The Last Samurai

… no, not like the movie

Who's seen The Last Samurai? Come on, honestly, who enjoyed it? All those action scenes? The lovely dramatic speeches? Tom Cruise anyone? No? Well I've got a surprise for you. This book is not the same as the movie, in fact, this novel is barely comparable with that movie, in the same way idiocy is not comparable to genius.

The Last Samurai is the very first novel from an amazing new author, Helen Dewitt. It follows the childhood of a young boy (who may or may not be called Steven or David, his mother isn't really sure) through his eccentric upbringing in a single-parent family. Once you've read this book you'll have several “different” ideas about child-raising, ranging from learning Japanese to the Odyssey, and all of them –every single one- about as likely to work as pigs are to fly. But. But, this genius of a child is as wonderful as any parent could wish for and whether it was the daily dose of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai or his own private quest to trick his mother into revealing his father's identity, this book should be a household name, and in my house, it is.

My mother read it and went out and bought another 6 copies, handing them to every likely person she saw. When I started reading it all I could say was “Wha…?!?” over the section written in the boy's mother's train of thought. And when my favourite teacher read it she said “Too bad we cant go backwards and teach you all Ancient Greek at the age of 3” Reading this book will leave you thinking of it for weeks, and wanting to make some drastic changes to your life style.
This book needs to be read, and I recommend it above all overs. Please, please keep on reading, even if you are confused at the beginning and believe me, this book is amazing.

The Last Samurai , by Helen Dewitt
Review by [ Kaimee ]