Book #10, The Commoner
So this is the book I finished days ago, and then was going to write about, then made a regular post instead and ran out of time to actually make my book post. Anyway. This is one of those books that at the beginning just straight-up tells you, "Hey, this is going to be depressing," and you're like, "Okay, I'm still in," and then you read it, and you finish it and you're like, "That wasn't very fun at all." And the book just stares at you with that "I told you so" look.
I think I would've enjoyed this book more if it were actually, y'know, true. (That sounds horrible since I just said it was depressing.) But it took real events - Haruko marrying the Crown Prince of Japan in 1959, the first woman not from the aristocracy to become Crown Princess in like, ever. That really happened. The characters are real people. But in this book, she is crushed under the pressure and tradition of the Royal Family, her mother-in-law is monstrous, and after giving birth to her son she suffers a huge collapse. Thirty years later, her son is in love with another commoner, and Haruko convinces the woman to accept her son's marriage proposal, resulting in....yeah, the crushing of another fragile soul.
The thing is, even though the people and system are real, the stuff that happens in this book isn't. She doesn't have only one son. She has several children. There's no record of the things that happen in the end of this book. There's a disclaimer in the beginning that says the book is fictionalized, but I assumed it was just the conversations between people, etc. that there were no sources for, but it was a dramatic telling of things that really happened. But they aren't. The events are totally made up. So considering it's based on real people and a real system but the stuff didn't actually happen, it seems kind of...depressing for no reason, instead of something historical and educational. If that makes sense? Anyway. It was ok but not great.
Total book count: 10/50 - 20%
Total page count: 3876/15000 - 25.8%
Up next: Tommy Gun, Prison Nation, and Agents of Light and Darkness. Pretty sure Agents is going to get finished first.
I think I would've enjoyed this book more if it were actually, y'know, true. (That sounds horrible since I just said it was depressing.) But it took real events - Haruko marrying the Crown Prince of Japan in 1959, the first woman not from the aristocracy to become Crown Princess in like, ever. That really happened. The characters are real people. But in this book, she is crushed under the pressure and tradition of the Royal Family, her mother-in-law is monstrous, and after giving birth to her son she suffers a huge collapse. Thirty years later, her son is in love with another commoner, and Haruko convinces the woman to accept her son's marriage proposal, resulting in....yeah, the crushing of another fragile soul.
The thing is, even though the people and system are real, the stuff that happens in this book isn't. She doesn't have only one son. She has several children. There's no record of the things that happen in the end of this book. There's a disclaimer in the beginning that says the book is fictionalized, but I assumed it was just the conversations between people, etc. that there were no sources for, but it was a dramatic telling of things that really happened. But they aren't. The events are totally made up. So considering it's based on real people and a real system but the stuff didn't actually happen, it seems kind of...depressing for no reason, instead of something historical and educational. If that makes sense? Anyway. It was ok but not great.
Total book count: 10/50 - 20%
Total page count: 3876/15000 - 25.8%
Up next: Tommy Gun, Prison Nation, and Agents of Light and Darkness. Pretty sure Agents is going to get finished first.