Liza DalbyRecensioni

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Dalby-Le-Dit-de-Murasaki/107771

> [Japon]. LE DIT DE MURASAKI, par Liza DALBY, Traduit de l’anglais par Bernard Hœpffner, avec la collaboration de Catherine Goffaux, 554 pages / 12,20 € / ISBN : 978-2-87730-1406-7. — Il y a mille ans, au Japon, une jeune fille s’inventait un amant idéal, le « radieux prince Genji », et en faisait le héros d’un prodigieux roman. Elle s’appelait Murasaki Shikibu. Voici l’histoire de cette femme exceptionnelle, qui vécut à la cour de Heian, d’un raffinement rarement égalé dans l’histoire. Chuchotements et soupirs à l’ombre des écrans de papier, corps cachés sous d’innombrables robes de soie rêvant de se dévoiler et chevelures répandues sur une peau de neige…
—Catalogue Picquier Poche 2019

I really enjoyed the first half or two-thirds of this book. After that, I think I just got to the point where there was so much information that it was losing me. However, I did finish the book--only to find that it has another one of those "drop-off" endings that I find to be so common for Asian stories. This is definitely THE resource for anyone interested in geishas and other aspects of Japanese culture. I am curious as to how "off" her information is...now that it's been 40 years or so since the info. was gathered, 35 years since the book was written, and almost 20 years since the revision. This book sheds a whole new light on Memoirs of a Geisha, which I should probably go back and reread now that I have some more background on the lifestyle.

I couldn't relate to the main character, Murasaki. The author did not provide enough details to make the emotions and situations believable... or they simply weren't believable to begin with.

Excellently written and researched book about the little known world of the geisha. Thorough and interesting...good companion to the "Memoirs of a Geisha" book.

The colorful and stylized kimono--the national garment of Japan--expresses not only Japanese aesthetic sensibilities but the soul of Japan as well. This book traces the history of kimono--its uses, aesthetics, and social meanings--to explore Japanese culture.

An engaging mix of fashion history and social anthropology, this lively and scholarly book demonstrates in a new way how clothing can illuminate our understanding of culture.

This was an excellent read! Far from dry and stuffy, Dalby has managed to convey the world of the Geisha in an entertaining and personal way. Her integration into the world also allowed a more in depth analysis - more than if she had simply been an outside observer. It is a shame that this profession is linked to the seedier side of paid companionship and entertainment, as there is true art and an acknowledgement of nature and ritual, central to life within even modern Japan.

A bit tedious at times but this book contains a beautiful and captivating description of tenth century Japan. The plot is minimal; This is not for those who demand lots of action, plot twists, heavy romance, or sex. But if you can enjoy a contemplative read and to feel what it must have been like to live in the tenth century as a noble lady in the emperor's court, then this is for you. Gorgeous.

While the book is interesting in that it is full of period detail, the story drags pretty badly. I enjoyed the insight into a writer's mind, but found the constant repetition of "I wanted to write, but I couldn't because I had to do this instead" pretty dull after a while. There are too many characters who are more like names that are occasionally dropped until suddenly the character comes to visit and the reader is told that this character is very important to the narrator, which is rather hard to believe, as they never appear again. I also had a hard time bringing myself to care what happened to the rather insipid narrator, Fuji (Murasaki), who seems to be forever complaining and making poor choices. I also found the narrator selfish despite her continual self-sacrifice. It seemed she managed to hang onto a lot of things that she found important, such as her character Genji and even her own reputation as a blender of incense, but, though she claims her daughter is her most precious treasure, the poor little girl is pretty much abandoned. I guess I might be biased on this because I have a tiny little daughter myself and I cannot understand how anything on Earth could induce me to treat her in such a fashion. It especially irked me that, despite seeing how unhealthy life at court was for women especially, the narrator purposefully raises her daughter up to be the ultimate courtier. And to top it off, she tricks the poor girl into thinking they will be together at last, only to run off to become a nun and leave her daughter to find her own way through the intrigues Murasaki herself apparently so despised.
Despite all of this, reading about Murasaki's changes to her "Shining Prince" as she becomes older, wiser, and of course sadder, and the way that these changes may have reflected her own life experiences was interesting. Seeing her grow from a writer of idealized romance to a shrewd observer of human nature with all of its failings makes the book worth finishing. The final story is fascinating and makes me want to read all of her work. Now to find translations in English...that's going to probably be a lot harder overall than dragging myself through this book was!

Detailed depiction of life in 11th century Japan. With writing as an outlet for our main character - a woman we get glimpses of as she makes her way through life. She writes poetry, a diary and a huge novel and her actual writing flows in/around this historical novel about her.

A fictional account of the life of the writer of Tale of Genji. Good stuff.
Read Nov 2004

Very interesting to explore this world. An American point of view. I'd recommend Geisha: a life by Mineko Iwasaki for a Japanese view.

The book was well written, and the descriptions of 11th century Japan were beautiful and very well researched, but I found the story as a whole incredibly boring.

I picked this book up only because it was historical fiction and I did enjoy "Memoirs of a Geisha"; however, this is much different and at first I was rather disappointed. I didn't particularly like the first person narrative and what I thought of as the "weird little phrases" of poetry interspersed, but I kept reading. I was soon pulled in and could not put it down. Not that I especially liked the character of Muraski, but I so enjoyed the visit to 11th century Japan.

I agree with those that remarked on the lack of background regarding the politics and religion that shape this novel, but I didn't find it overwhelming. Instead, it spurred my interest to investigate further.

It is hard to judge the qualities of characters that are living in a world so far from our own. The exchanges of "waka" seem bizarre at first, but I actually found myself looking at my own surroundings (especially nature) in a new light. Although the author, I felt, was too detailed, too wordy (especially in the long descriptions of colors and kimonos), we could all learn something about saying so much in so few words.

How enthralling to briefly inhabit a world without time;

how much my time has changed.

I was at a museum in Japan that had some antique kimono, and I thought, you know, I would really like to read a book about the history and cultural meaning of kimono.

This book could not have been more exactly what I wanted if I had specially commissioned it from the author. Totally fascinating.

Maybe I'll actually try to read all of [book: The Tale of Genji] now that I know what all the seasonal color combinations mean.

Haha, just kidding. No one actually reads the whole Tale of Genji!

Since I am interested in anything that comes from the orient, I could not walk past this book. I bought it several years ago and read it with great pleasure.
I loved being given a look behind the scenes, learn how geisha's are trained, how hard they work and also what geisha's are and what they do. It really was an interesting read.

Does qualify for re-read, but not in the near future :-)

I'll start by saying I have never read The Tale of Genji or any other of the writings that have survived from Eleventh century Heian Japan but Liza Dalby has obviously done her research making this an evocative portrayal of that long ago time and place. In fact so much so that I was sorry to leave this world when I turned the last page.

This is a fictionalised telling of what the life of Murasaki, the creator of Genji, might have been like. Based on and including parts of her diary, her poetry and The Tale of Genji Dalby has recreated a vivid picture of an alien, to me, culture. I loved reading this and maybe I should try to find a copy of the Tale of Genji.½

I greatly enjoyed "The tale of Murasaki" and thought it presented the sensibilities of that period in an accurate and sensitive manner. Geisha is an outstanding piece of participant observation which brings the same sensitivity to the world of the 1970s. She treads the delicate path between identification and observation perfectly, and is an ideal interpreter of an aesthetic that is both attractive and baffling to a western mind. On top of this she writes with both facility and elegance, making the book an easy read.

I was lucky enough to get this book signed by the author. It's half-fashion analysis, half-historical analysis of wafuku in Japan. Highly recommended.

An interesting novel, telling the life-story of 11th century Japanese writer and courtier Murasaki Shikibu.½

Loved reading this book. It gives an intriguing look at life in ancient Japan. Far from the Japan as we know it. The story grabs you and is very believable. A very strong book!

Im Jahr 1975 lässt sich die Ethnologin Liza Dalby zu Feldforschungszwecken im Hanamachi (jap. "Blumenviertel") Pontocho in Kyoto, Japans kulturell bedeutendster Stadt, zur Geisha ausbilden.
Sie führte ein Jahr lang (1975-1976) das Leben einer Geisha und arbeitete unter dem Namen Ichigiku in den Teehäusern von Pontocho. Ihre Studien führten sie quer durch die Geisha-Kultur in ganz Japan. Sie erläutert die Unterschiede zwischen in Städten wie Tokio (Akasaka oder Shimbashi) und Kyoto (Gion, Miyagawa-cho, Pontocho oder Kamishichiken) arbeitenden Geishas, und denen, die auf dem Lande in Kur- oder Badeorten wie Atami arbeiten.
Zu den eigenen Erfahrungen, die Liza Dalby während ihrer Zeit in Japan gemacht hat, fließen in ihr Buch Gespräche mit Geishas, ehemaligen Geishas, Besitzerinnen von Ochayas (Teehäuser), Inhaberinnen von Okiyas (Geisha-Häuser) und Beamten in den Meldeämtern von Geisha-Gemeinschaften in verschiedenen Teilen Japans ein.
"Geisha" ist größtenteils sehr sachlich und objektiv geschrieben und beinhaltet viele interessante Details über die Kunst, Ansichten, Traditionen und Ausbildung der Geishas. Sie verweist auf Unterschiede zwischen wahren Geishas und Prostituierten, und erzählt die Geschichte um die Entstehung, Bedeutung und den manchmal steinigen Weg der Geishas durch die Jahrhunderte. Liza Dalby erklärt bereits im Vorwort, dass es ebenso auch ein sehr persönliches Buch nicht zuletzt durch ihre Begeisterung für die Geisha-Kultur geworden ist, und sie durch ihre Einbindung zum Karyukai (das "Reich der Blumen und Weiden", wie die Welt der Geishas im Japanischen genannt wird) nicht zur Gänze objektiv sein konnte und wollte.
Als Amerikanerin, die in Japan gelebt und gearbeitet hat, versteht Liza Dalby auch die Missverständnisse und Unterschiede zu beleuchten, die zwischen der westlichen und der japanischen Kultur im Hinblick auf die japanischen Traditionen und Anschauungen herrschen.
Vielleicht ist es gerade diese Mischung zwischen einem Erfahrungsbericht und einem Sachbuch, die Liza Dalby's "Geisha" so abwechslungsreich innerhalb des Buches macht, wenn dem Leser nach einem als trocken empfundenen sachlichen Kapitel wieder ein Erlebnis der Geisha Ichigiku geschildert wird.
"Geisha" sollte in keinem Regal fehlen, wenn man sich für das japanische Kulturgut, die Geisha, interessiert.

Ihr Buch widmete Liza Dalby ihrem Mann Michael und ihrer ältesten Tochter Marie.

Hidden Buddhas has an interesting concept, but unfortunately does not live up to its potential. Dalby knows a lot about Japan--and she wants to share all of that knowledge in this volume, with the result that Hidden Buddhas often reads more like a Modern Japanese Culture 101 textbook than the novel it ostensibly is. This is fine in small doses: aside from some questionable statements about various Buddhist sects and repeated obnoxious jabs at (Zainichi) Koreans, Dalby's descriptions of everyday life in Japan are spot on. Unfortunately, the story quickly bogs down as yet another info dump follows hard and fast on the heels of all the expository passages that preceded it. Readers familiar with Japan won't enjoy having their hands held through all this basic information; readers with less knowledge will probably fare somewhat better by comparison, but will be left scratching their heads over those allusions Dalby doesn't explain.

The novel also suffers for being populated by a large cast of generally unsympathetic characters whose lives are described in minute detail, often at the expense of the mystery that should have been driving the plot in the first place. Instead, it often feels tacked on every 50 pages or so whenever Dalby remembers she's supposed to be writing a suspense story instead of wallowing in her characters' petty misfortunes. The novel's big reveal is evident midway through the book and is all the more obvious for the red herrings Dalby throws in to try and throw readers off her trail. Her attempts to resolve the contradictions raised by the conclusion are also ultimately abrupt and unsatisfying. Finally, the time and effort that went into building the mock website for the novel's Mary Sue character could have been put to better use editing out all the typos scattered throughout the text.

That said, the illustrations are nice and there's definitely nostalgia value present for readers who have visited any of the temples or localities featured in the text. Hidden Buddhas doesn't offer much in the way of reread value, but Japan lovers could do worse than to borrow it from the library and tackle it in small doses.½

Halverwege heb ik het boek weggelegd.....
De inhoud vind ik op zich boeiend en ik wil graag ook meer weten over "geisha". Alleen heb ik bij het lezen van dit boek steeds het gevoel dat ik eerst een ander boek had moeten lezen om echt goed mee te kunnen (terwijl er geen "eerste" boek is). De auteur schrijft nogal chaotisch en houdt geen chronologische volgorde aan (welke volgorde precies heb ik niet kunnen ontdekken).
Lezen is voor mij ook een vorm van ontspanning en op deze manier erger ik me meer dan me ontspannen.....

Jammer dus.

I loved reading this book. Based on a real author from historical Japan. Elegantly written and very believable. The writing style gave it the authentic tranquility and serenity of ancient Japan.

This is a book of very short essays, inspired by the divisions of the seasons in an old Chinese almanac, which is still referred to in Japan. The almanac divides the year into 4/5 day periods, each with a name which reflects some aspect of the changing natural world. Today, for example, falls into the period Jan 3-Feb 4: "streams and marshes are frozen solid". I've been reading it in little nibbles - the essays are just the right length for those little spaces in the day, like when you're cleaning your teeth or waiting for the coffee to brew.

Liza Dalby, who spent many years living in and studying Japan, wrote each essay during the days of one almanac period, over the course of several years. She wrote them originally in Japanese, and translated and interpreted her original thoughts into English for this book. The subject matter ranges widely, covering her years in Japan, her current family life, and other thoughts which occur to her.

This does make the book a bit of a mish-mash, and it's clear that the publishers had no idea what to do with it. They have decided to market it as a sort of Eastern mysticism/self-help book - it's subtitled "A Guide To Serenity Through The Seasons", and one of the critic's blurbs claims that the book "calms, quietens, transports". I think this might put off most of the people who would actually enjoy the book.

I found some of the essays fascinating, especially those about Japan and Japanese culture. But there are some periods of the almanac which clearly failed to inspire her, and we end up with a handful of banal, unconnected episodes, for example about times she has seen quails near her home in Northern California.

Mind you, I suppose banality is a matter of taste. I am not very interested in gardening, but someone who was might have enjoyed those essays. And I will be keeping this book, because of the enjoyable little insights into Japanese culture.

Recommended for: anyone with a strong interest in at least two of the following: Japan, translation (between languages and cultures), gardening, and the flora and fauna of Northern California.½