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List Price: $15.00Amazonaws.com's Price: $11.70 You Save: $3.30 (22%)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
Fabric Type: 9781416577751
Fax Number: Reprint
Legal Disclaimer: 1416577750
Maximum Color Depth: Pocket
Metal Type: Pocket
Publisher: 1
Region Code: 400
Total External Bays Free: August 12, 2008
Total Firewire Ports: Pocket
Pocket
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Amid the imperialist fervor of late 1941 Tokyo, Harry Niles is a man with a mission -- self-preservation. But Niles was raised by missionary parents and educated in the shadows of Tokyo's underworld -- making his loyalties as dubious as his business dealings.
Now, on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Niles must decide where his true allegiances lie, as he tries to juggle his Japanese mistress and an affair with the wife of a British diplomat; avoid a modern-day samurai who is honor-bound to kill him; and survive the Japanese high command, whose plans for conquest may just dictate his survival.
Set in a maelstrom of personal temptations and mortal enemies, with a remarkable anti-hero caught in a land he can never call his own, DECEMBER 6 is a triumph of imagination, history, and riveting storytelling.
Amazon.com Review:
Ever wonder how things might have been different for Rick Blaine, the ostensibly selfish nightclub owner from Casablanca, had he lived in Japan during the 1940s, rather than Morocco? Martin Cruz Smith offers a reasonable scenario in December 6.
This slickly plotted, exotically atmospheric thriller opens in Tokyo just a few days before bombs start raining on Pearl Harbor. There we meet roguish Harry Niles, the culturally conflicted son of religious missionaries and owner of the Happy Paris, a club known for its enigmatic jukebox jockey, Michiko, who also happens to be Harry's mistress. With war rumors rampant, Harry--distrusted by both U.S. and Japanese authorities--"was skipping town. Any sane person would." He has a seat waiting on what may be the final flight out to Hong Kong, and plans to escape from there to the States with a British diplomat's wife. But first, there are business and personal affairs to settle, not the least of which is an oil-tank con he's been running on the Imperial Navy--a desperate strategy to stop his beloved Japan from entering into self-destructive conflict with America. Harry also has to duck a sword-wielding military fanatic, who's seeking revenge for a long-ago incident that cost him honor, and bid sayonara to Michiko, a woman as scary as she is seductive. (Oh, well, at least they'll always have the Happy Paris.)
This book memorably re-creates wartime Tokyo, with its pet beetles and mincing geishas and naive belief that "victory lies in a faith in victory." Yet it's Harry Niles--cynical on top, sentimental beneath--who really carries December 6, a novel as brilliantly convoluted and captivating as any Smith (Gorky Park , Havana Bay ) has yet concocted. --J. Kingston Pierce
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I have read DECEMBER 6 twice now and although it is plodding in the beginning, the book catches fire. I would like to read a sequel focusing on what happens to the protagonist and Michiko after the end of this novel. But so long as MCS keeps writing Arkady Renko stories, I'm happy.
Rating:  -
After reading a number of the author's other works such as Gorky Park or Polar Star, this book was a real disappointment. Poorly written and disjointed by comparison - Arkady Renko is worth following and Harry Niles is worth forgetting.
Rating: -
I think I've read all his work (at least under the name Martin Cruz Smith) and this is my all time favorite. It stands up to re-reading well too!
Rating: -
December 6 is my favorite novel by this author. It's a novel that takes place in Tokyo on the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The central character, Harry Niles, is an American who grew up in Tokyo, and there are numerous flashbacks to his childhood in Japan.
Martin Cruz Smith is a master at capturing time and place combined with a good story. The first books of his that I read were Russian detective novels, and I continue to be mildly surprised at how well he can capture the ... Read More
Rating: -
I live a short 15 minutes' walk from Asakusa, in downtown Tokyo, where this book was staged. Have for almost 20 years. I had little idea of this part of its history and loved this absorbing look at the seamy side of Japan's back-alley society. It's definitely not all raw fish! I am waiting for Martin Cruz Smith's next gem as one of my favorite authors. Am sure glad he's on the Kindle... your next title, Martin, onegaishimas!
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