Full Description
In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay and "opened" Japan to trade with America. As entertainment for the treaty-signing ceremony, Perry brought a white-men-in-black-face minstrel show-and thereby confirmed the widely whispered Japanese belief that trade with the American "barbarians" could only lead to cultural ruin. Yet the pawns in this clash of cultures-the minstrels, Ace Bledsoe and Ned Clark, and the Japanese interpreter, Manjiro Okubo-are just slightly more curious than cautious. Within the minstrels Manjiro sensed "the subtleties of spirit that reside in all good men." When Ace and Ned are unwittingly made part of a Japanese plot to undermine the American presence, Manjiro helps them escape into the countryside. Pursued by samurai, torn between treachery and loyalty, Manjiro and the minstrels (along with family, friends, and lovers) make their way across Japan, fleeing a showdown with the samurai that gradually becomes inevitable.Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is the long-awaited prequel-more than a decade in the making-to Richard Wiley's PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel, Soldiers in Hiding. A sword-swinging page-turner infused with a heady mix of Japanese etiquette, American ideals, and Machiavellian philosophy, Wiley's latest novel sparkles as it shapes history into an enlightened drama of the earliest moments of globalization.
Contents
ProloguePart One: Edo1. Dutch Learning2. Oh, What I'll Find There I Don't Know3. Accident upon Accident4. Whitman Sampler5. Approach of the Outside World6. Tell Him I'm in Mourning!7. He Didn't Care about the Neighbors Anymore8. Don't Get Up on My Account9. A Word Overheard Is a Word Forgotten10. The Pavilion of Timelessness11. Where Has My Heart Gone?12. A Fly in the Ointment13. Three Tulips in a Boat14. Under the Falling Wisteria15. The Experiment of America16. Rumors17. Fine Mornin', Ain't It?18. Commodore Perry's AnxietyPart Two: Odawara19. Everything Wrong Everywhere20. Saved from the Realm of Absolute Calamity21. "Kambei"22. Angelface23. Hired for a Bad Cause24. Whoa, Nellie25. Come to Me, My Dear, Come26. I Guess There's Hooligans Every Damned Where27. Twenty Questions28. Allergic to Pain29. Einosuke's Anger30. Japan's Conundrum31. An Earlier Walker than His Uncle32. Extra Circumspect, From Now On33. Behold, Your Defeated Lord34. We Can't Have This35. Is It Easier to Go or Be Left Behind?36. Incense or Prosthetics37. Irony Provides Relief38. A Fetish without Many FollowersPart Three: Shimoda39. Keiki and the Planting, Ueno and the River Trout40. The Wind and Intransigence41. Hide This in Your Wagon42. The Omen of the Crows43. I Have Not, Particularly, Saved Myself44. Life Is Short. Fall in Love45. Strength and Flexibility46. I Am Taking You Home47. Knowable People48. Not Selling Chestnuts49. Outraged Periods and Exclamation Points50. It's a Poor Life Anyway51. Alas, We Are DefeatedAfterword
