Reviews for Sayonara

The average rating for Sayonara based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-03 00:00:00 Roger Ewald Ohhhh, it sez "forbidden love" on the cover, I'm all for that!!! Awww, it's just a little interracial action. The Korean War is on, and the Ugly American is overrunning Japan. Air Force flying ace Lloyd Gruver is pretty disgusted by the way his fellow servicemen are fraternizing with the former enemy and even, ugh, marrying Japanese girls. Then he sees a stage performance by Hana-ogi, an actress who specializes in playing male roles, and he falls immediately hopelessly obsessively in love (I'll leave the psychosexual ramifications of that for someone else to ponder). Hana-ogi wants nothing to do with him, but Lloyd Lloyd all null and void confronts her with a truth that she cannot avoid, Lloyd. He will not be refused. In the '50s, they called this love at first sight. Today, we call it stalking. Persistence pays off for Lloyd. Without so much as a single conversation in a common language, the happy couple move in together, and Lloyd learns the important lesson that Japanese people are just as good as Americans despite their wacky heathen customs. "Sayonara" was written in the '50s, and it might have been daring and controversial stuff when World War II was fresh in readers' memories, but it has aged horribly. Michener's condescending and smugly superior attitude toward Asian culture is gratingly ignorant, and he perpetuates stereotypes while preaching tolerance. The Japanese women are praised for being so docile and demure and subservient. "Golden" and "yellow" are Michener's favorite go-to adjectives, and there's this tender bit of loveplay: "She caught me in her arms and cried, 'Oh, Rroyd, I rub you berry sweet.' I was unprepared both for her emotion and her pronunciation and for one dreadful moment I almost laughed and then I looked down at her dear sweet slanted eyes and saw that they were filled with tears." Yea, he's a roid, all right. Maybe I should cut Michener some slack. I'm sure his intentions were good, and he's not alone in literature's long history of clueless/racist portraits. But even if it had been properly sensitive, "Sayonara" would be a lousy and dated novel. The only reasons I finished it were that it's short and I wanted to see how it compared with the movie (Marlon Brando looks sleepy and vaguely irritated to be starring in it).

Review # 2 was written on 2020-02-26 00:00:00 Martin Wienert By James A. Mirchener. Dedicated with love to Japan the beautiful country of the rising sun. Ladies and gentlemen, I've been doubting that you'll notice putting a novel as beautiful and moving as this. I opted to finally put it 4.5 stars, but I didn't rule it out to five stars. Most readers will know that apart from the country where I was born there are two pretty girls in my eyes. Two countries that seem really opposite Poland because of kindness, religiosity (it is precisely their Catholicism that I love the most), their gripping history, and above all their women. I'm an admirer of the beauty of Polish women. To Poland I know it is idealized, but I can only see it through the writings of Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz as not to love the jewel of the Baltic when I saw the best of that Central European country embodied in one man in the figure of St. John Paul II the Pope of my childhood and to which I have loved most You know that one of my favorite characters is Maria Walewska. My other great country that I admired and loved so much is and cannot be seemingly more opposed to Japan. I remember that this country was always in my heart, when I was a child what I wanted to be was Ninja, or Shinobi, now it could not be because of the strong presence of Yambic Buddhism in its path, although a Samurai can be Catholic. When I was a kid, I played video games from Japan, played consoles, which they made, watched their wonderful animated series and movies, and that was falling apart. My paternal grandmother was very devoted to St. Francis Xavier, and I have inherited that, although I believe, that as Santa Teresita de Lisieux, I will only be able to evangelize Japan in my dreams, thoughts and in my imagination. In a review I wrote for Quaterni I gave it to a man I would have liked to have been for two reasons the Jesuit Peter Milward who had a long life and was a great friend of the Inklings in particular of C.S. Lewis (in fact Lewis consulted him close to his marriage to Joy Davidman ) and J.R.R. Tolkien Milward apart from that he was a great connoisseur of William Shakespeare's work and always defended the Catholicity of the Avon Bard or Swan in fact Peter Milward was a friend of my admiratous Joseph Pearce but what touched me more is that because Father Gereon Goldmann accepted a position as Professor of English Literature at the Sophia Press, perhaps as Victor Hugo, who wanted to be Chateubriand or nothing What I would have liked is being able to talk to that man. My friend Manuel Alfonseca he told me that he had been to the Sophia at the Jesuit University of Tokyo, but because he did not know of the existence of Peter Milward did not ask for him. One thing that seemed impossible was to unite the Catholic religion with Japan, because it is a country that despite having had several Christian ministers resists Christianity. It is a country where the presence of Christians is very small 0.4% despite the great presence of personalities converted to Christianity. In the evangelizing model, the Jesuit model of conversion of the elites prevailed over the Franciscan model that spoke of converting the people. Several people have told me, that it is an amoral people who have no religion or are indifferentist, or syncretist takes what they like about the religions of the country. Yet in Japan the most atheist branch of Buddhism does not dominate, as in other countries. It is curious that South Korea, China with its Clandestine Church, Vietnam (Philippines I do not tell because it is one of the most famous Catholic countries more religious) have a significant percentage of Catholics while in Japan, but that's what makes it more appealing to my eyes. The woman who is most restilike is the one who likes libertines the most. Ask Valmont with Madame de Tourvelle, or our Don Juan with Doña Inés. The more G.K. Chesterton resists i would have said in the "Equivocal Form" "Asia does not give up," the more I want to share my faith with them, and the more he loved this country. It is true that there have not been many converts, but in return has bequeathed us several figures of great relevance such as Takashi Nagai Ayako Miura, who is not Catholic but Christian, but has a beautiful novel "Shiokori Pass" translated in Spain as "A Christian Samurai" but perhaps from all of all my great favorite is Shusaku Endo who despite his peculiar vision of religion. He is one of my three favorite writers and fuses being Japanese with the Catholic religion. Already in one of his stories he told us about St Maximilian Kolbe, who was a missionary in Japan he also wrote a novel in which he linked the destinies of Spain with that of Japan "Samurai" Velasco is practically an image of myself. It also influenced the conversion of Ayako Sono and Kaga Otohiko Anyway, it's not just Catholicism that draws me from Japan. I'm attracted to everything about Japan. Everything that's said about this country interests me. But I've overstretched myself, and it's time to talk about this little "Sayonara" gem I bought from a thrift store. Of course Mircherner has shown me with the two novels I've read to him. One thing, he's a great writer. I had already read Poland it is a history of Poland through several families. It is a masterpiece, which pre-empts Edward Rutherfurd so he's also united the fates of the two countries I love the most. I was unaware that James A. Mircherner had written "The Bridges of Toko-Ri" This novel Sayonara from which a great film was made, which as my friend Professor Manuel Alfonseca reminded me Hollywood gave him a Happy Ending. The Hays Code prevailed, and besides, who doesn't like love stories to end well? I must admit, in a few pages James A. Mirchener has written a masterpiece. As I would say and copy my friend Professor Manuel Alfonseca, after reading this little gem, passed me as Steven Spielberg with "The Bridges of Madison" I cried like a samurai. I like this novel, because it has a Chateaubrianesque component of interracial loves. I was always fascinated by those stories. Spain is not a country that has racial prejudices, perhaps more religious (like me), or economic, but it has not seen bad marriage to people of other races. This novel is very inspired to my way of seeing With Madame Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini's immortal opera. The author himself does not hide his influence. I liked the exotic component I had as Mikado de O'Sullivan or the novels of Pierre Loti but to my view this is a very brave novel, which tries to seek harmony between a victorious and one defeated people, and it is a very harsh denunciation of racism. Mircherner is relentless against the army bureaucracy, perhaps the only thing I didn't like was the role of the chaplain, convincing protagonist Lloyd Gruver to dissuade Private Kelly from marrying Katsumi. Apart from the racism in this novel, what they will say and reputation will mean. Gruver's conversion, which goes from hostility to worship, is felt to a lesser extent by the reader, who is captivated by the charms of the country of the Rising Sun. There is no country that cares more about beauty, and how beautiful it is Japan. It's a country, which almost looks like Platonic. I certainly have not been surprised by the triumph of Parasites in the Oscars. . While the West seems stagnant in part by the enormous ideological debts it has to certain lobbies, and because of its lack of creativity and imagination. Except for progressiveism, I'm very pacato and conservative, and they don't do anything new. It is true that parasites underlies the ghost of communism and the critique of capitalism (I have already said that neither of these two themes seems to me as a solution), but the triumph of Parasites was seen to come because in Asia the cinema is being made that I would like to see , and if it weren't for the Disney-PIXAR Mafia, the Japanese would win the award for Best Animated Film. The solution is not to accept the racism of Michael Chrichton's "Sun rising," but to get on the lines and re-make a religious, moral, values in which scripts and good stories are firsted in the face of ideologies, which is what the public wants. Let's learn from this continent that shows us the way. Because let's not kid ourselves, that's Mircherner's novel, a novel, which has soaked up japanese, and is full of beauty. Apart from several love stories. The characters are very well characterized the jovial, blissful and lovable Irish Kelly, the hesitant Lloyd Gruver, who is always afraid to do what he wants, who wants to get out of his life, but in the end ends up always doing what is expected of him. That's the tragedy of the novel, which reminded me of a very famous Spanish play "Three Hats cup" by Miguel Mihura in which a businessman engaged with a girl falls in love with a dancer, and is separated from her by his host Rosario, and by his father-in-law Don Sacramento. I have not found it difficult to draw parallels Gruver is Dionysus, Webster (who is a, scramred and hence his frustration. Because his wife and daughter do with him what they want) is Rosario, Lloyd's father is Don Sacramento, and he also has something of Dosttoyevsky's Porfiri in "Crime and Punishment" Eilleen is Margarita and Paula is Hana Oigi. One character that impressed me a lot is Bailey, who keeping distances plays a celestine between Lloyd Gruver and Hana Ogi. I'm fascinated that both characters, to love each other, must overcome a prejudice. Gruver his rejection of the Yellows, and Hana Ogi hate the Americans, who killed his family. This novel also offers a denunciation of the hypocrisy embodied in the Websters, especially in the lady, who talks about getting together and enjoying all the pleasures that Japan offers her, but then indeed despite the peace has not made peace of heart, and continues to judge with contempt the Japanese. It is a character Mrs. Webster, who dislikes me more than the hateful character of the novel Craford (who is the one who makes life impossible for Kelly, and Katsumi). The latter goes face-to-face and deceives no one, but Mrs. Webster is ladina, and malicious. It's interesting, because this novel shows us like the Japanese, despite all the impediments, they married the Japanese ones. Anyway, as in "Three Cup Hats" there's something else that makes the novel end, as it ends. It's also fascinating to discover where Hana Ogi takes its name from. What I liked most about this novel is the great capacity that Japanese women have of love, and we see this in the three Japanese women of history. Nor is this the only novel of interracial loves between Japanese and Americans that I read, and here I make an explicit homage to that great Swedish actor that Has left us Max von Sydow already had the honor of seeing the wonderful film of Scott Hicks Snow in the Cedars" that more or less denounces the same racism of the United States against Japanese immigration in World War II, and after. With all of James Mircherner's novel, I liked it better than David Guterson's novel (destroyed by the excessive libidinousness of the author), while moral dilemmas were more primacy in the film, which reminded me of Graham Greene's novels perhaps what he decided me not to put the five on was a side of my aversion to suicides. Something, which I never understood, there is more glory and honor in fighting failures than in accepting annihilation, even if it is done with the courage of a stoic. It's the only thing I haven't been able to accept from Japan, if they're going to change that, and their cruelty would be the best country on earth, in fact, it's very close to me. It's what my admired Juan Manuel de Prada calls as an honor hypertrophy. As our Baltasar Gracián said, although to me the Japanese seem to me the English of Asia to him they were the people that most resembled Spain. I hope this tribute has pleased Japan, and I wish you your fate to be that of the Japanese girl from Michael D's novel. O'Brien from "Elias in Jerusalem" My next review will be Carlo Goldoni's "The Fan" who will be dedicated to the Italians and To Doña Inés for their fight against Coronavirus.