The Pure Land

Fascinating and compelling. Hard to put down. My wife and I both thoroughly enjoyed it. Must read a biographry of Thomas Glover now.

This book is an interesting look at pre-modern Japan seen through the eyes of Thomas Glover. Glover was a real-life entrepreneurial Scottish businessman that moved to Nagasaki in the 1850s and has been partially credited with the modernization of Japan, the overthrow of the Shogun and the Meiji Restoration. Although this book is deemed historical fiction, Spence deserves credit for his research and attempt to remain historically accurate to the characters and the events of the time. There are parts of this book that drag on and a reader without an understanding of the Bakufu and Shogun system in Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration may be a bit lost, but otherwise the book is entertaining and the imagery is vivid. All in all, this book should be considered by all who profess to appreciate Japanese culture and history.

This book is everything one would want from a historical novel. When I started reading it, this was a story of a prominent 19th-century industrialist from Scotland, one of the first Westerners to leave a mark on Japanese economy and politics. By the time I reached the end, it was much more. I hope that this book will make you think about the subtleties of motivation for our actions and the contradictions that often accompany their consequences. More importantly, I hope it will make you think about the relationship between success and happiness. This book was surprising to the very end and certainly kept me thinking about these things. For the history buffs: Spence seems to stay true to the actual events and employs artistic license very judiciously and only in minimal quantities. That said, I think the best aspect of this book is that it transcends time and history by examining not just the dry historical record, but the people and their actions.