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Avg. Rating: 3.5
Bleh. Just bleh.
You probably came into Clavell's opus late, reading them in chronological order as opposed to published order. You've found Whirlwind tough to find, unlike all the others. There's a reason for that. Whirlwind isn't set in Japan or China, and the characters and families we grew to love (and in some cases, hate), aren't the protagonists here. Hence, it sold nowhere near the number of paperbacks as the previous books. Check eBay, a bazillion HC's that nobody bids on, and no PB's. My advice? Let it go after Noble House. Yes that's disappointing, but nowhere near as disappointing as reading this book. Of course the most disappointing thing of all is that James didn't live long enough to write about the turnover of Hong Kong to Mainland China.
A good effort, but .....
This is the last (chronologically speaking) of Clavell's Asian series that started four centuries ago with "Shogun" and proceeded through "Tai-Pan", "King Rat" and "Noble House" ("Gai-Jin", which takes place earlier, was published after this book). It's a gallant effort that continues the Noble House's business adventures, only this time it's a subsidiary company that provides helicopter operations in Iran at the time Khomeini came to power. The main problem, however, is, at least for me, he genuinely has a difficult time getting the reader to really care about either his characters or the plot as a whole. Samurai warlords are interesting, Chinese political intrigues and business/criminal enterprises allied with European colonists in Hong Kong are interesting, but the Iranian Revolution and its effects on a handful of expatriate helicopter pilots are not. Part of what made Clavell such a good writer was he really had a feel for the intricacies of the Far East, its culture and its people. He presents both as a combination of the exotic and the familiar, the Japanese and the Chinese possessed cultures that may have been alien to the Europeans of the time, but are nonetheless fascinating to us because of their sophistication and their historical depth. In contrast, the Iranians are presented as, well, boring. The Shah was a decadent, if sometimes progressive, tyrant, but the fanatical Islamic fundamentalists that gave him the Order of the Boot are simply mindless thugs, medieval throwbacks whose "solution" to modern life is to wind back the clock to the 7th century. It's almost impossible to take such people and create a great fictional drama around their actions in Iran, no matter how valiantly Clavell tries.
End of the saga
So very, very sad to be finished with Whirlwind knowing that I'll never truly know how the Noble House winds up. Of course with the tech boom of the 80s, I'm sure Struan-Dunross-MacStuan-Gallavan(?) made out just fine.What I loved about Whirlwind and the Asian saga in general is how Clavell really let us get inside the minds of these people. From learning about the 'Wa' in Shogun to 'Joss' in Tai-Pan to 'God is Great' in Whirlwind, I feel like I have gained valuable insight into the thought process of the Japanese, Chinese and Iranians. But philosphies aside, Clavell is a master storyteller. So much fun to be caught up in both a story and the characters involved. 1200 pages, not nearly long enough! Whirlwind is a great read. While Shogun will remain my favorite (prolly because I read it first) I would encourage anyone and everyone to read this gripping tale of Persian turmoil. Of course, you gotta read the saga in order though!
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