tackle Satori by Don
Winslow. I just wanted to have the novel fresh in my mind. Once again this is
one hell of strange spy book. For starters Nicholai Hel, doesn't appear in
the beginning of the book, and doesn't become an active part of the present-day
action for almost another 200 pages. The first chapters mainly deal with either
exposition provided by the antagonists or flashbacks to Hel's early life in
Shanghai and in Japan before and during World War II. After that
there's a long sequence involving Hel dilly-dallying in underground caverns in
the Basque mountains. As in Goo, all the pieces are set in place and the plot
moves to its inevitable conclusion. One wonders about choosing Goo as a game:
‘“Tell me, Nikko. Why did you
choose to study Goo? It is almost exclusively a Japanese game. Certainly none of
your friends played the game. They probably never even heard of it.”
“That is precisely why I chose
Goo, Sir.”’
The novel’s strategy really shouldn't work, but it does. Without me
noticing it, Trevanian manages to build suspense in unexpected ways, setting
up set pieces filled with remarkable characters, dazzling action and
elegant repartees (Le Cagot and Pierre the gardener are just wonderful
characters). I still believe it’s one of the best spy novels ever written.
There's no other like it.
At the time I remember discussing it with a friend of mine, and we both
came to the conclusion that it was one of the great not-yet-filmed-novels,
mainly because, for instance, there's the sequence in the cave that goes on for
a long time in almost total darkness. But, sometimes what passes for art noveau in film, does not require
major alterations for film adaptations…lol. I think this novel should be
filmed by a set of directors: Tarantino for
the final sequence in the Basque mountains, Besson for the 2 sequences in the
cave-diving episode, and Woo for the sequence at the beginning of the novel at the
airport. I think only the combination of these 3 directors would do the novel
justice.
There are not many (spy) novels as gloriously corny as this one. An apt
sub-title could be something like "Master of art, culture, and also the
world's most skillful lover and deadliest killer on the face of the
Earth". I love it when an author is making fun of me...This is also not your run-of-the-mill spy fiction novel. Enter Trevanian's world at your own peril.
I know it’s a re-read, but it’ll be one of my best reads for 2016,
without a shadow of a doubt.
