| Plot Summary of The Last Samurai |
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"innovative and original first novel by Helen Dewitt that reveals a huge wealth of learning. The story of a young boy's search for the identity of his father. The boy in question is a child prodigy capable of reading many different languages and colving complex mathematical problems at an incredibly young age. His mother tries to protect him from the mediocrity of who his father really is and instead makes him watch the 7 Samurai over and over again in order to give him good male role models. the boy picks various figures in the public eye who he feels would be worthy fathers and approaches them before finding his true father. The stream of consciousness style writing and use of different languages make this a challenging but enormously rewarding and intellectually stimulating book."
liza, Resident Scholar
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""The Last Samurai" introduces Ludo, a child genius, and his mother, Sibylla, the descendent of a long line of frustrated talents. Sibylla's alternative ideas on child rearing see Ludo learning piano at 3, Greek at 4, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, aerodynamics and edible insects of the world at 5. And, in place of a father, Sibylla familiarises Ludo with the film "Seven Samurai", hoping to quell his desire for the one piece of information she withholds from him -- the identity of his father.
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Alison, Resident Scholar
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"The story starts with a little child name Ludo. Ludo, a child genius, and his mother, Sibylla, the descendent of a long line of frustrated talents. Sibylla's alternative ideas on child rearing see Ludo learning piano at 3, Greek at 4, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, aerodynamics and edible insects of the world at 5. And, in place of a father, Sibylla familiarises Ludo with the film "Seven Samurai", hoping to quell his desire for the one piece of information she withholds from him -- the identity of his father. With her exasperated guidance, he teaches himself Greek, so that he can read The Odyssey, before moving on to study Hebrew, Arabic, Inuit, and Japanese. And both Sibylla and Ludo share a passion for Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, which they watch repeatedly, absorbing its lessons of samurai virtue. Soon Ludo embarks on a quest to find his father, and approaches seven men to test their mettle. Each of them — prominent, powerful, or flawed in his own way — has to rise to a unique challenge.
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david, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Last Samurai |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- upbeat
Time/era of story
- 1980's-1999
Kids growing up/acting up?
Yes
Kids:
- struggling to earn a living to survive
Internal struggle/realization?
Yes
Struggle over
- search for family/history
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Age group of kid(s) in story:
- grade school
Parents/lack of parents problem?
- Dada gone
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- student
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Genius
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 1 ()
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
City?
Yes
City:
- London
Style
Person
- rotating 1st
Unusual Style:
- a lot of flashback and forwards
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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