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Title: Gai-Junk
Review: James Clavell's writing in Gai-Jin probably contains the worst grammar and syntax ever written by a published novelist. Once you get beyond that though, there's decapitations, rapes, castrations, the mild titillations of the 'Flower World', and a host of laughable characters. There's Andre Poncin, the syphilitic spy with the perverse heart; there's the impossibly beautiful Angelique with the hourglass waist who every man swoons over; there's the tyrannical Tess Straun (whom we never meet) who makes men and women quake with fear. There are plots within plots that are sometimes hard to follow due to Clavell's butchering of the English language. Despite all this, the book is strangely enjoyable in a depraved way. There are so many loose ends at the book's end that it is obvious that Clavell was planning a sequel. Alas, Mr. Clavell passed on and we'll never know what happened to our poor Angelique, the dashing Mr.Gornt, or the wicked Tess.
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