The Last Samurai

Title: The Last Samurai
Author: Helen DeWitt
Published: 2000, this one by Vintage in 2001.
Genre: 
Pages: 482


 I read this one in Finnish about as soon as it had come out, and really liked it. A little while back, I saw an English copy at one of the used book shops in Helsinki. I didn't buy it that time, although I was tempted. But I kept telling myself, I already have it in Finnish, and my book shelves are full as they are, so no. Went in to the shop again a few weeks later, it was still there, waiting patiently on the shelf, and I was thinking, it's so much better to read books in their original language, and I really liked this one, so...

Okay, so, this has NOTHING to do with the Tom Cruise movie. It's about this woman, Sybilla, and her young genius of a son Ludo. They live in London, and because they're very poor, they spend days riding on the Circle Line trains to keep warm. Sybilla types up old magazines to make some money, and Ludo learns languages from Japanese to Arabic way before he should even be in school, dazzling and confusing other Tube passengers.

Ludo has no father, so Sybilla keeps Kurosawa's movie Seven Samurai playing on the VCR through his childhood, to show him one damn good movie, and more importantly, to give him not one but seven father figures. Ludo isn't exactly satisfied with this, and eventually goes in search of his real dad. You have to read the book yourself to see how that goes, but it's pretty awesome.

Since both Sybilla and Ludo are pretty damn smart, so's the book. But it's also funny and really hard to put down. And oh, DeWitt has published another book just six months ago! Yay!



It was much easier when he was small. I had one of those Kanga carriers; in warm weather I would type at home with him in front and in cold weather I would go to the British Museum and sit in the Egyptian gallery near the changing room, reading Al Hayah to keep my hand in. Then at night I would go home and type Pig Fancier's Monthly or Weaseller's Companion. And now four years have gone by.