Book Description
When Anatoli Boukreev died on the slopes of Annapurna on December 25, 1997, the climbing world lost one of the greatest mountaineers of our time. His account of the 1996 Everest disaster, The Climb, was a New York Times bestseller, and in many eyes the most accurate portrayal of the infamous expedition. Above the Clouds contains riveting narratives of climbs on Mt. McKinley, K2, Makalu, Manaslu, and Everest-including Boukreev's diary of the 1996 expedition, written shortly after his return. There are also fascinating technical details about the skill of mountain climbing, as well as personal and moving reflections on what life means to someone who risks it every day.What emerges is a self-portrait by a man few people really know - an athletic prodigy who found joy and spiritual reward in the thin air where the body struggles to survive.Mingling hair-raising adventure with moving reflection, Above the Clouds is a unique and breathtaking look at the world from its most remote peaks. AUTHORBIO: Anatoli Boukreev was (with G. Weston DeWalt) co-author of The Climb and a world-renowned high-altitude mountaineer. Twenty-one times he reached the summit of the world's highest mountains. For his heroic actions on Mount Everest in May 1996, he was awarded the American Alpine Club's highest honor, the David A. Sowles Memorial Award. Linda Wylie was Anatoli Boukreev's companion and is now executor of his estate.
Customer Reviews:
Above the Clouds Goes Above and Beyond Expectations.......2005-12-07
This book is excellent reading for "armchair enthusiasts", serious mountaineers, or anyone in between. Before reading this book I did not even know who Anatoli was. Now, I see him as one of the true great mountaineers. I really related to his feelings for the mountains, and I share many of his philosophies regarding climbing. Reaching the summit is not success; to be successful, you must make it safely down. Even if Mallory and Irvine reached the summit of Everest, they didn't achieve success by living to tell about it.
As a mountaineer and author myself, I was very pleased how easy I could relate to Anatoli's feelings and philosophies about the sport of mountaineering. On page 123 he states that he treated the mountains "like cathedrals where worship gives you strength and strips off the scale of ordinary life." He also told a different version of the accounts of the disastrous climbing month in May 1996 on Mt. Everest, which catapulted high altitude mountaineering to the front pages of newspapers around the world. I still view Reinhold Messner as the best mountaineer of all time, but had Anatoli lived longer he would have surely closed the gap.
A great read........2005-04-28
Although having a personal interest Wylie does accomplish the fact that Anotoli Boukreev was greatly denigrated by Jon Krakauer in his Into Thin Air while only mentioning the fact once.....Rowell's being associated with the book convinced me of Boukreev's authenticity....he was truly a mountaineer...I think Krakauer recognized this fact but because of his bias and his paycheck together with his group's failure on Everest he felt compelled to place the blame. He apparently failed to accomplish this as evidenced by the awards and accolades Boukreev received by other mountaineers.....but Boukreev was his victim and all Krakauer was looking for was an American audience, and as I said, a paycheck.......This book is not an attempt to portray Boukreev as he wasn't but accomplished to show Boukreev as he really was, truly an outstanding individual....truly and individual....his returning to the mountain to find Scott Fisher and Yasuko Namba only indicates the person he was......
The truth - from a real mountaineer........2004-06-03
A joy to read - this man had the spirit of a true mountaineer. His co-author did a wonderful job.
An amazing account of an amazing person!.......2004-02-05
This book is based on the journal of Anatoli Boukreev and his diary of mountaineering. The book does a great job of describing his life before large expeditions and his struggle to make it to the top. The book does also focuses on his life and relationships as well as his personal accounts of his adventures. The journal rarely goes into his deep feelings which gives a better understanding of how he was as person. However, when it does go deep, it speak deeply and touches the essense of mountaineering.
Excellent Insight.......2003-01-09
Anatoli Boukreev was one of the most remarkable mountaineers in history. This book gives the reader great insight into Boukreev's thoughts, as well as the Soviet culture. Having read many other books, the similarities between Soviet athletes, chess masters and intellectuals is stunning. Anatoli Boukreev hints at the pressure placed upon him and others prior to the fall of his government. "Above the Clouds" has excellent narratives about climbing, but it is much more than that. His writings about the Everest tragedy are striking.
Book Description
A beautiful, all-ages fantasy in the tradition of Where the Wild Things Are.
This is gorgeously-packaged yet affordable all-ages fantasy is sure to become an instant classic. On their way through the city to school, Simon and his cat Jack keep taking shortcuts that lead them through fantasy worlds of wooden monsters and insatiable appetites, just for starters. Will they make back home safely?
Printed in full-color, this book will be undoubtedly be one of the more handsome and unique packages in recent memory, with a brilliant graphic novel inside that justifies its elegant format. The Clouds Above calls to mind everything from Where the Wild Things Are to The Wizard of Oz to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with its depiction of a fantastic world that lurks just around the corner from reality and that only children believe exists.
The characterizations of Simon and Jack, with their delightfully scrappy dialogue, adds brilliant depth to the already-fantastic adventure that Crane has crafted for them. His clean, crisp drawing style calls to mind such greats as Hergé and Chester Brown, and his masterful use of color adds even more depth to Crane's lovely pictures. 280 pages in full-color.
Customer Reviews:
Graphic Daydreaming.......2007-08-13
Jordan Crane's The Clouds Above is a beautifully designed book and an entertaining graphic novel for kids and adults alike. The book's rectangular shape and inside cover ("This Book Belongs To:") reference old-timey children's books, and this lends a nostalgic or youthful quality to its design. But the narrative itself, with a single panel featured on each page, is a pleasing blend of childlike innocence and dark humor. There's enough to Simon and Jack's story of daydreaming and exploration to keep everyone entertained. Highly recommended, especially to graphic novel fans.
Haunting, charming, kawaii (& accessible too).......2006-05-06
I got this book because I'm a fan of Fantagraphics, yet it's equally true that if I'd come across this square little treasure chest on a table in my favorite East Village boutique I would have been equally entranced. The story is childlike yet not only for children, surreal yet not only for indie hipsters. The Clouds Above is the sort of graphic storytelling where panels will come to mind later, seemingly out of nowhere, etched into the mental landscape. The color palette is also rather unique, and enhances the storytelling.
I showed this book to quite a few people, from family members aged 7, 10 and 12, to college students and various adult friends and acquaintances, and all were charmed, for a wide variety of reasons. A wonderful gift book (even a gift for oneself!)
Beautiful book.......2005-10-21
The Clouds Above is a beautifully designed book. Jordan Crane has an original voice and an interesting approach to characters and storytelling. My only complaint would be that I read it in about tweleve minutes even though its nearly 300 pages. Recommended
gorgeous -- please note:.......2005-09-26
this book is beautiful, but:
please note that the original plans to silkscreen the covers was abandoned because of prohibitive cost.
the book is still a gorgeous object, just not silkscreened.
-y.
Customer Reviews:
A Wonderful Gift for Children.......2004-09-08
Rising Above the Storm Clouds is a colorful, fun, and powerful book that teaches children both the essence and value of forgiveness. The author cleverly creates a series of similies to help children learn quite easily the beauty of forgiveness. For example, he compares forgiveness to the brightness of the newly born butterfly emerging from a dark cocoon world. He compares forgiveness to the experience of getting in an airplane on a stormy day and rising above the storm clouds as the forgiver bounces on white cottonball clouds all day. He compares forgiveness to a beautiful meadow where friends can come together in thanksgiving and happiness. Children will delight in the depth of this story and how it makes them feel more whole and healthy!
Customer Reviews:
A MUST for Richard Bach fans!.......2002-12-16
The author of Above The Clouds, Jonathan Bach, was two years old when his father, famous author Richard Bach, decided he must leave his family and follow his dreams. Jonathan, named after his father's most famous character Jonathan Livingston Seagull, tells us what it was like growing up with an absentee father.
His description of family life with his brothers and sisters is vividly told and the tragic death of a family member is especially poignant. When his mother re-marries we experience the confusion and adjustments that have to be made to accommodate his strict new stepfather. Jonathan's decision to study Journalism was obviously a good choice as he shows in Above the Clouds that he has a rare talent for keeping his readers captivated.
Jonathan eventually makes the agonizing decision to call his father and let him know what he thinks of him. We experience the chest pounding fear first hand when he finally dials the number and talks to his father for the first time in years
I bought this book out of curiosity about Richard Bach; I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself more interested in Jonathan and his story and at how well he told it. Jonathan's style is easy to read and well organized and you'll find yourself experiencing his pain and joy as the book unfolds.
If you can find a copy of this book I enthusiastically recommend it! Jonathan, write another one!
Behind the Scenes with Richard Bach!.......2001-08-21
I read this immediately after finishing The Bridge Across Forever. It was like watching a "behind-the-scenes" documentary about one of my favorite movies!
Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but it's interesting to see how the events in Richard's life from "Bridge" are reflected in Jonathan's account. It's not often enough that you get to see the same story told from different points of view. It was fascinating to be able to attach the events in "Bridge" to the events in this book. Also, because Jonathan is about my age, it was interesting to remember what *I* was doing at the time he made some of his journal entries.
Originally I picked up this book to get a look at the nonfiction side of Richard Bach. I had always wondered what kind of dad a guy like Richard would be, and whether or not he truly managed to live up to his ideals. The answers were indeed in this book. But I realized two other things as well:
1. Forget about Richard, this is a great book about parents and children and the difficulty of mending (or in this case, demolishing) fences between the generations. Even if no one had ever heard of Richard Bach, this would have been a great book in that respect.
2. Jonathan Bach is a GREAT writer, and I really hope he has another book in the works! I had wondered if Jonathan would be a sort of Richard Lite. Having read Above the Clouds, I would have to say no, Jonathan Bach is Jonathan Bach, period. His style is similar, but distinctly different.
Worthwhile new perspective on Richard Bach.......2000-03-08
This is a really great book, by a young man who is a superb writer in his own right. I picked up the book at the library (since it's now out of print) because I was devastated to learn (under the reviews of Bridge Across Forever) that Richard Bach and Leslie Parrish-Bach had split up. I was surprised to learn that Richard Bach even had six (!) kids, and even more surprised to learn that one was a writer. I thought it would be interesting to read his story, because I wanted a more realistic view of Richard Bach, the "guru of soulmates" (as Jonathan amusingly refers to his father in Above the Clouds).
It was good to get this other view of Richard Bach. It's so easy to idealize the guy, even though he is clearly far from perfect. In Richard's books, he and Leslie come off as so mystical and always in tune with each other. Jonathan's book provides a refreshing point of view on Richard Bach, the man who couldn't hack fatherhood and who abandoned his family to find his own fulfillment. (He could well be the patron saint of the Me Generation.) Lord knows what happened to split up Richard and Leslie, but Jonathan's account of his reconciliation with his father was inspiring -- a great reminder that those of us with less-than-perfect parents can ultimately come to peace with them. I recommend this for all Richard Bach fans ... it really does cut the guy down to size and bring him back to earth.
I'm looking forward to the next offering by Jonathan Bach ... it's been seven years since this book came out. Anyone know what he's been up to since then?
A joy to read... even the painful parts........1999-07-05
I'm sorry I waited so long to read this book! Not a Daddy Dearest novel as I had expected, and not a book that got published just 'cause the author has a famous father. Jonathan Bach is a solid author in his own right... has the potential for surpassing his dad's ability to WOW me. I laughed, I cried, I got angry, I was inspired. I look forward to reading more from Jon.
a must-read!.......1999-07-04
This is a wonderful book! It is essential reading - not just for fans of his father, but for everyone! Reading about Jonathan's coming to terms with his father's desertion is inspiring. He is terrifically talented.
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- Beautiful and Informative Photographic Journal
- A unique and wonderful look at Glacier
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Glacier's Secrets: Beyond the Roads and Above the Clouds
George Ostrom
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Glacier's Secrets: Volume 2; Goat Trails and Grizzly Tales
ASIN: 1560371226 |
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful and Informative Photographic Journal.......2002-12-10
In this first volume of "Glaciers Secrets", George Ostrum delights readers with humor, excellent photography, and some very intriguing insight into one of the most beautiful places in the world; Glacier National Park- which he has hiked and explored his entire life. One becomes aware upon reading this book, that there is an emotional connection between the author and his special place. It produces some fun reading, and the adventurous will be prompted to explore the trails of the "Crown of the Continent" for themselves.
A unique and wonderful look at Glacier.......2000-07-19
This book is thoroughly enjoyable from the first page. Local hero George Ostrom and his trailblazing geezer friends "the Over-the-hill gang", hike to incredibly beautiful places that most of us will never see.
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- Hard to read
- This glorious book will break your heart and make it soar!
- Not an ordinary love story
- poignant without sappiness
- How Lucky We Are
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The Clouds Above : A Novel of Love and War
Andrew Greig
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0743206401
Release Date: 2001-09-25 |
Book Description
In a novel that will remind many readers of The English Patient and Birdsong, a prize-winning British poet and writer has crafted a remarkable elegy to love, the summer of 1940, and the Battle of Britain.
The Clouds Above is not only a wonderfully written love story set during the Battle of Britain, but also a brilliant and evocative description of the battle itself. Andrew Greig recreates with a sure touch that extraordinary summer when Great Britain's survival lay in the hands of two thousand or so very young men. The aerial combat scenes are so vivid that to read this book is to be with these men up in the blue sky, where ten seconds is a very long time and everything happens in a rush of adrenaline and terror.
Len, a Royal Air Force Sergeant pilot, and Tadeusz, a Polish pilot serving in the RAF, are thrown directly into the fierce struggle with the Luftwaffe. Despite their obvious differences, they become close friends, each aware that neither of them is likely to survive.
In this tumultuous and uncertain time Len falls in love with Stella, a young WAAF radar operator. She is trying to endure her own war: making the transition from a sedate middle-class English life to service life with other young women, being bombed and seeing her fellow WAAFs killed, listening to young men die every day, and trying to find an intense, if brief, happiness with a young man who risks his life daily.
In chapters alternately narrated by the two young lovers, Len and Stella wrestle with the foolhardiness of a romance in wartime, even as the battle in the sky intensifies.
Drawing from his mother's diary chronicling her own experience during the Battle of Britain, Andrew Greig has written a novel that is as compelling a love story as it is a war story, and of which the Sunday Times (London) said: "Memorable, not only has a good sense of period, but a profound sense of time, and of interpenetration of past and present....Beautifully done."
Customer Reviews:
Hard to read.......2003-02-19
The beginning was so confusing I couldn't keep who was talking straight. The change of view should have been more obvious. Of course the ending was unexpected but not a total surprise. The descriptions were very good of the fighting and the landscape. I was dissapointed.
This glorious book will break your heart and make it soar!.......2002-12-08
I was born (barely) while World War II was still being fought. And, even though it was over two months later, to my parents' generation it was the defining event and I grew up in its shadow. The Battle of Britain, especially, was a David-and-Goliath story to make my heart pound: the exploits of the Royal Air Force, the grim courage of the civilian population, the small beleaguered island nation against the Nazi war machine. What a drama.
Although THE CLOUDS ABOVE has all the suspense and pathos you'd expect from a novel set in those legendary days, it also goes deeper, giving a real sense of what it was like to be alive then. It evokes not only the outer signposts of a country under siege (the constant danger, profound fatigue, late trains, rationed food) but its inner landscape --- for this book, as its subtitle suggests, is a romance. Drawing on the wartime diaries of his mother, who was a nurse, Andrew Greig alternates between two voices: Len Westbourne, a young RAF pilot and Stella Gardam, a WAAF radar operator trained to spot enemy aircraft. The device makes sense both structurally and emotionally. We get the queasy normality of life on the ground versus the dizzy, sped-up horror of aerial battles. We get middle-class, university-educated, initially snobbish Stella versus gangly country boy Len, whose father works in a factory. And we get the slow, unbearably sweet progress of their love, which they first resist as too big a risk (the RAF was not known for its long lifespans), until the war makes them see that no longer is anything safe nor is there any reason to hold back.
The war in this novel is more than a conflict --- it is an enormous catalyst for change. "One day there may be a generation without a great war," Stella thinks. "What will they do then to know themselves?" Adolescent habits and attachments fall away as planes are shot down, radar huts bombed and dance halls blown to smithereens. Conventions and social divisions loosen and totter --- Stella makes friends with Maddy Phillps, an ebullient if "unrespectable" charmer and with her "posh" sergeant, Foxy Farringdon (perfect teeth, perfect nails, country house, upper-class drawl). Len draws close to a Pole serving in the RAF, Tadeusz, a bitter, tragic figure whose country has already fallen victim to Hitler. The pilots, in fact, form a club more select than any elite London establishment.
Both of them try not to become morally numb --- Len agonizes over what it means to kill, while Stella imagines a young Fraulein at a radar screen on the other side of the Channel. They struggle to live and, at the same time, prepare to die, recognizing finally that this contradiction is the human condition, not just a byproduct of war. "How can we love anyone in wartime?" Stella thinks as she and Len ride back on the train from a week's leave in the country. "It's too stupid. Then I looked round the train . . . and saw that everyone on it was going to die, sooner or later. How can we love in the face of that? Then again, how can we not? Wartime is like real life but more so."
Part of the "more so" is that war tends to knock out both past and future; life is experienced mostly in the present tense. To reflect this immediacy, Greig tells his story in short bursts, moment by moment. Some of them are unspeakable (Stella's coworker lying dead after a raid; Len blowing off a Luftwaffe pilot's head), while others are extraordinarily joyful. One summer day, Len and Stella picnic by the river and she swims naked. They have begun to allow themselves to think of marriage and children. Len imagines that he may survive; Stella, in an act of faith and hope, makes love without contraceptives. At least for the afternoon, they snatch back the future that the war has stolen from them.
Greig is a poet as well as a novelist (THE CLOUDS ABOVE is the first of his books to be published in this country) and it shows. This is a beautifully written novel, with a fresh, unsentimental use of language that feels natural to the story. It is as if the intensity of war and love awakens both Stella and Len to a fierce lyricism they might not have otherwise achieved. "I still loved flying, that was something," Len thinks. "That lift as I came unstuck from the earth again. The sense of dreamy freedom, for all the noise, as I watched dabs of clouds passing by beneath, and below them the green fields, roads, and farmhouses, as we set our course for War." Or Stella: "Len's youth and vulnerability and kisses had dragged the heart out of me, and it lay so open I wondered if it couldn't be seen beating in the moonlight."
THE CLOUDS ABOVE received excellent reviews, but it hasn't been talked about much. It should be. Get this glorious book. Read it and give it to friends. It will break your heart and also make it soar.
--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman
Not an ordinary love story.......2002-08-14
I found this book in Scotland last fall with the title "That Summer", so I wasn't aware that it was available in the US.
The story is a bit slow to get started. It isn't clear at first that we have two narrator/characters plus an omniscient narrator. I set the book done several times before it finally gripped me & I had to finish it in the middle of the night.
Greig tries to make us understand what it was like to live with uncertainty, fear, love, & death from moment to moment. The characters seem to be discovering themselves as we watch. Len & Stella examine every feeling as it occurs. This may sound tedious, but it illuminates what I find most interesting about WWII. I want to understand how people felt, how life looked to them. I am not interested in planes or tactics, although I understand that many are. Far more interesting to me are the secrets of the human heart. WWII, and the Battle of Britain in this story, brought out the best & the worst in people. Len & Stella confront the hate, love, grief, & joy that is part of life. They find their love for each other as they learn to face all these emotions.
"The Clouds Above" is like a tightrope act. Will the characters survive? They face danger all the way as we hope & pray that they will make it to the other side.
poignant without sappiness.......2002-08-13
This lovely book serves as a shattering reminder of the horrors that our grandparents faced in order to allow us to be so free and easy. We walk along streets and buildings that once were bombed, where people died, where people fought. It is so easy to forget when the scars are so well hidden. I am glad that writers like Greig remind us how lucky we are.
Written as a first person narrative (ostensibly as the journals of the protagonanists), but taking the views of two people, it can occasionally be confusing as you jump from one persons thoughts to another without warning. But the first person double narrative works in giving insight to two people as they fight for themselves, for us, for each other. It is a love story and a war story. You know these people. They could be you, caught up in something world changing and horrifying. It made me close my eyes and be thankful that they made these sacrifices so that I wouldn't have to.
How Lucky We Are.......2002-04-05
While a book by a published poet, as Greig is, framed by a wartime diary might seem an unlikely reason to reaccess your life and what is owed to those who went before "The Clouds Above" will upset your expectations wonderfully. Written as both a love story and a tale of the horrors of war for those too young to understand or avoid it is ultimately a comment on the immediacy and beauty of existence. Four friends, two pilots and their girlfriends during the 1940 Battle of Britain , relationships formed by the happenstance of war dare to love while learning that those attachments might at any momment be destroyed by an enemy fighter or a bomb plunging through a dancehouse roof. And similarly, abetted by Grieg's felicity with the written word, the reader comes , against rising dread, to care greatly for characters who might just survive to realize their dreams. The book brings vividly to life the human cost of war during a time when we have allowed ourselves to be seduced by an image of high technology warfare that hurts no one but "evildoers." The real cost, Greig points out, is to those we love. The real damage, it becomes clear, is to one's heart.
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Window Washer: At Work Above the Clouds (Risky Business)
Keith Elliot Greenberg
Manufacturer: Blackbirch Pr Inc
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Binding: School & Library Binding
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ASIN: 1567111548 |
From the Publisher
Meet Roko Camaj at the top of New York's tallest buildings, the World Trade Center. He'll take you into his special steel mesh basket more than 110 stories in the air. He'll give you a ride down the outside of one of the towers and will explain exactly how he does his job. You'll get to watch him work as you take in the incredible view from more than 1,400 feet above the city!
Many people in our world face the unique demands of special careers. Some work at jobs that protect us and our families from danger. Others have learned skills needed to provide a special service or perform in a special way. The
Risky Business series gives you an up-close-and-personal profile of people who do things most of us would never dream of doing. As you read about them, you'll find out what worries them and what excites them about their jobs. You'll also learn how each person trained to become an expert in his or her field.
Grades 2-5; 7 1/2 x 9; 32 pages; 25-30 large-format, full-color photos; Sturdy library binding; Index; Further Reading
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Above the Clouds (Arabesque)
Linda Hudson-Smith
Manufacturer: Kimani Press
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ASIN: 1583145443 |
Customer Reviews:
Fasten Your Seat Belts.......2005-01-23
Flight attendant Nikkola Knight is madly in love with breathtakingly gorgeous, airplane pilot Captain Latham Scott. However, Latham will never know because she has vowed, since that dreadful day she found out about her boyfriend and her best friend, not to be betrayed by anyone ever again. When Latham finally admits his feelings for her, she realizes the feeling is mutual, and they begin a whirlwind relationship filled with love and happiness.
When Latham receives some devastating news from Carmen Thomas, his ex-lover, upon Nikki's persistence and her vow, their newfound romance is put on the backburner. To add fuel to the fire, the mysteriously handsome Mychal Forrester is pursuing Nikki. Mychal has made known his intentions to stop at nothing to win her heart. Nikki is torn between her love for Latham and her lust for Mychal. They soon discover that Carmen and Mychal have been plotting the demise of their relationship from its onset. Is the love they share strong enough to survive life's turbulence?
Once again, Linda Hudson-Smith delivers a heart-wrenching tale filled with romance and lots of drama. ABOVE THE CLOUDS captures the reader's attention and does a wonderful job depicting the relationship between Nikki and Latham. I was so drawn into the storyline I could not put the book down. I highly recommend you read this novel.
Reviewed by Pamela Bolden
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers
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- Fascinating analysis of Japan's hereditary elite
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Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility
Takie Sugiyama Lebra
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne
ASIN: 0520076028 |
Book Description
This latest work from Japanese-born anthropologist Takie Sugiyama Lebra is the first ethnographic study of the modern Japanese aristocracy. Established as a class at the beginning of the Meiji period, the kazoku ranked directly below the emperor and his family. Officially dissolved in 1947, this group of social elites is still generally perceived as nobility. Lebra gained entry into this tightly knit circle and conducted more than one hundred interviews with its members. She has woven together a reconstructive ethnography from their life histories to create an intimate portrait of a remote and archaic world.
As Lebra explores the culture of the kazoku, she places each subject in its historical context. She analyzes the evolution of status boundaries and the indispensable role played by outsiders.
But this book is not simply about the elite. It is also about commoners and how each stratum mirrors the other. Revealing previously unobserved complexities in Japanese society, it also sheds light on the universal problem of social stratification.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating analysis of Japan's hereditary elite.......1998-06-21
Professor Sugayama Lebra presents a fascinating analysis of modern Japan's hereditary elite. The focus of her analysis is the "kazuko" -- Japan's hereditary peerage of the 1871-1947 period. As part of their westernizing reforms, the Meiji oligarchs merged the Kyoto court nobles ("kuge") and the feudal lords ("daimyo") into a single artistocratic class, explicitly based on the British peerage. The "kazuko" or flowerly lineage served two functions: (1) to fill the non-elective upper chamber of the new parliament, and (2) to provide a social buffer between the revitalized Imperial Court and the rest of Japanese society. The American occupation reforms divested this hereditary elite of much its wealth and the 1947 Japanese constitution formally abolished the peerage. Nonetheless, the aristocratic pedigrees and family ties continue to play an important role in modern Japanese political, social and economic life.
Relying on informer interviews, and extensive archival and genealogical research, Sugiyama Lebra recreates the world of this aristocratic class. Topics include: lineage, elite socialization, gender roles, status negotiation, marriage and adoption, professions and status careers, and adjustment to postwar life as common citizens of the new Japan. The book also provides valuable insights into the modern development of the Japanese imperial institution.
Professor Sugiyama Lebra's book is a must read for anyone interest in contemporary Japan or the role of traditional elites in modern socities in general. This is an immensely readible book. Although targeted to a scholarly audience, this book is acessible to academics and non-academics alike.
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