Red Chrysanthemum: A novel of Occupied Japan
By Henry Mazel
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Alexander Rada doesn’t want to be called Alexander, or Alex for that matter -- Rada will do just fine. It’s the summer of 1945, and army Lieutenant Rada has just arrived in Tokyo to witness the official surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces on the deck of the battleship Missouri.
Rada has a history. He was a cop in L.A. before the war. A disgraced cop. Along the way, he learned to speak Japanese, and now he’s working at GHQ as a translator for General MacArthur. To almost everyone’s surprise, Rada is transferred to the military police to stop an assassination of a top communist. And the thing is, Rada just hates communists. He finds himself attached to a Japanese partner working for the Occupation forces -- and even more attached to a unique, beautiful Japanese woman. Love is in the air, and Rada is bound to mess it up.
Henry Mazel has brought Occupied Japan vividly to life in RED CHRYSANTHEMUM. It is both a humorous novel and a dead-on history lesson of the period. Through the pristine snowy mountaintops of Northern Japan, to the collapsed smokestacks, charred factories, and twisted metal presiding over a moribund Tokyo, get ready for a thrilling adventure where nothing is what it seems and no one is to be trusted -- maybe not even Rada himself.
“A Remarkable book. A landmark novel. Mazel captures the feel and pulse of post-war Japan. An extraordinarily engaging and imaginative work. Perhaps the best Occupation novel since ‘Where are the Victors.’”
-- Daya Benn (The Spruence Center)
Henry Mazel
FROM HENRY MAZEL: I'm writing mostly historical fiction these days. My latest novel is RED CHRYSANTHEMUM - A NOVEL OF OCCUPIED JAPAN, both as an e-book and a hard copy. Political intrigue and some humor in the Tokyo of 1945. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Henry F. Mazel has written for The New York Times, and has published numerous stories and articles in his twenty-year career. His novel, Murderously Incorrect, won the OLMA award for first time mysteries. A play, Life and Other Games of Chance, was produced on Theatre Row in New York City. A short film, Nouvelle Vague Repas, was purchased for the permanent collection of the Donnell library in New York City. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America and The Mystery Writers of America. He is also past professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at The City University of New York.
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Reviews for Red Chrysanthemum
10 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enjoyed this very much. I like wisecracking characters and the main character is, but he changes from a toughie in the beginning to much softer at the end
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I requested it through NetGalley, even though it really wasn't something that I might normally have read. The setting was part of what intrigued me when I read the description. I have read books about WWII, but none that focused on the time immediately following the war. Occupied Japan is the setting for this relatively short novel. A GI who has a bit of a shady past is the main character. He is made a pawn for a political murder by his commanders, but manages to do pretty well at keeping himself one step ahead of their traps as he makes alliances with several unlikely Japanese partners to figure out who is really behind the murder. Along the way he meets a fiery, but beautiful Japanese woman who reminds him of a prior lost love. The story line might sound a bit clique, but it worked for me. I think the author's writing style was just right to carry this story and make it fresh. His writing kept the novel moving as a pace that held my interest. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys WWII settings or political detective stories. The love story was not as integral, but was a nice sideline that added a bit of depth.I am thankful to NetGalley and the publisher for making this ebook available to me.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I am not really sure about this book. I am not sure if it’s the subject matter which I know little to none about, or whether it’s the main character/narrator who is a really unlikeable character; or whether it’s the authors loquacious writing style.As already stated the main character is really unlikeable, imaginable, unintelligent, and mostly every other ‘un’; plus he is not good at his job, yet he is asked to investigate a mystery by his superiors probably in the hope that he would fail to resolve it. And yet again there is a love element, although not central to the main plot. (Why do authors feel that readers cannot read a male centred novel without having a love element? Guess what – we can!)Very little is made of the setting which did not really do the books any favours and therefore the book lacked the atmosphere that such scene setting could provide. Instead it felt as though the main characters were running around in a vacuum.The author writes loads but says very little and there is not much action and very little back story. What back story there is revealed slowly and painfully. In short this story that goes nowhere fast what ending there was, was a foregone conclusion. The narrator also talks to the reader, which I personally don’t like, but then again I dislike ‘Sam Spade’ type novels and films. I would rather have things left ambiguous than spelt out so that I can come to my own conclusions. For this reason I am unable to recommend this book as this reader thinks that, in short, it lacks readability.Full Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley for an honest review.