Product Description

This work talks about new lands, loves lost, histories made. The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a gutsy eighteen-year-old who grasps the chance of escape to foreign lands and takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai, and, on the other side of the law, brings about the overthrow of the Shogun. Yet beneath Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed - would form a tragedy so dramatic as to be immortalised in the stories behind Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon. "The Pure Land" relives in fiction the arc of Glover's true-life rise and fall, and forges a hundred-year saga that culminates in the annihilation of Nagasaki in 1945. The novel gracefully spans the feudal and the atomic ages, East and West, global history and private passion. Alan Spence has produced a modern epic, at once a rattling good adventure, a heart-wrenching love story and a journey of the spirit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #480085 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Review
"His imagination is given full rein but this never clouds his instinctive understanding of the contradictions of the human condition. It is a glorious finale to a very fine novel." Sunday Herald "...marks The Pure Land out, not merely as an engaging and vivid historical novel, but also a meditative work of art that is as finely honed as a samurai's sword." The Times "He is a gentle writer, but never sentimental. The beautiful moments have always been earned. He is a writer to cherish, one offering deep and fulfilling pleasures." Allan Massie"

Daily Mail
Rattles along, grounded in historical research and filled with
emotional truths.

Sunday Herald
Part thrilling adventure, part lyrical reflection, and
characterised by Spence's pure vision

Customer Reviews

Perhaps it is different for you...
The book is certainly exciting - or at least it coveys a sense of excitement and adventure of the ninenteenth century which has probably lost to us. But I could not continue reading, most likely because I am Japanese and there are so many little things in the story that have troubled me. The Japanese characters in the book keep saying 'hai, sodesu'. Well, this is what the Japanese might have said to the occupying Americans after WWII. People of the nineteenth century, certainly of the warrior class would not have spoken like this. While there were plenty of impoverished samurai around at that time, no daughter would be sent to a brothel without being cut off from the family, and the depiction of the first wife therefore is very unconvincing. I also sensed a hint of orientalism in his depiction of Japanese women. Well, men are always men, and Western men remains Western, it seems. And I am always puzzled with the over-appreciation of of the influence of Buddhism in Japanese society, present and past, by Western authors - believe me, if you go around saying 'existence is suffering', you would not start a quasi-revolution to modernise/Westernise a country. However, if you are not familiar with Japanese history and society, perhaps this reads like a great story.

Gripping read.
I stumbled upon this book at the airport when I was looking for something to read to kill the waiting time, and what a find it was!

The story is set at the time a little prior to Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai". Thomas Glover was a young clerk from Aberdeen, who grabbed the opportunity to work in the newly "opened" Japan in mid 19th century. Now this must have been an interesting time and place to be for an ambitious young man such as he. Since the Opium War in 1840 in neighbouring China, old fasioned Samurais are forced to come to terms that the mideval Japan is in no position to compete with the colonial West, who are eagerly anticipating to runsack and profeteer from Japan also. Civil war ensues, a country divided with those who want to rid themselves of the foreigners, and those who wish to modernise.

Glover throws himself into this world, makes friends and foes, advances himself from a mere clerk to a formidable man of influence who helps Japan become a modern nation, and still manages to find himself some pleasure and comfort in this strange land.

This is based on a true story and you will find his old home on a hill top which is now a museum in Nagasaki to comemorate his achievements. I have visited the place many times but without knowing the true nature of his success until I read the book, and it really made this most interesting bit of history alive to me. I look forward to the cinematisation of this story as promised on the author's note at the end of the book.

Minor criticism is that while the historical events seems mostly accurate, the Japanese conversation seems only a little improved version of that of "Shogun". The poetic translation and the nuances were really good and yet I found myself stumbling on the poor Japanese conversation, which was a real shame for me.

In the final few chapters, Mr Spence attempts to tie the loose ends together; Unfortunately the story of the formere mistress and her son seemed a little disjointed from the main story, though I liked the ambiance of the sorrow of missed opportunity and acceptance of such karma. I am also not too convinced of the title of the book, "the Pure Land", which is a buddhist term refering to afterlife and it seemed strange for describing the life of the man who seemed so "alive" in most of the book.

But overall, it was a gripping read and I applaud his efforts.

Mildly flawed but entertaining
As other reviews have suggested, this book does not appear to be a hugely faithful recreation of nineteenth century Japan. I am not an expert but there are several aspects that lack a ring of authenticity.
This is a great shame because it is otherwise a very entertaining book. The era is fascinating and the story is mostly very well done. There are a number of interesting and well-developed characters, although less so on the Japanese side if I'm honest.
So, in essence, a good page-turner if you can just overlook a few flaws.