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It is also, more precisely, a novel about universal human potential.
A boy undertakes rigorous training and goes in search of his father.
Is this boy, Ludo, a genius?
Sibylla, his mother, is of two minds about it.
Mill, who did Greek at age 3.
She knows hes a Boy Wonder and she encourages him in every way to follow his omnivorous instincts.
Otherwise wed be living in a world of Ludos.
DeWitts novel is infused with the belief thatanyhuman mind is capable of feats we tend to associate with genius.
But the novels characters, especially Sibylla, are aware that youthful talent can be thwarted at any turn.
Whatever the world had in store for Sibylla changed forever the night Ludo was conceived.
The Last Samuraistrives to take in the whole world from the vantage point of material deprivation.
The Last Samuraiis, in a few ways, an instruction manual.
You, too, can learn Greek!
What is the value of these things?
They open Ludos mind to the wider world, to many cultures, and to the expanse of time.
They also give him the sense that there are other selves within him that he only need unlock.
Things are different for Sibylla, who is stuck with her son and her drudgery.
For her, culture, knowledge, and other languages are an escape, fleeting but always available.
The Last Samuraiis another such masterpiece.
Its an accident of recent history that its taken the culture some time to realize it.
Initial critical reaction was mixed, with the negative reviews bending toward the anti-intellectual.
If ever an author deserved a MacArthur genius grant, its her.
Another of the novels big ideas is that there are no limits on the possibility of artistic achievement.
