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The Whirlwind Hunt 9/17/2014 11:22:07 AM
[A version of this post originally appeared on thunderalleybcp.com on September 10, 2014]
It took me years to be able to read Whirlwind.
It’s not that I was putting it off. James Clavell’s Asian Saga is one of my favorite book series ever. I started with Noble House and made my way through all the other entries over the years. The late British author did an amazing job of dropping his Western characters into an exotic Eastern milieu. Yet he never romanticized that kind of European incursion into Asia. His Asian characters were as complex and fully realized as his European and American ones. He told long, intricate stories against the backdrop of some of the most exciting moments in world history.
I’d loved all the other entries in the series. Noble House and Gai-Jin were my favorites. There was something almost luxuriant about losing yourself in one of Clavell’s labyrinthine plots. Keeping track of his mammoth casts was an effort that was worth the effort.
For years, I’d wanted to read Whirlwind, the 1986 novel that proved to be the second-to-last that Clavell produced before his death in 1994. There was just one problem. I couldn’t get my hands on the bloody thing.
Whirlwind was a best seller. I recall seeing it on the shelves back when I was a kid. Back when book stores still existed. I didn’t start delving into The Asian Saga until I was in college. It was years before I got through all the other entries, so I hadn’t really looked for it.
When I’d finally read all the others and knew that no more books were coming, I was naturally eager to finish off the series and tackle Whirlwind. Whirlwind wasn’t an easy sell. It was set against the fall of Iran in 1979. Its plot focused on the incipient concept of radical Islam was controversial. It was also among the longest of Clavell’s books. Considering the others regularly exceeded the 1500 page mark in mass market paperback, that’s saying something.
I looked for Whirlwind for years. Book stores always carried all the other novels in The Asian Saga, but never Whirlwind. It wasn’t available online, at least not at cover price. I really had no interest in paying a much higher amount to get my hands on it. There were some used copies that were reasonably priced, but I don’t like buying used books sight unseen. You never know what you’re getting. All the other books in the series came out with new editions. Whirlwind was listed as part of the series, but didn’t get a new edition. Information on the book was scanty. No one seemed to know why it wasn’t available in the U.S., beyond its controversial themes.
I was in London a few years ago. As I always do when there, I stopped into Waterstones in Piccadilly Circus. I love Waterstones and have missed them ever since they abandoned the U.S. market several years ago. The Piccadilly location is like a massive temple to books. It’s amazing.
I don’t know what prompted me to think of Whirlwind while I was there. I’d wandered the floors and looked at lots of things. I was trying to figure out what I might want to buy. The flash came into my brain: see if they have Whirlwind.
I thought, it’s Europe, they’re not as hung up about some of this stuff as we Americans can be. They might have it. I went to the “C” shelves, I found Clavell’s section… and there it was. A trade paperback copy of Whirlwind.
I grabbed it immediately. I felt giddy. I may have chortled in delight. I don’t often chortle. It’s not pretty.
At checkout, I breathlessly explained to the clerk how I’d been looking for this book for years and couldn’t find it in the States. She was the opposite of interested. I didn’t care. I had Whirlwind.
I started it when I got home from London.
Talk about a letdown.
Well, maybe that’s harsh. It’s not a bad book. There are lots of things I liked about Whirlwind. Some of the characters were very engaging. A few plot threads from earlier books wound their way into the mix. And Clavell’s ability to construct word images that powerfully evoke a specific time and place was undiminished. There were a lot of plot fireworks and action sequences to keep a reader’s attention.
But a few of the characters were maddening. Some of that was historically accurate, some of it was that the characters were idiots who deserved to be killed off. Clavell at least obliged us there in a couple of cases. The escape mission couldn’t go flawlessly, of course, but after yet one more serious setback threatened to derail it, a certain sense of “oh, come on” set in. The individual parts seemed to struggle to cohere as seamlessly as Clavell had managed in his other books.
I’m not sorry I read Whirlwind. I can’t claim to love it the way I do the rest of The Asian Saga, but it was interesting in parts, even with its various frustrations. I’m glad I got to finish the series.
After I read it, I passed Whirlwind onto a friend who had been in the same boat I was. His reaction was mostly in line with mine.
And you still can’t buy a new copy in the U.S. So if you’re a Clavell completist and you’re too concerned about buying used paperbacks and your local library doesn’t have Whirlwind, there’s only one solution.
