The Commoner is a beautifully written and well researched novel. Mr. Schwartz has given us a glimpse into the world of the Japanese royal family. He has chosen a woman, Haruko, as his narrator and does a remarkable job depicting her thoughts and feelings as she transitions from life as a commoner to that of the Empress of Japan. We are witness to her most private and painful moments. After all she has experienced, some of Haruko's actions are questionable. Although an attempt at redemption is made towards the end of the novel, there can be none.

One cannot help but feel pity for these characters whose every action is choreographed. Is life as a royal worth the price of one's freedom?

This was an enjoyable book and I recommend to those interested in historical fiction or Japanese culture. ( )

Crisp language, but too devoid of emotion. The plot jumped too much and the pace varied too much as well. ( )

I enjoyed this immensely, it is obviously a fictionalized account of the current Empress' life and is a quick and light read despite the air of melancholy and suppresion throughout the book. ( )

A fascinating glimpse of life of the first commoner to marry into the Japanese imperial family. Based on the life of Michiko of Japan, the heroine, Haruko suffers under the stifling rituals of court life. Later in life, Haruko befriends her new daughter-in-law, also a commoner who marries into the royal family. A well written, compelling story. ( )

This is an atmospheric and detailed telling of the controlled and sequestered existence of the first commoner to become the Crowned Princess of Japan. We meet Haruko in 1959 when she is a vibrant, intelligent, free-thinking, somewhat headstrong young woman who does not hesitate to beat the Crowned Prince at their frequent tennis matches. But the moment she accepts his marriage proposal her life is no longer her own. After the marriage she is no longer allowed to have an opinion, enunciate an original sentence, and she is forbidden from seeing her own family. Her only real job is to produce an heir.
As if her story weren’t sad enough, it is extremely painful to witness the repetition of this personality-stripping existence thirty years later as Haruko’s son, who is now the Crowned Prince Yasuhito, sets his sights on another commoner. Before the marriage Haruko promises to aid the worldly and brilliant Keiko in creating changes toward liberties for the position of Crowned Princess, but after the wedding Haruko does nothing as she watches Keiko fall into the same depression and lethargy that she herself had succumbed to decades before.
Of course the reader cannot help but wonder why these dynamic women would even consider entering the controlled and highly restrictive world of the imperial court. Schwartz does an admirable job of conveying the sense of hopeful change as Japan embraces modernity after WWII, the Emperor moves from god to human, and a young girl might believe that she could be a harbinger of change. By the time the second commoner is being wooed Schwartz has also convinced us that a mother’s love for her son and a nation’s desire to continue a long-standing tradition might create a pressure that’s too difficult to resist.
Schwartz conducted as much research as was possible on the impenetrable royal family for this fictional imagining of history and has created an intimate portrait of the victims of archaic traditions. ( )