Title: Not as good as "Gai-Jin"
Product review: Very disappointing. Clavell was the master of this genre, and no one else even comes close to the depth of his characterizations, subtleties of plot, and elegant prose. "Cloud of Sparrows" seems to be a knock-off of "Gai-Jin" by Clavell. They're both set in the same time period, and the plots have many similarities. However, "Gai-Jin" was far and away a much better book. In particular "Cloud of Sparrows" has several fatal flaws: the writing is very poor (where was the author's editor?), the plot is completely ridiculous (a Texas gunfighter running around in 19th Century Japan trying to hunt down an enemy who has somehow become a buddhist monk?!), and the characterizations are extremely weak. When I finally finished the book (and it was no page-turner), I realized that I didn't give a damn about any of the characters. Matsuoka needs to take a course in creative writing; and Delacorte Press needs to do a much better job of editing.
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