- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition First Printing edition (20 Oct 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0765303906
- ISBN-13: 978-0765303905
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14.7 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 585,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"The Fox Woman is a magnificent book, powerfully and profoundly moving; in its moods and atmosphere, utterly magical, a genuine and unique work of high art. And all of this expressed through language that is elegant, economical, graceful. The Fox Woman immediately sets the author in the front rank of today's novelists."
Product Description
In her skillful debut novel, Kij Johnson took the classic Japanese myth of the fox who dared to become a woman to win true love and created "The Fox Woman," a luminous, lyrical tale of love, desire, joy, and the nature of the soul.
Set in the same universe as" The Fox Woman," this time Kij Johnson takes on another animal totem and enters the world of the creature who comes to be known as Kagaya-hime, a sometime woman warrior, occasional philosopher, and reluctant confidante to noblemen.
And who may or may not be the figment of the imagination of an aging empress who is embarking on the last journey of her life, setting aside the trappings of court life and reminiscing as she follows the paths that are leading her to the nunnery and death.
Fudoki is the tale of a being who starts her journey on the kami, or spirit road, as a humble-if ever a being such as a Cat can be humble-small tortoiseshell feline. She has seen her family destroyed by a fire that decimated most of the Imperial city. This loss renders her taleless, the only one left alive to pass on such stories as The Cat Born the Year the Star Fell, the Cat with a Litter of Ten, the Fire-Tailed Cat. Without her fudoki-self and soul and home and shrine-she cannot keep the power of her clan together. And she cannot join another fudoki because, although she might be able to win a place within another clan, to do so would mean that she would cease to be herself.
So a small cat begins an extraordinary journey. Along the way she will attract the attention of old and ancient powers, including gods who are curious about this creature newly come to Japan's shores, and who choose to give the tortoiseshell a human shape.
And who set her on a new kami road, where Kagaya-hime will have to choose a way to find what happiness she can.
Weaving a haunting story of one being's transformation and journey of discovery with the telling of another's long life set against the backdrop of the courtly rituals of Imperial power, Kij Johnson has written a powerful novel about the nature of freedom and the redemptive power of transformation--if only one is brave enough to risk it all.
Set in the same universe as" The Fox Woman," this time Kij Johnson takes on another animal totem and enters the world of the creature who comes to be known as Kagaya-hime, a sometime woman warrior, occasional philosopher, and reluctant confidante to noblemen.
And who may or may not be the figment of the imagination of an aging empress who is embarking on the last journey of her life, setting aside the trappings of court life and reminiscing as she follows the paths that are leading her to the nunnery and death.
Fudoki is the tale of a being who starts her journey on the kami, or spirit road, as a humble-if ever a being such as a Cat can be humble-small tortoiseshell feline. She has seen her family destroyed by a fire that decimated most of the Imperial city. This loss renders her taleless, the only one left alive to pass on such stories as The Cat Born the Year the Star Fell, the Cat with a Litter of Ten, the Fire-Tailed Cat. Without her fudoki-self and soul and home and shrine-she cannot keep the power of her clan together. And she cannot join another fudoki because, although she might be able to win a place within another clan, to do so would mean that she would cease to be herself.
So a small cat begins an extraordinary journey. Along the way she will attract the attention of old and ancient powers, including gods who are curious about this creature newly come to Japan's shores, and who choose to give the tortoiseshell a human shape.
And who set her on a new kami road, where Kagaya-hime will have to choose a way to find what happiness she can.
Weaving a haunting story of one being's transformation and journey of discovery with the telling of another's long life set against the backdrop of the courtly rituals of Imperial power, Kij Johnson has written a powerful novel about the nature of freedom and the redemptive power of transformation--if only one is brave enough to risk it all.
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First Sentence
I am the princess Harueme, daughter of Fujiwara no Enyu and the emperor we now call Go-Sanjo. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
I am the princess Harueme, daughter of Fujiwara no Enyu and the emperor we now call Go-Sanjo. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I bought Fudoki when I was half way through reading The Fox Woman but kept it waiting on the shelf, something to look forward to. I skirted around it, picking it up now and again, prowling closer to the promise of the pages. Would it be as good, better, different? Finally I allowed myself to read it and this morning finished the last page.
Already I know that I have to read it again, that I have to read them both again, that both are two of the books that I hold closest to my heart. I love the place that both of these books are from, love the magic, the language, the possibilities, the layers, the richness. I love the images that they make to dance in my head. I love the courage of the small cat-become-woman as she walks through the world to find her Fudoki. Part of the reason it took me so long to open the book, to take the time to read was because I knew that nothing could be as good at The Fox Woman. But I was wrong.
I love the subtle workings and the slight bonds that bind the magic of The Fox Woman to the magic of Fudoki.
And now I know that in the same way that when I see a fox it brings to mind Kitsune I will never see a tortoiseshell cat without thinking of Kagaya-Hime, her extraordinary journey, and wondering how she is. And also remembering this from the book, which reminds me so much of reading, what it is, what it can be...
"I have been fishing in a river a thousand miles from you, eyeing the trout beneath its surface. For some reason this brought you to my mind."
Already I know that I have to read it again, that I have to read them both again, that both are two of the books that I hold closest to my heart. I love the place that both of these books are from, love the magic, the language, the possibilities, the layers, the richness. I love the images that they make to dance in my head. I love the courage of the small cat-become-woman as she walks through the world to find her Fudoki. Part of the reason it took me so long to open the book, to take the time to read was because I knew that nothing could be as good at The Fox Woman. But I was wrong.
I love the subtle workings and the slight bonds that bind the magic of The Fox Woman to the magic of Fudoki.
And now I know that in the same way that when I see a fox it brings to mind Kitsune I will never see a tortoiseshell cat without thinking of Kagaya-Hime, her extraordinary journey, and wondering how she is. And also remembering this from the book, which reminds me so much of reading, what it is, what it can be...
"I have been fishing in a river a thousand miles from you, eyeing the trout beneath its surface. For some reason this brought you to my mind."
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
The Princess and the Cat Woman
21 Sep 2004
Format:Hardcover
Inspired by Japanese myth, Johnson's ("The Fox Woman") second fantasy follows the wanderings of an orphaned cat, a creature sprung from the mind of Harueme, a Japanese princess who has lived a long, privileged and circumscribed life.
Near death, Harueme begins to fill blank notebooks - a new one for each chapter - with the cat's story, interwoven with her own memories. The young tortoiseshell cat lost her family, and with them, her fudoki - her spiritual lineage - in a terrible fire. She sets out on an aimless journey, bereft of name, family and purpose, and encounters gods and people, none of whom hold any interest for her. But ignoring the gods can have a price and the little cat is transformed into a woman - with enough cat qualities and spirit-aid to help her on her adventures.
Free and alone, she is unlike Harueme who has never been either. But Harueme has her own power, not least of which is her imagination. Harueme absorbs the world as people bring it to her in tales, and the cat-woman keeps the world at bay as she moves through it, defending her life, making friends, acquiring a reputation and a name: Kagaya-hime, woman warrior.
Johnson's writing is fluid and musical, her characters archetypes and real at the same time, and the historical detail is imaginatively, visually realized. But Harueme, though pampered, selfish and captive, is more involving than the cat-woman, whose humorless detachment is, well, too feline, for real identification. But Johnson makes us believe that Kagaya-hime is what a cat-turned-woman would be like, and this tale of love, belonging, freedom and redemption is as rewarding as it is different.
Near death, Harueme begins to fill blank notebooks - a new one for each chapter - with the cat's story, interwoven with her own memories. The young tortoiseshell cat lost her family, and with them, her fudoki - her spiritual lineage - in a terrible fire. She sets out on an aimless journey, bereft of name, family and purpose, and encounters gods and people, none of whom hold any interest for her. But ignoring the gods can have a price and the little cat is transformed into a woman - with enough cat qualities and spirit-aid to help her on her adventures.
Free and alone, she is unlike Harueme who has never been either. But Harueme has her own power, not least of which is her imagination. Harueme absorbs the world as people bring it to her in tales, and the cat-woman keeps the world at bay as she moves through it, defending her life, making friends, acquiring a reputation and a name: Kagaya-hime, woman warrior.
Johnson's writing is fluid and musical, her characters archetypes and real at the same time, and the historical detail is imaginatively, visually realized. But Harueme, though pampered, selfish and captive, is more involving than the cat-woman, whose humorless detachment is, well, too feline, for real identification. But Johnson makes us believe that Kagaya-hime is what a cat-turned-woman would be like, and this tale of love, belonging, freedom and redemption is as rewarding as it is different.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A fantastic and down-to-earth story
26 April 2005
Format:Hardcover
There's a saying that I can't remember at the moment, something about painting a picture with words. I wasn't really aware until I read this book that it was possible to paint an entire world with them - that's the way this book comes across to me, as broad strokes on rough canvas.
Fudoki takes place in Japan round about 1000AD-ish, and the story is that of a princess, Harueme, who is nearing the end of her life. She, in turn, is telling a story about a cat, and the book takes us through both her own and her character's tale, weaving back and forth between them at Harueme's whim.
I'm glad I bought this book, because I knew even half way through reading it that I would want to re-read it in the future - so much is touched on in the story. I think it will be well worth going through it again, knowing the characters better right from the get-go. There are some great themes, and they're touched on in so many different ways: death, freedom, strength, and how they all intertwine. This is one of those stories that I didn't want to end - I kept checking to see how many pages I had left - but am glad it did where it did. Open-ended, and yet extremely satisfying.
Fudoki takes place in Japan round about 1000AD-ish, and the story is that of a princess, Harueme, who is nearing the end of her life. She, in turn, is telling a story about a cat, and the book takes us through both her own and her character's tale, weaving back and forth between them at Harueme's whim.
I'm glad I bought this book, because I knew even half way through reading it that I would want to re-read it in the future - so much is touched on in the story. I think it will be well worth going through it again, knowing the characters better right from the get-go. There are some great themes, and they're touched on in so many different ways: death, freedom, strength, and how they all intertwine. This is one of those stories that I didn't want to end - I kept checking to see how many pages I had left - but am glad it did where it did. Open-ended, and yet extremely satisfying.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Educational and Entertaining
21 Feb 2005
Format:Hardcover
Fudoki allowed me a glimpse of medieval Japan unlike any I've encountered before. The text itself is a fairly engaging story littered with jewels of prose that left me thinking, "Wow. Lovely." I had trouble getting into it at first, I think because I was being impatient, but once I was more than a quarter of the way through, I was hooked.
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