SOURCE: "Drama and Intrigue in Emerging Japan," in The Christian Science Monitor, May 12, 1993, p. 13.

In the following review of Gai-jin, Scherer provides a mixed assessment of the novel, lamenting the often stereotyped characters but praising its suspense.

The Japanese love fine jubako—lacquered boxes that fit within boxes that are in boxes. In Gai-Jin: A Novel of Japan. James Clavell has written a jubako of a novel. Its 1,038 pages are filled with plots within plots within plots.

The scheming takes place at a critical moment in Japan's history—September 1862 to January 1863, only 10 years after American Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to Western trading. In that period foreigners, called gai-jin by the Japanese, were vying for influence. Yankee traders were in abundance, but any United States ambitions were deflected by the Civil War. Instead, the British dominated, with plenty of imperial jealousy from the French and Russians.

The Japanese...