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The Commoner: A Novelby John Burnham Schwartz |
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Interesting Fictional Biography, November 15, 2008 |
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When she is a young woman, the well-educated, tennis-loving Haruko is wooed by the Crown Prince of Japan. She eventually accepts his affections, the first commoner ever to marry into the Imperial Family. But this choice will have ramifications far beyond what she ever imagined.
Such is the premise of John Schwartz's "The Commoner," which traces Haruko's life from her girlhood during World War II to her old age at the Imperial Palace. It takes its inspiration from the real story of the recent generations of the Japanese Imperial Family, but Schwartz changes most of the names, invents most of the details, and even peeks a little bit into the future. Much of the novel is concerned with Haruko's life in a cloistered family hobbled by tradition (a theme that bears some comparison to the 2007 movie The Queen). With her concerned but oft-uncomprehending husband by her side, she battles the Empress, the age-old rules that constrain her, and her own doubts--and the book's drama arises in part from the question of how much she will succumb to the things she tries to resist. Schwartz's language is rich in metaphor and evocative imagery, yet he mostly avoids getting caught up in his own wordsmithing, allowing the voice of the increasingly worldly Haruko to stay at the forefront. Things drags somewhat in the middle, but pick up again for the finale--and meanwhile, the brilliantly written, perfectly-paced Part One is worth the entire book. In addition to being an intriguing psychological novel, Schwartz stays true enough to the historical roots of his story that readers may come away with both a compassion for his characters and a better knowledge of an often opaque monarchy. ~ |
 A Beautiful Book in Every Way, October 8, 2008 |
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I have never read anything by this author before, and when I picked up this book, I was not sure I would like it. After I finished it, I longed for more of the same. The book in written in the first person, by a man, told through the eyes of a young woman....very well done and very clever indeed.
In The COMMONER, we meet Haruko Endo as a young girl, a "commoner" chosen to marry Japan's crown prince after WWII. After she marries the crown prince, she begins living a life of miserable isolation in which not even her children are truly her own. Later, as the story progresses, her daughter marries a commoner, she reenters the world of the commoners as her name is stricken from the imperial registry. We see her son selecting a partner who is, an independent career woman, something Haruko might have been in different circumstances. Don't miss this lyrical novel. It was such a treat. |
 ... Just okay!, October 5, 2008 |
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My book club read this book and we're all in agreement .... it was just okay. It started out good, and fell flat around the middle of the story. It actually became rather boring .... I would not suggest this reading to other friends ... did not hold my interest at all. |
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An Ordinary Girl Finds Herself In Extraordinary Circumstances, September 25, 2008 |
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In this roman a clef, Schwartz shows the life being drained from a vibrant young woman who falls in love with the crowned prince of Japan. Here, ritual replaces substance and future history governs the present. There is no spontaneity nor room for change. What was done will be done.
If anyone has ever envied the life of royalty, this book will show you the downside of not owning your own life, but rather playing a roll. Sometimes the writing is repetitive. But overall this is a compelling story. |
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1.5 out of 2: Good premise, Poor Execution, August 6, 2008 |
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The Commoner tells the story of Haruku, the daughter of a Japanese business man who catches the eye of the Crown Prince of Japan. Basically, this is a Japanese Cinderella story with a more equivocal ending. Despite the timelessness of the story and the evocative setting of the Imperial Palace, The Commoner is unsuccessful on many levels. Schwartz's attempt to do too much in too few pages is the most glaring problem. The narrative covers Haruku's life before the Imperial Palace, the Crown Prince's courtship, her integration into the Imperial Palace, the birth of the next generation, and the next generation's repetition of Haruku's choice to give up the life of a commoner for the life of a royal. Schwartz raises interesting themes and introduces some promising characters and relationships along the way, but he doesn't have time to examine anything in depth. Superficiality of plot development and characterization is the unhappy result.
Additionally, Schwartz's prose is sometimes so ridiculous that I almost gave up reading at several points along the way. I cannot explain what I mean except with a few examples: "The air-raid siren was so loud it obliterated the self; it sent us running from where we stood with such terror that our pasts were momentarily left behind." "A light but stirring breeze entered the house through the open windows and breathed innocent secrets onto the legs of every woman in the room." (I promise I am not making these up.) "The tremor had been in my imagination, that deep underground cavern where hope and feeling need not live in fear of each other." "[L]ife is not an echo, endlessly returning the past to us so that we might read and reread in its fading variations the meanings we cannot keep ourselves from wanting." (Huh?) These sentences do not make any more sense in context than they make in this review. If you enjoy well-crafted prose that actually means something, The Commoner is likely to annoy you. |
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