By Amber McGee
Courier Staff Writer
Princess Harueme has reached the end of her life. A mass in her lung makes it difficult to breathe, and after the death of her beloved half-brother there is nothing left to keep her at the imperial court. Harueme spends her days in her room contemplating what choices she made to lead her to where she is. There’s not much time before she’ll be sent off to a nearby shrine to die a nun, but after finding a stash of blank notebooks Harueme gets a different idea. Before she dies she’ll write a story, a story of all the action and adventure that her own life has been missing.
Beautifully written from a unique point of view, Fudoki tells the stories of two very different characters. Harueme, a princess who never quite fit that role, and Kagaya-hime, a cat who has been left to wander along the great Tokaido road after a fire claimed her home and her family.
Kij Johnson manages to immerse the reader so deeply in the setting it’s as if they’re there themselves. While reading this book I could easily envision what life at the imperial court must have been like, and how it must have felt like walking for miles in the cold Japanese winter. Along with setting Johnson succeeds at giving Harueme a voice that matches her time period. There’s a tone to the writing that makes it clear these are not modern day American or English characters.
Before the novel starts there’s a list of the characters you’ll meet and what their positions are. I found that while reading I rarely had to look at it. The two main characters are great foils of each other, and even the side characters like Kagaya-hime’s attendants are memorable. Most editions of the book also include a map of Japan, with the areas Kagaya-hime visits marked and labeled.
Fudoki could be described as another coming of age story and a light fantasy action. The book is slow–it’s the final thoughts of a dying woman after all–but it’s an enjoyable read nonetheless.