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The Commoner: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: John Burnham Schwartz
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.47
You Save: $12.48 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 7700
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0385515715
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385515719
ASIN: 0385515715
Publication Date: January 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 1.5 out of 2: Good premise, Poor Execution August 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
 Commoner is Common July 7, 2008
This book could have been...
so much more interesting. What a fascinating story idea for most of America who knows nothing of the intricacies of Japanese life and customs.
Instead we get: the prince of Japan marries a strong willed commoner who plays a mean game of tennis. A gal like that, you expect would be able to withstand the shrill little lady in waiting. But no, right from the start Haruko, the feisty commoner now princess, cowers and capitulates with annoying frequency. The prince is a simp who never speaks up for his wife. The characters had no character.
And that is how it goes from start to finish. The little flourish at the end about the next generation's princess is too little too late.
A Sense of Duty June 27, 2008
Like Queen Elizabeth II, this book is based on a sense of duty. However, the two female characters, Haruko and Keiko, were commoners and gave up their educated, modern lives to become part of Japan's royal family. And I'm not sure why they did it.
Haruko was an athletic, bright girl absolutely adored by her father. She was not treated as inferior because she was a female. He was a successful businessman who gave his daughter freedom of choice. Nevertheless, when Haruko decides to accept the proposal from the Prince, her father is accepting but knows that he will never really see her again.
Haruko seems to love her husband but the confines and duties of her new life lead to despondency. Her mother-in-law, the Empress, represents the worst of all mother-in-laws with her constant criticism. This badgering and disapproval enhance her depression. Haruko luckily gives birth to the heir, a son. When it is time for the son to marry, he also falls in love with a modern, creative Japanese woman. Keiko also is persuaded to marry this Crown Prince. I cannot make any sense of why she would accept this future, except out of a sense of duty and a plea from Haruko.
Tragedy follows Keiko and she becomes more depressed and out of touch. She is trapped in the royal life which is the antithesis of her pre-marriage years when she traveled, made decisions and laughed. The end of the book is interesting and there is some triumph for these two commoners. However, it is difficult to grasp that these modern women would dedicate their lives to an ancient tradition.
 BORING June 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
sixty pages in, and i'm bored out of my mind. i could take another story about a repressed asian woman, just not one that moves as slow as this one. i am putting it down, with some regret, but life's too short!
 Engrossing June 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this novel to be a fascinating look at the life of one Japanese woman, her early life, and the enclosed and constricted world of the royal family. It is very well-written and I found the story engrossing.
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