Hannibal Rising
I’d much rather use my space on the blog to review great works worth of your attention, but I just couldn’t resist trashing Hannibal Rising. Such potential, too. When I heard about Hannibal coming from Eastern Europe in the end days of WW2, I had such high hopes. Unfortunately…
Here’s a taste:
The French crickets were no match for the superb bell cricket of Japan, the suzumushi, the count explained to him, but they would do. The count had sent to Japan a number of times before the war to try to obtain suzumushi crickets for Lady Murasaki but none had survived the trip and he never told her.
On still evenings, when the air was damp after a rain, they played the Aroma Identification Game, Hannibal burning a variety of barks and incense on a mica chip for Chiyoh to identify. Lady Murasaki played the koto on these occasions so Chiyoh could concentrate, her teacher sometimes providing musical hints from a repertoire Hannibal could not follow.
Hannibal Rising