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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9061 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-22
• Released on: 2008-01-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
John Burnham Schwartz bases his fourth novel on the Empress Michiko and Crown Princess Masako of Japan. Though Japanese imperial life remains shrouded in mystery, Schwartz teases out the details through extensive research. Much to the astonishment and pleasure of the critics, he gives Haruko an authentic and completely convincing voice. While his vivid depictions of postwar Japan are stunning, it is Haruko’s vibrant inner life that propels the narrative and resounds with readers. Though not as intense as Reservation Road (1998), Schwartz’s unflinching portrayal of the aftermath of a child’s death, and though slightly marred by an implausible ending, The Commoner will captivate readers by providing a haunting look into the 2,000 years of secrets surrounding the Chrysanthemum Throne.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
This detailed and thought-provoking tale is the heartfelt coming-of-age story of Haruko, a Japanese woman who becomes a princess but lives a shrouded existence. Narrator Janet Song perfectly captures Haruko's innate despair and loneliness. Song's voice brings listeners into the novel and commands their emotions from start to finish. Breathing life into Schwartz's work, Song makes it memorable by seeming to become Haruko. The immediacy of the production makes it sound so much like a recorded private journal that listeners may find themselves feeling like they're eavesdropping. This is narration at its very best--and an emotional journey to say the least. L.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

1.5 out of 2: Good premise, Poor Execution
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
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
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.