false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174193758m/369669.jpg 369669 11 Liza Dalby's novel is a brilliantly imagined chronicle of the 11th-century Japanese writer Murasaki Shikibu. As we soon discover, our narrator has a good many doubts about the writing life. "As I pondered this question of how to be a success at court," she muses, "I came to the conclusion that literary ambition was more likely than not to bring a woman to a bad end." Happily, the real-life Murasaki persisted, and went on to become the author of the world's first novel, <I>The Tale of Genji</I>. For <I>The Tale of Murasaki</I>, Dalby draws on this groundbreaking masterpiece and on the surviving fragments of Murasaki's own diary and poetry, along with another masterpiece of the Heian period, <I>The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon</I>. The result is a vivid and emotionally detailed portrait of an intelligent, sensitive, and complex woman.<p> In Dalby's novel, Murasaki writes her first stories about Prince Genji's amorous encounters in order to entertain her friends, and to express her own creative temperament. As the stories gain a wider public, however, they are transformed into a conduit for observations on the mores and intrigues of court life. And in the end, as the narrator struggles to stay true to her literary vision, her tales are inflected by Buddhist thought and become parables on the transience and beauty of the world: <blockquote> I have always felt compelled to set down a vision of things I have heard and seen. Life itself has never been enough. It only became real for me when I fashioned it into stories. Yet, somehow, despite all I've written, the true nature of things I've tried to grasp in my fiction still manages to drift through the words and sit, like little piles of dust, between the lines. </blockquote> Dalby is an anthropologist by trade, who has produced two previous nonfiction studies: <I>Kimono</I> and <I>Geisha</I>. And given that her research for <I>Geisha</I> gained her the distinction of being the only Westerner ever to have trained in that much misunderstood profession, it's no surprise that she is able to reconstruct 11th-century Japan with meticulous fidelity. It's all there--the political and sexual machinations, the preoccupations with clothing and custom, the difficult and tenuous position of courtiers, the intensity of female friendships in a male-dominated society--and the author shows us precisely how Murasaki's sensibilities were shaped by the culture in which she lived. This is a rich and convincing debut, and another chapter in the current resurrection of the historical novel. <I>--Burhan Tufail</I> 359646 2000 The Tale of Murasaki: A Novel total:371|5:90|4:150|3:100|2:26|1:5| 371 1407 563 52 2 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sun Jan 04 12:57:16 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 12:57:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Aug 10 15:03:01 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 28 11:55:08 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Sun May 20 17:42:58 -0700 2007 Sun May 20 17:52:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 12:49:09 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 12:55:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Oct 11 14:50:43 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 14:52:30 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Tue Nov 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 21:33:51 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 21:43:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Mar 18 09:54:15 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 09:55:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Mon Apr 27 02:19:39 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 02:19:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Tue Mar 24 02:05:57 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 02:12:18 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 18 07:58:02 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 08:07:29 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 10:39:57 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 10:40:35 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Aug 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 18:37:22 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 18:39:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 true false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 14:26:14 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 16:11:17 -0700 2009 1
However, the minutiae of the Japanese court, the ladies, the servants, the arrangements and endless poems didn't really grab my attention.

I did learn th...more...]]> 4 0 true false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 03 13:29:06 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 01 15:13:12 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sat Jan 03 07:51:07 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 07:51:27 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun May 27 08:09:26 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 16:00:39 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 30 13:20:10 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 14:32:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 19 21:48:30 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 19 21:54:19 -0800 2007 murasaki is actually the author of the tale of genji...genji is a fictional character about a elite prince ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 25 13:48:26 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 13:49:21 -0800 2009 The Tale of Genji. ]]> 5 0 false false Sat Oct 03 07:01:42 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 07:02:56 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=369669