Title: The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro Author: Alison Fell
Published: February 1, 1997
Genre(s): Historical Fiction
Page Count: 256
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:This “exquisite, exuberant, X-rated” novel (Mirabella), set in feudal Japan, tells the story of a concubine who hires a stable boy to whisper erotic stories from behind a screen while she entertains her master, a samurai general.
Lady Onogoro, a self-made woman in the 11th century Japanese imperial court, has a problem: her lover and patron doesn’t excite her. Not wanting to hurt his feelings or lose his protection, Onogoro enlists the services of a blind stableboy. He whispers erotic stories in her ear during coitus, and Onogoro’s wealthy patron leaves happy, convinced that he’s pleased his concubine. Except…things happen. Scandal! Drama! Spies! Unlikely love!
I do love when random, uneducated book purchases go right! The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro is hardly a popular or well-known novel in any circle I’m in, so purchasing it at first sight was rather a chance. I was attracted mostly by the 11th century Japanese setting, though Alison Fell is focused mostly on characters and stories, not the intricacies of court life. Regardless, I found this book to be strange and different from my usual fare, but ultimately quite satisfying.
The way Fell wrote and structured this story was very satisfying. Lady Onogoro’s life is full of poetry and storytelling; as a lady attached to the imperial court, hers is a life of ease and luxury, and the women of the court often have only their own minds for entertainment. Close friends of Onogoro’s include Sei Shōnagon, author of The Pillow Book, a real-life book that 21st century readers still celebrate. Onogoro and her contemporaries are women of wit and creativity, and throughout The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro, Fell inserts stories and poems these women have “written”.
And, yes, a great many of these stories are about sex. Bizarre sex. If they’re not about sex, they’re still bizarre. But I feel that this book isn’t gratuitous erotica so much as an exploration of culture, folklore, and gender dynamics. There is purpose in the stories-within-stories format, and though the “main” plot has to do with the triangle between Onogoro, her wealthy lover, and her blind stableboy, I feel like this book touches on culture and psychology in meaningful ways as well. If we must call The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro erotica, it must also have the additional tag of literary fiction.
However, the novel isn’t merely a collection of bizarre stories and internal musings: there is a plot—and what a plot! The pseudo-love triangle is certainly the driving force. Onogoro likes her wealthy lover and enjoys his patronage, but the stories the stableboy tells stimulate her mentally in ways she’s never experienced before. Throw in some busybody princes and some spies, and Fell’s novel turns out to be rather exciting and intrigue-filled. There was a nice mix, I though, between the insightful/literary moments and the plot-driven sequences. It all worked quite well.
It might take a certain kind of reader to enjoy The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro, but I think once one grows accustomed to vaguely disquieting and quite explicit sex, the book has a lot of qualities (and perhaps the weird sex is one of them). I think Alison Fell did a very good job incorporating culture and society into this historical-set novel, and the overarching romance was satisfying as well.
