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A review by pekoegal
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
3.0
If The Little Mermaid had taken place in Heian-era Japan, this would be the story.
If you're familiar with Heian-era Japan you'll know that the role of women was greatly restricted. Consequently, telling the story from mostly female points of view results in a really listless feeling. After witnessing how a noble Japanese woman spends her time, I can't imagine that a fox would ever want to give up the freedom of her wild life to be human, especially for the sake of her rather boring object of her affections.
I didn't really feel like this was an especially romantic story. Although Kitsune wants to understand how humans view love and romance, mostly her view of love is based on mating and keeping a specific mate. And for his part, Kaya no Yoshifuji doesn't seem too bothered about maintaining a deep, romantic relationship with either of his wives when he can just dash off a poem and make a booty call later. I have to admire Kitsune's dedication to understanding humans and what it means to be human and love as one, though.
I liked the descriptive writing of the story. Johnson does a fantastic job of painting a vivid picture of Heian-era Japan.
Overall, this book was alright, but not great. It moves at a slow pace, and feels a little repetitive. It's hard to see what is so desirable about Kaya no Yoshifuji that he would have two women fighting to keep him. Mostly, you just feel sorry for Shikujo and Kitsune for being saddled with the burden of being female in high society and having such a bland guy for a husband.
On a side-note, the digital edition is riddled with typos. I think this is because it's taken from page-scans, and the original book must have had an unusual font that would make lower-case s's and d's look similar when scanned. If you do read the Kindle version of this, just be aware that it is mildly confusing.
If you're familiar with Heian-era Japan you'll know that the role of women was greatly restricted. Consequently, telling the story from mostly female points of view results in a really listless feeling. After witnessing how a noble Japanese woman spends her time, I can't imagine that a fox would ever want to give up the freedom of her wild life to be human, especially for the sake of her rather boring object of her affections.
I didn't really feel like this was an especially romantic story. Although Kitsune wants to understand how humans view love and romance, mostly her view of love is based on mating and keeping a specific mate. And for his part, Kaya no Yoshifuji doesn't seem too bothered about maintaining a deep, romantic relationship with either of his wives when he can just dash off a poem and make a booty call later. I have to admire Kitsune's dedication to understanding humans and what it means to be human and love as one, though.
I liked the descriptive writing of the story. Johnson does a fantastic job of painting a vivid picture of Heian-era Japan.
Overall, this book was alright, but not great. It moves at a slow pace, and feels a little repetitive. It's hard to see what is so desirable about Kaya no Yoshifuji that he would have two women fighting to keep him. Mostly, you just feel sorry for Shikujo and Kitsune for being saddled with the burden of being female in high society and having such a bland guy for a husband.
On a side-note, the digital edition is riddled with typos. I think this is because it's taken from page-scans, and the original book must have had an unusual font that would make lower-case s's and d's look similar when scanned. If you do read the Kindle version of this, just be aware that it is mildly confusing.