RaveThe Quarterly ConversationDeWitt’s work consistently brings off a striking double movement: her fiction is at once a very modern examination of the relationship between art, science, and commerce, and an exploration of enduring philosophical and moral questions. It is also entertaining, lively, and darkly humorous ... The novel does not feel difficult. The Last Samurai is funny and well-plotted. Its learning is brought forth in such a way that the reader is invited into Sibylla and Ludo’s enthusiasms. We are regularly presented with the spectacle of curious people taking pleasure in learning new things, rather than already-learned characters overawing the reader with their intellects ... A good novel can, and should, compass the entire range of human learning and accomplishment, and far from being a didactic exercise, The Last Samurai shows that such material is the very stuff of compelling fiction.
