Don’t come to Denis Thériault’s new novel The Samurai of the Red Carnation (translated by Louise Rogers Lalaurie) expecting battles and swordplay. There are battles, but they are battles of wits and language. Because this is a novel about poetry, in its many different forms. And the ways in which poetry and song can be used and misused.
The Samurai of the Red Carnation is set in feudal Japan and opens with a great fire in Kyoto in the 12th Century, being watched by the person who set it. The identity of that person and the reason for them starting a fire in the first place are not revealed until later in the novel. Instead, Thériault focusses on a young man called Matsuo from a good family who is sent off to military school. Only Matsuo does not want to be a warrior, he wants to be a poet. After his parent’s death Matsuo flees from his responsibility, ending up on the road and learning poetic craft from a debauched but influential Zen master. Later Matsuo finds himself in Kyoto where he writes poems and songs and falls under the spell of one of the princess’s ladies in waiting, only she is already betrothed to a famous general. Acting on his desires only lead to trouble.
Thériault makes the most of his feudal Japan setting, bringing readers the sights and sounds of Kyoto and the landscape around it. He also manages to capture the culture particularly through his explanations of the poetry, the importance and meaning of particular types of imagery. Matsuo is a dreamer but also has a core of toughness and makes for an engaging hero, even when he is clearly doing the wrong thing or putting his companions in danger. The Samurai of the Red Carnation is an enjoyable picaresque adventure and impossible love story.
The Samurai of the Red Carnation by Denis Theriault
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