I don't remember anything about this story, but I do remember that I read several of Trevanian's books and liked them, although I can't remember if I actually liked every one. This was before the web, so he was a bit of a mystery to me. I just looked for his books in the bookstores.

I can't really rate any of his specific books, unfortunately, without rereading them.

Offensively bad. ( )

I first read this around the time it was published. I read his other books afterwords but this remains my favorite. It has the right mixture of philosophy and bravado. I know more about the Basques and about Japanese gardens now. The concept of shibumi remains captivating. Read as a paperback I believe. Very enjoyable as an audiobook. ( )

Paltry and polemic. In spite of its size, not much in the way of plot or character and it’s like reading the anti-Ayn Rand, diatribe after diatribe for pages and pages. ( )

The main character in this book is an assassin, but he is a lot more than that. (It's not easy being an assassin. Can have some tough days.)

I really like this author (real name Rodney William Whitaker.) He's more well known for a couple other books. (More on this author and those books later.)

I like the plot voyage in this book. Good action but the conversations are thought-provoking.

Quotes:

“Irony is Fate's most common figure of speech.”

“In seeming contradiction of physical laws, time is heavy only when it is empty.”

“It is revealing of the American culture that its prototypic hero is the cowboy: an uneducated, boorish, Victorian migrant agricultural worker.”

“The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure - in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals.”

“(...) shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real.

"Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is . . . how does one say it? Authority without domination? Something like that.”

Nicholai’s imagination was galvanized by the concept of shibumi. No other ideal had ever touched him so. “How does one achieve this shibumi, sir?”

“One does not achieve it, one . . . discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that. Men like my friend Otake-san.”

“Meaning that one must learn a great deal to arrive at shibumi?”

“Meaning, rather, that one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity.” ( )