Island of Ogres - Hardcover

Lensey Namioka

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060243724 ISBN 13: 9780060243722

Publisher: Harper & Row, 1989

Synopsis

An unemployed samurai reluctantly helps solve a mystery and prevent the overthrow of a young ruler on an island in medieval Japan.

About this title

Reviews

Grade 6 Up-- Another in Namioka's entertaining mystery series about Konishi Zenta and Ishihara Matsuzo, ronin (unemployed samurai) whose travels through 16th-Century Japan have landed them in several adventures, all filled with plots and counterplots. This story begins from the point of view of Kajiro, a ronin dissipated by drink, who is traveling to an island on sort of a last-chance assignment: to spy on the commander of the island and report back to the ruling family's chamberlain as to his fitness. No sooner does he arrive than he is mistaken for the more celebrated Zenta by Yuri, the commander's sister-in-law. Brought before Yuri's sister, the commander's wife, it is clear that Kajiro does not fool her at all because, it develops, Zenta himself is concealed in her residence, recovering from a wound. Complications pile upon complications in a byzantine plot involving a mad ex-ruler who inspires a rebellion against his successor; a convent which may or may not contain nuns; the struggle of Matsuzo to escape capture by the rebels so that he can help Zenta; and the growing attraction between Zenta and the commander's wife. The main protagonist, however, remains Kajiro, whose growing love for Yuri is frustrated by his fear of her rejection when she discovers who he really is. Appearance versus reality permeates the plot; no one is exactly who he says he is at the beginning, except for the Samurai heroes. The theme is interwoven into the numerous strands of the plot and satisfyingly worked out at the conclusion. Told with abrupt shifts of point of view and in an elliptical style, this may require some patience from those not familiar with Namioka's work, but, as always, they will be rewarded with an action-packed, full-bodied story with an unusual and fascinating background. --Christine Behrmann, New York Public Library
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper & Row
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060243724
• ISBN 13: 9780060243722
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 197