Much that is most characteristic of traditional Japan makes a showing in this novel, and old Taiwan doesn't seem very far away either. Typhoons batter roads and bring down bridges, rice is harvested against purple sunsets, samurai ride through flood-ravaged villages demanding tribute, Buddhism informs the mind-set of the people and endorses many magical practices. Muddy town streets are overlooked by all but impregnable castles from whose walls hand wicker cages containing prisoners condemned to be pecked to death by the beaks of circling crows.
It wouldn't do to overstate the importance of this book, but it is nonetheless magnificent in many ways. First and foremost, the style is very fine. It's both terse and poetic. The pacing is all but perfect, with no effusive passages, no self-conscious "fine writing," and certainly no weak links.
Moreover, the author has drunk deep in Japanese culture, and this of course is one of the most sophisticated the world has known. There is a wonderful scene describing paintings by the classic Japanese artist Sesshu. Looking at these, Takeo comments "You felt that at any moment the spell would be broken, the horse would stamp and rear, the cranes would see us and launch themselves into the sky. The painter had achieved what we would all like to do: capture time and make it stand still."
There is another writer who Lian Hearn has learnt from, Mary Renault. She achieved near-classic status in her novels based on the legends and history of ancient Greece, books like The Last of the Wine and The King Must Die.
This new book may not be quite in the same class -- it lacks, for instance, Renault's feeling for the psychology that underlies myth, as well as her stubborn and fiery individuality. But it has her spell-binding power in good measure.
The title, incidentally, refers to the squeaking floors that Japanese rulers used to have constructed round their living quarters so that no one could approach undetected.
Happily, this is only the first of three volumes, the whole to be known as Tales of the Otori. The other two books, Grass for his Pillow and Brilliance of the Moons, are forthcoming. Needless to say, film rights have already been negotiated.
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