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Loading... The Commoner: A Novelby John Burnham Schwartz
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  pbarber42 | Oct 6, 2009 |  Finally I've gotten to read two great books right in a row, and one is fiction for a change. This was a fascinating look inside what it's like to marry into royalty. I used to envy princesses when I was little, not realizing how one's own life completely disappears. Although the first part, about the current commoner-empress, was very interesting, I would have liked to read more about the Harvard-educated princess and her own breakdown. (  ) bobbieharv | Sep 11, 2009 | One of my favorite books - so believable - I loved the characters and the internal termoil caused by class differences between Japanese royalty and commoners. I couldn't put the book down - a great read!!! ( ) MargaretdeBuhr | Aug 17, 2009 | From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Schwartz bases his finely wrought fourth novel on the life of Empress Michiko of Japan, the first commoner to marry into the Japanese imperial family. Haruko Tsuneyasu grows up in postwar rural Japan and studies at Sacred Heart University, where she excels—particularly and fatefully—at tennis, which provides her entrée to the crown prince, whom she handily beats in an exhibition match. After more meetings on and off the court, the prince asks Haruko to marry him. Persuaded by their mutual attraction and by assurances that the break with tradition will usher in a modern era, Haruko ultimately agrees, against her father's wishes, to become the first commoner turned royal. But, as her father had feared, her freedom and ambition suffer under the stifling rituals of court life. Eventually, Haruko succumbs to the inescapable judgment of the empress and her entourage, falling mute after the birth of her son, Yasuhito. Though the narrative loses some of its life after Haruko marries—perhaps mirroring Haruko's experience within the palace walls—urgency returns after Haruko chooses a wife for Yasuhito; the marriage tests Haruko's dedication to the crown. Schwartz (Reservation Road) pulls off a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world. (  )  camtb | Aug 3, 2009 | I felt that this book jumped and skiped some parts and was not complete in explaining or giving full detail of the story line of the main character ( ) ricky2love | Jul 25, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running, almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in her is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, Haruko suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, she perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman—a rising star in the foreign ministry—to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic.
Told in the voice of Haruko, meticulously researched and superbly imagined, The Commoner is the mesmerizing, moving, and surprising story of a brutally rarified and controlled existence at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other. With the unerring skill of a master storyteller, John Burnham Schwartz has written his finest novel yet.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:01 -0400)
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This book is written from the woman's point of view, almost reading like a journal. There is a lot of description of things done and seen, but not a great deal of dialogue. This might explain why I had a hard "getting into" the story in the beginning. But I found that the more I read, the more I wanted to continue and find out what happens. (