The Commoner

Title: The Commoner
Author: John Burnham Schwartz
Genre: Adult fiction
Type: Historical
Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: Haruko is a young Japanese woman who grew up towards the end of World War Two. Though she wasn't from an "old" family, she did have wealth and luxury due to her father's sake breweries scattered through Japan.
AS she grows, she becomes a well educated woman, and her parents begin to look for a suitor for her. To their surprise, she falls in love with the Crown Prince of Japan. To even greater surprise, he proposes, and she accepts.
Now Haruko must live like a Princess, even though she finds that love sometimes just isn't enough. When her son falls in love with a commoner, she must decide if it's worth sending another woman to her fate.

I was entranced by this novel. I picked it up thinking that it would be like Memoirs of a Geisha, which is one of my favorite books. I was pleasantly surprised. Even though it takes place in roughly the same time frame, the stories and voices are vastly different, although, once again, I was impressed by a man's ability to write a woman character so convincingly.
I found out this whole story is actually based on a true story, and is told pretty closely to the real story of Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko, who was the first commoner to be married into the Japanese Imperial family.
I really liked the elegant details of the wedding that Haruko and her Prince had, and I loved watching the tension rising between Haruko and the Empress, who saw her as something of an upstart.
The story did start to drag after Haruko had her first child and fell into a deep depression, even losing her voice. Yes yes, I get it, you're sad you aren't raising your own child. Can we pick up the pace a little.
The ending especially shocked me, but I found it deeply satisfying. Haruko's son falls in love with a commoner, and she convinces that woman to marry her son, because he did love her. However, I was a little upset that when Haruko's daughter, Kumiko, marries a commoner, not much is mentioned other than Haruko, now Empress, reflecting on how she doesn't regret her children, but potentially her marriage.
It's a heartbreakingly beautiful story of love and society.