Critics often responded to Clavell's Shogun with begrudging admiration, as if compelled by the force of the story to take the book seriously. An early book review in the New York Times Book Review, by Webster Schott, began "I can't remember when a novel has seized my mind" like Shogun. According to Schott, "Clavell is neither literary psychoanalyst nor philosophizing intellectual. He reports the world as he sees people—in terms of power, control, strength.... He writes in the oldest and grandest tradition that fiction knows " Common themes in later criticism of Clavell tended to focus on three themes Clavell's brilliant storytelling, the work as a historical novel or fiction, and the work's multiculturalism. It is easy to point out the historical inaccuracies of the novel, but its entertainment value and its understanding of broader historical themes to light led most critics to forgive Clavell's manipulation...