SOURCE: "The Wild West of the Far East," in The New York Times Book Review, April 18, 1993, p. 13.

Notehelfer is an American educator, historian, and critic who specializes in Japanese history. In the following review of Gai-jin, he asserts that despite Clavell's gifts as a storyteller, Clavell treats Japanese history in a stereotypical and sensationalistic manner.

Few eras of Japanese history were more violent, turbulent and politically exasperating than the 1860's. Caught between a dying old regime and the revolutionary forces that sought to create a new Japan, the country seethed in what appeared to be a chaotic series of intrigues, plots, coups and counter-coups. To make sense of all this was a formidable task. As The New York Tribune's Japan correspondent, Francis Hall, lamented, "To foretell what will be is impossible; to be sure of what has happened is not always attainable." Better to be a "rainmaker...