But the one question that eludes an answer is that of the name of his father: Sibylla believes the film obliquely provides the male role models that Ludo's genetic father cannot, and refuses to be drawn on the question of paternal identity. Ludo reads Homer in the original Greek at 4 before moving on to Hebrew, Japanese, Old Norse, and Inuit studying advanced mathematical techniques (Fourier analysis and Laplace transformations) and, as the title hints, endlessly watching and analyzing Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, The Seven Samurai. Helen DeWitt's extraordinary debut, The Last Samurai, centers on the relationship between Sibylla, a single mother of precocious and rigorous intelligence, and her son, who, owing to his mother's singular attitude to education, develops into a prodigy of learning. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death. He’ll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn’t know: his father’s name. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo’s shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa’s masterpiece Seven Samurai. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month.
High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so “Why not just, ‘destined to become a classic?’” (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise?
Helen DeWitt’s 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was “destined to become a cult classic” (Miramax).
Called “remarkable” ( The Wall Street Journal) and “an ambitious, colossal debut novel” ( Publishers Weekly), Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai is back in print at last
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