The Commoner

A not-so-thinly disguised tale of Empress Michiko of Japan. In the book John Burnham Schwartz writes of the fictitious Haruko, the first commoner to marry the heir to the throne of Japan. The details of her life follow exactly what one can read on Wikipedia about the Empress of Japan. She studies at the same school and university, and meets her spouse the future Emperor on a tennis court.

The book is very slow-paced and tries to capture the image of post world war Japan. Schwartz's characters are not very dimensional and though the book tries to capture the life of a princess under the glare of media and a royal household it does not achieve it's goal. The end of the story was completely unrealistic and in my opinion it ruined what little liking I had for the book.

Memoirs of a Geisha it is not.