Review: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

I often get asked to review stuff that has an oriental theme, and being a freelance, I almost always say yes to such work. However sometimes the book or movie that falls onto my desk has very little about it that's oriental, and this book review is one such case. It has the word 'Samurai' in the title, but that's really about as Japanese as it gets!

Review: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, Vintage, stg£7
Published Sunday, May 12, 2002, reviewed by Alex Meehan

Despite its title, Helen DeWitt's debut novel has little to do with adventure stories and even less to do with Japan's feudal warriors.

Based on the complex relationship between Sibylla, a single mother of above-average intelligence, and her precocious son Ludo, The Last Samurai is a modern story which explores a number of themes, including the concerns of single parent families and the educational hothousing of children.

At the start of the novel we meet Ludo, aged four, as he is introduced to higher learning by his mother. He quickly learns Greek and reads Homer before moving on to Hebrew, Japanese, Old Norse and Inuit, along with advanced mathematics.

Of particular importance is Ludo's endless analysis of Akira Kurosawa's cinematic masterpiece, The Seven Samurai. Sibylla decides that Ludo needs a father figure, and in the absence of a real dad, instead exposes him to samurai movies.

This serves the purpose of occupying Ludo while his mother types out back copies of Carpworld Magazine to pay the rent. But the distraction is only temporary, as Ludo becomes obsessed with discovering the identity of his real father, a quest that leads him away from the reliability of acquired knowledge and into the often messy world of adult emotion.

The Last Samurai is essentially divided into two halves, the first concerned with the education of Ludo and written from Sibylla's perspective and the second describing Ludo's search for his father and written mainly from the boy's point of view.

The Last Samurai is a magnificently original first novel, notwithstanding the fact that it took the author 50 attempts to get published. The writing is clear and the plot engaging.