From: joan@med.unc.edu (Joan Shields)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Rising Sun (no spoilers)
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:03:05 GMT
Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine

In article <1992Apr7.163337.2277@ducvax.auburn.edu> cs204b00@ducvax.auburn.edu writes:
>Hi!
>   I'm new to this newsgroup. Anyway, I was wondering if I missed a discussion
>on Michael Crichton's "Rising Sun". I just finished this book during the
>break and found it to be the first truly frightening book I've read in years.
>Although I've seen this same theme tackled by other writers, Crichton's the
>first (to my knowledge) to back it up with research.
>   As far as the story goes, it read like a police procedural novel (or one of
>Tom Clancy's novels). Admirable realism, extensive research, and unpretentious
>writing.
>   Standing by to be flamed...                 -----> Kelly Morrison

Well, Kelly, I wrote and posted a review of the book a couple of weeks
ago.  Since there was very little comment on it or the book then I've
decided to repost it, perhaps it was just that not many had not read it
yet.
----
	When I saw _Rising Sun_ on the shelf at my local library my heart
cried out in joy.  His book before this one, _Jurassic Park_, had been
wonderful and I was very excited to see that he had another book out so
soon.  I was even more excited to see that it was a sort of police
procedural (my favorite kind of mystery).  By the time I got half-way
through the book I was disappointed and very much wanted not to like it.
However, by the time I finished the book I decided that I really did enjoy
the story.
	Like most police procedurals there is a policeman.  He's a liason
officer for the Los Angeles Police Department.  He's a nice enough fellow,
fairly bright, divorced with custody of his two year old daughter, a nice
regular job with regular hours and good pay.  He works with foreign
diplomats and forgein tourists, at this time mostly Japanese.  Another
item in a lot of police procedurals is a body, in this case, the body of a
young caucasian woman - she's found strangled on the boardroom table of a
brand new Japanese office building in LA, complete with a "building
warming" party on the floor below, attended by various movie stars and
politicans.  Our intrepid hero stumbles along aided by an expert in
Japanese culture (a lone wolf type), another cop who hates the Japanese on
general principle, a young Japanese man with a taste for red heads, fast
cars, and drugs, and a beautiful Japanese/African American woman who is
very good with her hand.
	Michael Critchton walks the fine line of simple Japanese bashing
for the sake of bashing he does bring to light certain facts about life
and economics we all need to learn.  One important point he makes through
the character of Conner (lone wolf type who knows a hell of a lot about
the Japanese and their culture) is that just knowing the language isn't
enough.  To really understand a culture, especially one like the Japanese,
you have to look at things from their perspective for a while, you have to
learn their manners, about their dreams and desires, you have to look at
them as a different culture rather than just an offshoot of the US
culture.  We have to learn by which rules they play and sometimes play by
them ourselves.  There is a quote at the beginning of the novel, "Business
is war" and one at the end "If you don't want the Japanese to buy your
country, don't sell it to them" (paraphrased).  Both quotes are from
Japan.  
	As a police procedural/mystery it isn't bad, I'd figured out what
was really going on sooner than I usually like but that's ok.  If you like
police procedurals with lots of technical information artfully woven (as
only Critchton and Dick Francis (IMHO) can do) into the text so that you
don't feel you are attending a lecture - go for it.  If you're interested
in reading about one man's opinion about why it seems like the Japanese
are leading us by the nose economically and why they are so much better at
being capitalists than we are then give it a try.
	
Joan

SPOILERS  These are a few things I would like to discuss with others who
have already read the book.

Just in case your finger slipped...


Why didn't anybody listen to what the doctor doing the autopsy said?  He
said that because of the swelling of the labila (sp?) she was killed
some time AFTER sexual intercourse.  That told me pretty quick that she
wasn't killed during the act of sex.  

About the forensic evidence.  If Eddy had slept with her as well as the
Senator that evening why didn't they find 2 sets of semen or at least
(because Eddy might have used a condom) 2 sets of male pubic hair.  Also,
the semen sample they did find indicated someone of Japanese ancestry -
probably Eddy, so then where did the Senator's semen and hair go?


Joan