A Thrilling World of His Own

Japanese daggers sharp enough to cut through metal nestle on white silk in a locked box. Framed on a wall, the inky gestures of an undeciphered calligraphic inscription swoop like birds. Smooth tatami floor mats muffle footfalls in a room where a ninja’s jacket of lacquered leather, impenetrable as armor, hangs over a folded futon.

So what else would you expect to see in the Southampton house of a writer of bestselling thrillers, chockablock with intrigue, martial arts, exotic Far Eastern settings, sex and violence?

Eric Van Lustbader is perhaps best known for his 1980 bestseller “The Ninja” and its sequels, “The Miko” and “The White Ninja.” His just-published “The Ring of Five Dragons” returns him to his original genre--fantasy--and is the first of a six-book cycle called “The Pearl.”

Fantasy, he says, draws him with the thrill of creating worlds, and you could say that his home and garden are as lovingly created, carefully plotted and precisely phrased as any of his novels.

This piece of work, however, is a close collaboration with his wife of 19 years, Victoria Lustbader, a former book editor. Since they built the slate-roofed and cedar-gabled contemporary 17 years ago, they’ve filled it with a mix of the antique and modern.

There are abundant, exotic touches, from the Chinese stone foo dogs that stand guard at the entranceway to the antique Asian textiles used as wall hangings to the Burmese carved door used as a coffee table. But there’s nothing austere or remote about the place. It seems more conducive to homely pleasures than dark imaginings.

To that end, the high-ceilinged living room offers expansive views beyond the balcony, over the treetops to Shinnecock Bay and the ocean beyond. The master bath contains a Jacuzzi for two, for relaxing soaks and chitchat in the evening.

The sunny kitchen features colorful Mexican tile countertops and objects, such as Venetian glasses and Portuguese ceramics, collected abroad and displayed on cabinet shelves.

The upstairs media room is the bold showpiece, with its giraffe carpet, leopard print chair and melange of patterns. (“It’s a little riotous, but I’ve gotten used to it,” said Victoria Lustbader. “Eric wanted this to be his pasha room.”) The darker-hued downstairs den is for cozy afternoons: “It’s a nice place to lounge in on a winter afternoon,” he said.

Each piece in the house has a story. There’s the devilish Shinto shrine guardian, a fox statue on the hearth with a rice ball in its grinning mouth as a symbol of prosperity. “He has the most adorable, crafty look on his face,” said Victoria Lustbader. “I just love him. I feel very safe with him in the house.”

The framed antique calligraphy over their mantel, written in an esoteric script, has been undecipherable by any of their Japanese-speaking acquaintances.

“For all I know, it says ‘Please pick up milk on the way home,’ but I assume it’s something more profound,” said Victoria.

If the house is a collaboration between Lustbader and his wife, the densely planted grounds were a joint creation of the writer and landscaper Charles Marder, owner of a nursery and landscape design firm in Bridgehampton.

Lustbader and Marder have transformed the lot into a densely planted garden studded with Japanese maple and beech specimens that appears far larger than its one acre. Nothing has been left as they found it.

Seven sets of steps, each different--of brick, stone, marble, granite, wood--lead from the Japanese contemplation garden to the patio, with built-in pool and waterfall; to a cherry tree walk; to stands of cypresses, cedars, beeches, flaming red Japanese maples and lush green ones; to a sunken garden and to the owl garden, where statues perch on pedestals amid a copse.

“Nothing is actually normal around here,” said Lustbader, 54, pointing to a stairway composed of giant flat rocks. “These were foundation stones Charles found in Pennsylvania.”

Lustbader traces his fascination with Japanese culture to a book of Japanese wood block prints his mother gave him as a youth.

And if his creative leanings helped shape his garden, the garden now returns the favor. In the summer, he walks barefoot on the flat rocks in his traditional Japanese garden just behind the house, each stone specially chosen for its different texture. “They remain cool no matter how hot it is,” he said.

Amid their collections, the couple has left plenty of room for whimsy--in the legions of stuffed animals they’ve lovingly collected over their 19-year marriage. Aquatic creatures peer down from a shelf at the Jacuzzi; a panda and wallabies preen atop the cabinetry in the media room.

But pride of place amid the bedroom brigade goes to Mandy the manatee and to Bear, a beloved blue teddy given to Victoria Lustbader by a niece 24 years ago.

“If there were a fire here, forget the jewels,” said Victoria. “I’d grab these two.”

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Carol Polsky is a reporter for Newsday, a Tribune Co. paper.