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The Typist (2010)

by Michael Knight(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press

review 1: This little bitty book captivated me with its unusual setting in post-WWII occupied Japan and its mingling of fictional characters with MacArthur and his real family. Some of the plot points that seem most bizarre are the things that actually happened - like the grand football game that MacArthur organized for a symbolic statement played out on the bombed-out fields of Japan or the international war-crime trial of Tojo. This is a quiet book with a quiet, yet grounded narrator whose observations of the juxtaposition of occupying forces with occupied "locals" have a ring of truth. If you get the edition that has the short segment "The Atom Bowl" at the beginning (with the amusing/disgusting character of Vaughn, don't be put off or put the book down - these aren't, for the mo... morest part, the characters or the focus of the main narrative.
review 2: This is a well written book almost a novella but I just couldn't get excited by it. Perhaps because I have recently finished "Unbroken" and the ordeal that the soldiers endured, this takes place in Japan at the end of the war and I found the characters too self-absorbed. I didn't really connect with any of the characters to care enough about what happened to them. It strengthened my impression that General MacArthur, although perhaps a stellar general was a very egotistical man. It is a quick read. less

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