This book is an extraordinary reading experience. During the Japanese invasion of China in the late 1930's, there were examples of the most extreme barbarity by Japanese soldiers, comparable to the inhumanity practiced against Jews in the Holocaust. This book is set during that period and describes in novel form a relationship that develops between a Japanese soldier and a Chinese woman whom he rescues.

I have rarely read a book that creates such a complex relationship between two people. The plot could so easily have become a melodrama about war, subservience, man and woman. Instead it felt like real lives being lived - so much ambiguity, so many things unresolved. Both the captor and the captive are strong and weak in surprising ways, experience fear and ultimately a kind of love, remember their families with deep and often conflicting emotions, feel so damaged by the horrors around them that they have trouble understanding who they are.

The writing is exquisite, much of the description in simple declarative sentences that give every physical detail, every thought and emotion, tremendous immediacy.

This is a powerful book about atonement and the alienation from the self that occurs as we are first enculturated by our families, culture and nation.

This is one of the most remarkable love stories I have ever read, partly because you are never sure how much these two people from different worlds can transcend their Japanese and Chinese natures to merge in a truly intimate way. Both Kuroda and Li have debts to pay, not only to each other but to those people to whom they have previously been connected. How can Kuroda express his personal compassion when he must also be true to his cultural imperatives and the men under his command? How can Li repay him for saving her life and then coming to truly love her, a lowly Chinese woman held in contempt not only by the soldiers but by her own people? There is a high price to pay, and it is paid in full. I will never forget this book and what it has taught me about the best and worst in humanity.

A disappointing read after "Tree of Heaven." I felt that the sub-plots detracted from the main storyline of the book. After a slow start, the book had confusing threads: part self-indulgent confession, part folk tale. I was frustrated by this lack of focus, plus the entire hermetic writer theme. I just couldn't sympathize or empathize with most of the characters. They seemed curiously flat. I had a feeling about the way the book was going to end, and was disappointed to be right. Couldn't tell if I just didn't "get it" or if it was really not that great of a read.

R.C. Binstock has once again written a book that explores the depth of human passion and possibility with remarkable insight and tenderness. Emotionally blocked and embittered, the writer Phillip has cloistered himself away to avoid further injury from the world, and perhaps, also, to avoid burdening others with his pain. But in a gesture that surprises even himself, he opens the door to a troubled, young woman and offers her refuge and companionship, things he had thought himself no longer capable of giving. The two begin a sensual dance, grounded in need, but drawing them into a dangerous territory beyond society's limits and their own. THE SOLDIER takes the reader on a journey into the deepest wells of feeling and to the boundaries of the self and self-imposed exile. Breathtaking prose and an unforgettable story.

In "The Soldier," R.C. Binstock expertly weaves a number of story lines together to create a unified theme of love and loss. The main narrative, involving a reclusive author and the young, female cousin who comes to stay with him, is a moving and sensitive portrayal of one man's paralyzing sense of disconnection and yearning, and the difficulty he has in reaching out to experience love. Other story threads -- involving a middle-aged woman coming to terms with her own losses; a civil war soldier struggling with the horrors of war; and a benign, ghostly presence -- illuminate the main narrative in ways that are both surprising and subtle. This is a challenging novel that reveals itself to the reader slowly and unexpectedly, long after one has finished reading. Mr. Binstock's style is poetic, without compromising a sense of realism. In addition, the book is powerfully erotic -- the charge between the main character and his young houseguest, from their first scene together, keeps the reader riveted to the story. Like the ghostly visitor, "The Soldier" has a way of haunting the reader. It is a triumph and a treasure.