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A review by paul_cornelius
Whirlwind by James Clavell
5.0
I had read Clavell's other novels earlier this year. But it took me several months to get around to reading Whirlwind, the last of his Asian Saga chronologically. I simply didn't want to take on the Iranian Revolution, especially having dealt with its ramifications over the span of several decades earlier in my life.
Yet this turned out to be a mistake. Whirlwind is one of his better works, superior to Noble House and Gai-Jin and on a par with Shogun and a notch below Tai-Pan. It's also a departure in both style and format from Clavell's other works. Shogun and Tai-Pan were Occidental forays into the exoticism of the Orient. And at the same time, they were hard edged philosophical works expounding upon Clavell's libertarianism. Gai-Jin was a somewhat disappointing sequel to those two. Meanwhile, Nobel House is pure soap opera, a 1400 page story, as one wag put it, of Ian Dunross getting a loan. Aside from these, there is Clavell's first published book in the series, King Rat, which stands apart as a work of serious literature.
Whirlwind is different from all the above. Its epic scope is grander; its story more multifaceted; its genre, an historical political intrigue, something new as well. All of it weaving in six separate stories. In fact, Whirlwind could be said to contain six interrelated separate novels brought together under one overarching drama. Too, this is Clavell's only published novel that is contemporaneous to the events it described--Clavell having undertaken its writing in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.
What of Whirlwind itself? As usual with Clavell, the story is compelling, an addicting read. Clavell is a master of the "and then" moment which most successful popular authors must have. No purple prose, here. Just raw, pithy descriptions served on a platter of adventure and mystery. There is a little romance as well, although that is by far the weakest element of the book.
And the most interesting figure of novel? Perhaps the mullah Hussain, whose ambiguous thoughts carry us through the last few pages. A threat or a promise? Both? How odd, finally, to have the chronological story of the Struans end on a mountainside in northwestern Iran. Leaving the reader to deal with chaos breaking out back in the home berth of the saga, Hong Kong and the Far East. Would that Clavell had had the opportunity to tell us more about the Noble House. What would he have made of his precious China in the year 2018?
Yet this turned out to be a mistake. Whirlwind is one of his better works, superior to Noble House and Gai-Jin and on a par with Shogun and a notch below Tai-Pan. It's also a departure in both style and format from Clavell's other works. Shogun and Tai-Pan were Occidental forays into the exoticism of the Orient. And at the same time, they were hard edged philosophical works expounding upon Clavell's libertarianism. Gai-Jin was a somewhat disappointing sequel to those two. Meanwhile, Nobel House is pure soap opera, a 1400 page story, as one wag put it, of Ian Dunross getting a loan. Aside from these, there is Clavell's first published book in the series, King Rat, which stands apart as a work of serious literature.
Whirlwind is different from all the above. Its epic scope is grander; its story more multifaceted; its genre, an historical political intrigue, something new as well. All of it weaving in six separate stories. In fact, Whirlwind could be said to contain six interrelated separate novels brought together under one overarching drama. Too, this is Clavell's only published novel that is contemporaneous to the events it described--Clavell having undertaken its writing in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.
What of Whirlwind itself? As usual with Clavell, the story is compelling, an addicting read. Clavell is a master of the "and then" moment which most successful popular authors must have. No purple prose, here. Just raw, pithy descriptions served on a platter of adventure and mystery. There is a little romance as well, although that is by far the weakest element of the book.
And the most interesting figure of novel? Perhaps the mullah Hussain, whose ambiguous thoughts carry us through the last few pages. A threat or a promise? Both? How odd, finally, to have the chronological story of the Struans end on a mountainside in northwestern Iran. Leaving the reader to deal with chaos breaking out back in the home berth of the saga, Hong Kong and the Far East. Would that Clavell had had the opportunity to tell us more about the Noble House. What would he have made of his precious China in the year 2018?