Fukuzawa Yukichi by Helen Hopper Part 2

I can't believe it, page 12 and I'm already bored with this book. Let's get through this as quick as possible, then.

Holy crap! All I get is MORE background.

Osaka... no, that isn't about Fukuzawa. ... Tokugawa... again, not about him... *sigh* still looking...

Ah, back at the bottom of page 14 we come back to Fukuzawa, for a few sentences. Just long enough to introduce the new background subject: The F*#(@ng DUTCH!

So, we go over how the Dutch are more bff with Tokugawa Japan than other countries are, once again forgetting who this biography is about. Naturally, we won't be coming back to the point for a while. We get back to the hard work of... Yukuchi? When did you start calling him by his other name!? Ay Carumba! Oy Vei! Ai Ya! [Other Shouts of Exasperation]!

It isn't hard enough when I can't tell cities from people, you're going to switch the name you use for the main figure on me? This is going to be a long 150 pages, isn't it?

So let's skip ahead, a bit, and just jump into chapter 2.

THE LURE OF THE WEST.

Oh dear god, what is with these titles!? Well, let's keep reading...

Well, now Fukuzawa is being called by his full name. So, after pages of background to lead up to Fukuzawa's life, we cover less than ten pages for him to go from a first time student in a Dutch Learning school, and now he's TEACHING one!?

The pacing in this book is rediculous. Oh, and now he's in Edo (modern day, Tokyo), for those keeping track.

Okay, no problem, let's just turn the page and find out more about his life in edo and... what the hell? now we're back in time to the year of his birth? why? what possible... oh, I see. Now the author has brought us back, AGAIN, for more background.

You know what, I think that's enough. Let me just sumarize the rest of this for you, reader.

Fukuzawa makes a living being a teacher and a total prick to anyone in power in Japan, pretty much flipping off the man until he becomes the man, then living a life of ease. blah blah blah. In fact, the last chapter of this book, almost 10% of the pages in it, is devoted to his descendents.

In total, more than fifty percent of the book was background for the subject matter. It read like a history book, and from the little I let you in on, you can tell it read like an ill-paced and disorderly one.

You missed a lot of it. EVERY CHAPTER jumped to a different time, often to ancestors or descendents of Fukuzawa, with little or no information for the first few pages as to who is being discussed or what is going on.

Take my advice, if you're a history buff looking to learn about a famed figure in Japan, don't pick up this book, leave that for the students. I suggest just going on Wikipedia and searching him, instead.