An in-depth, intelligent and insightful study of Helen DeWitt’s novel The Last Samurai, a novel I didn’t much relate to when I read it a little while back, not least because I was constantly aware that I wasn’t really “getting” it, so this critical analysis was more than welcome. It made much that had been unclear clear, and explained many of the subtleties and underlying themes that had passed me by. Although an academic and scholarly text, the writing is accessible and straightforward, and I learnt a lot. Whether it will give me the strength to try Helen DeWitt’s novel again, well, time will tell. But if I do I will be keeping Konstaninou’s masterful examination of it firmly by my side.

The Last Samurai Reread is Lee Konstantinou's entry into Columbia University Press' Rereadings series where authors and academics revisit post-1970 novels and write about them through a present day lens. I originally chose to read The Last Samurai Reread because I remember reading Helen DeWitt's landmark novel and enjoying it while also knowing that I wasn't fully understanding it. Knowing Lee Konstantinou's work as an academic focused on postmodern literature, I felt that he would be an excellent teacher to lead me back to DeWitt.

The Last Samurai Reread does exactly what you would want it to do. After reading it I want nothing more than to find my old copy of The Last Samurai and devour it. Particularly enjoyable are Konstantinou's investigations into DeWitt's struggles writing and publishing her novel and how that impacts the novel itself as well as where DeWitt's lived experiences diverge from Sibylla's and Ludo's in the novel. Konstantinou is able to write about some difficult and often heady concepts -- postmodernism is not often an easy period in literature to grasp -- in a readable way. Since graduating from college I have often missed deeper, academic discussions of literature and The Last Samurai Reread scratched that itch for me. It also encouraged me to seek out other titles from this series to hopefully discover (or rediscover) more great literature.