Customer Reviews

Little Sister

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This slim, pretty volume crossed my counter at the library where I work several times before I checked it out. My expectations, I'll admit, were not of the highest: I looked at it and thought, "Ah. Quick and entertaining." Well. It was quick, and I was entertained, but there is a little more to "Little Sister" than meets the eye.

It's hard, at first, to say quite why. The writing, presented as a first-person narrative by Mitsuko of events she is writing about afterwards, is elementary on the surface: functional, spare and tidy. However, what seems unremarkable comes to resemble the small haiku with which it is occasionally interspersed. It is not simple but restrained, echoing the delicate sensibilities of the Heian literature with which someone like Mitsuko would be so familiar. Her humble monogatari is certainly no "Tale of Genji" - nonethless, they are indisputably kin.

The premise also seems elementary at first: young girl of elite but sheltered upbringing must dare the larger world in order to help her family and counter a terrible wrong - instant, expected conflict as Mitsuko takes risks and makes enemies. At the same time, there is conflict of a more internal, personal variety when Mitsuko makes some unexpected allies: most importantly Goranu the tengu, a shape-shifting bird demon of Japanese mythology. While an alliance of convenience slowly turns into something resembling friendship, Mitsuko begins making decisions and developing ideas that contradict her own values, those of her family, and those of the society to which she belongs.

The beauty is in the subtle and restrained manner that this is presented--Mitsuko is a consistant character and no fickle reed to bend where the wind may blow. Even at the end of the book she expresses sentiments that can startle a reader who isn't a product of her particular time and place. It is a pleasure to accompany a protagonist who changes in believable fashion: blossoming into gradual, grudging and occasionally graceful bloom.

All of this elegance might be a little dry if it weren't tempered with an abundance of humor through wicked Goranu and his antics, and Mitsuko is no slouch in the wit department herself. Both characters challenge each other to grow and change - to what extent becomes evident in the book's touching denouement, when it really hit home to me just how much I had come to care for them both, and how concerned I was for their future.

The ending, as it stands, is sketchy. On the one hand, it is jarring after all the loose ends are tidied away to have a new conflict arise so suddenly with its noisy demand for resolution. On the other hand, the very existance of a sequel compromises the delicate ambiguity of the closing paragraph - the reader can't very well choose the ending of his or her choice when Dalkey will be telling us Mitsuko's decision in the next book.

Nonetheless, I couldn't be too annoyed at the ending to "Little Sister" when I was already worrying about how to get hold of "The Heavenward Path." Not for long, though - thank goodness for libraries! The second book continues the first book's themes of maturation, transformation, and reconciliation: of destiny, of relationships and of personal philosophies. They are, as previous reviewer said, genre-benders, containing a whole lot of book in two slender volumes and even providing a kind of beginner's course on the interaction of the Buddhist and Shinto religions.

Checking "Little Sister" and "The Heavenward Path" out of the library has left me enriched. Buy them? You bet I will.

Little Sister is rich with Japan's history and folklore. It tells the story of Mitsuko, a young thirteen year old girl who lives at Court. But when stories are heard about dangerous monks setting fire to councillors houses, Mitsuko and her family are sent into hiding by her father. Yet, while journeying on the road, they are attacked by monks, and Mustako's brother-in-law is killed. Her sister Amaiko, who was married to the dead man, was saddened so much by her husband's death that her soul traveled elsewhere, leaving her body an empty shell.

Mustako knows she must save her sister, and she runs away, leaving her mother and other sisters alone. She takes Amaiko with her, hoping to find help. She stumbles upon some tengu (Japanese shapeshifting "demons") and befriends one of them, who is named Goranu. Goranu helps her to retrieve her sister's soul, and their adventures take them to the king of the sea, a Japanese "hell" and so on until she finds her brother-in-law's ghost. She knows that unless she finds a way to let his soul rest in peace, his ghost will go on haunting and her sister will never be able to go on with her life. Yet still, what can she do? She doesn't know where her family has gone, and her only friend is a demon.

Little Sister is a wonderful tale, well-written and full of Japanese history and folklore. Good for any ages, boy or girl, whatever. Anyone would like it. If you read it and like it, go on with its sequel, The Heavenward Path.

***If you like Kara Dalkey's writing, read her Water Trilogy, which contains the three books Ascension, Reunion, and Transformation. These three books tell of the lost city of Atlantis. Read them all!!!

This book is not only interesting but it also gives the reader a good idea about how life was in ancient Japan. It has such a variety of genras that I would recommend this book to everyone. One of my favorite things about this book is the love that Goranu and Mitsuko have for each other. It is unlike any other! Little Sister is truly a masterpeice! This is one of my all time favorite books!!!!!

Sadly, I have to admit what inticed me to but Little Sister was the cover...it was enchanting and mysterious. Not only was the cover that, but the story as well. I was surprised to be so drawn into the character and her family problems, how traditions are floating around as questions. People not familiar to the mysterious Japanese will find this book beautiful and refreshing.

Author Kara Dalkey flies quietly under the radar, not attracting too much attention to herself. Like some kind of authorial fairy, she drops delightful little books and stories hither and thither for those readers canny enough to discover her. I first noticed Ms. Dalkey after reading her original take on "The Snow Queen" in the collected book of stories, "Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction". Aside from that, one of the only other works of children's fiction she's ever published is the unassuming but delightful, "Little Sister". Culling myth, religion, and legend from a variety of sources and placing her book squarely in twelfth-century Japan, Dalkey produces a story in which the fantastic and the mundane integrate seamlessly with one another. This is undoubtedly Dalkey's finest work.

Mitsuko does not consider herself to be of much worth. She is the younger sister of the stately and kind Amaiko and part of a rather noble family as well. When Amaiko is engaged to be wed, Mitsuko is as thrilled as anyone. All the more tragic then that while en route to their father's summer home, the girls are attacked by a clan of warrior priests. Amaiko's potential husband is killed, sending his fiancée into a stupor from which she will not leave. Determined to save her sister from wasting away, Mitsuko sets out to find Amaiko's dead husband and bring him back (thereby bringing back her sister to herself). Along the way she befriends a mischievous tengu, or shapeshifter demon. She tells her tale to deities, visits various hells, meets her ancestors, and outsmarts her enemies time and time again. By the end, the quest has not turned out the way she expected it to, but Mitsuko is no longer the trembling child she was when she began.

The book is an interesting take on the lives of Japenese women in the 13th century. Mitsuko begins the book with pounds of prejudice weighing on her head. By the book's end, she's shed these ideas, though she still carries some of them with her unknowingly. Her quest has the original bent of not being a search for her own beloved, but for her sister's. She's like Orpheus's stand-in. The quest itself bears many similarities to classic folktales like, "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", in which a young woman must make friends and defy enemies carefully. What made the book so delightful, however, were the characters. Mitsuko isn't your typical blank slate without thought or opinion. She's feisty and opinionated, even if she suffers from a classic case of low self-esteem. Goranu, the tengu who falls in love with her, is somewhat similar to the character of Nawat in Tamora Pierce's, "Trickster's Choice". In both cases, crows are potential lovers as well as warriors.

One of the best elements in the book were the poems that dot it continually. I don't exactly consider myself a scholar of haiku. For me, Jack Prelutsky's, "If Not For the Cat", is the height of haiku brilliance. Dalkey, however, has a real ear for it. No matter what her predicament is, Mitsuko continually composes little haikus to herself to keep her hopes up or to give her problems form. These poems are small little jewels that encapsulate the action perfectly. They're worth the price of the book alone.

I don't imagine that "Little Sister" will get the attention it so richly deserves. It's a ruby in the dust. A beautiful little book hidden amongst shelves of mediocre ones in bookstores and libraries everywhere. But for the kids out there that like adventure and fantasy with strong female characters (and aren't afraid of learning a little about the late Heian period of Japanese history), there are few books I'd recommend as highly.

"Little Sister" is a little book, but with a big story inside it. Kara Dalkey crafts a poignant, suspenseful fantasy, with plenty of Japanese folklore and a dash of romance. It keeps going at a fast clip and is written wonderfully, although it feels somehow unfinished. (Since there's a sequel, don't worry about it)

Mitsuko is a shy young girl in the Court, overshadowed by her older sisters, especially the newly-married Amaiko. But when warrior monks threaten her family, her father sends them off to a country estate -- except that the monks attack, and kill Amaiko's husband Yugiri. Amaiko, lost in grief, seems to fall into a coma -- her soul is gone to look for her dead husband.

After her family is captured, Mitsuko embarks on a desperate journey to find Yugiri, so that Amaiko can get on with her life. She ends up with an unusual helper -- a tengu (birdlike demon) named Goranu. He takes her to meet gods and devils, down into the depths of the netherworld. But can Mitsuko find Yugiri and rescue her family as well?

Ah, if only other historical fantasies were as pretty and rich as this one is. Dalkey clearly has a handle on her Buddhist and Shinto folklore, as well as her historical knowledge of politics and customs. And she makes it all an integral part of a touching, intense plot.

Dalkey's writing is spare and vaguely formal, but she gives plenty of detail to the supernatural scenes. And the intricate plot is a convincing one, with Mitsuko struggling to do all sorts of things to rescue her family, and lay Yugiri's ghost to rest. The only downside is that while the ending wraps up most of the loose ends, it feels like it's leading to the next book.

Mitsuko is an excellent heroine. She starts off timid, but her courage and strength start growing through the course of the novel. And Goranu is a real winner -- he's a trickster with an acid tongue, but he's actually very kind and eventually loving to Mitsuko.

"Little Sister" is a beautiful little historical fantasy, with plenty of action, romance, and a sweet little romance woven in. Dalkey wrote a winner with this one.

"Little Sister" is a wonderfully written book that leaves you begging for a real end.That was its only real weak point,but it also lets your imagination run wild with what Mitsu-chan might do. It was much more fun than "Of Nightengales that Weep" which was much more serious. Having Mitsuko go and meet all sorts of mythological characters was a very interesting twist,especially her meeting up with Susano-o and the god of the dead. Read this book now, it's worth it!!

3 1/2 stars, I guess? Really, the imagery and the prose itself is worth more than that, but I felt the story wasn't quite up to 4 stars, so I don't know.

Short, elegant, and entertaining. It was very cinematic, and I could see the whole thing unfolding in my head like animation (I could totally see this as a Miyazaki film - the sweeping visuals and sense of wonder were very similar in style to Miyazaki movies, actually). I loved the bizarre imagery of the underworld. The prose had that poetic, understated elegance thing going on, purposefully imitating the feel of Heian-era poetry - the clever humor of it, too.

I can't speak as to historical accuracy, since I know little about the era beyond surface details.

(An aside that no one else in the world but me will care about: I did find a couple of mentions of incense a bit odd. In one, a person is lighting "sticks" of incense; while I could be mistaken, it was my understanding that Japanese joss sticks are a relatively recent creation, and incense of the time would either be neriko (kneaded, aged balls of incense) or chipped mixtures of woods and spices to be heated over charcoal. At another point, a character complains her kimonos "stinks of incense" - but wouldn't that be normal? Didn't nobles generally deliberately perfume their robes with incense, and have contraptions specifically for the purpose of hanging them over heating incense?)

I felt like the story would have been better without the last little segment added on at the end - it felt off, and left me with a weird sort of feeling. Still, it was very well written, and a fun read.

I thought this was a pretty good book. it definitely isn't long something you could easily finish in a few hours but an all around pretty good story . could be a small low budget movie in my opinion. . . Ok maybe that a little bit of an over shoot but bottom line id recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a lil Super natural with a tiny bit of romance in a way . just a pretty good book has a little bit of everything in it check it out it snot even expensive

I had the luck to read this book while in Japan, and it was so much fun reading about places in the book that I had just visited (like Mt. Hiei).

Little Sister is a fantasy tale set in (old) Japan, where the main character is part of a noble family. Due to some political trouble involving the violent monks of Mt. Hiei, her family is forced to flee their home. On the road they are attacked, and the older sister's husband is killed. The older sister suffers intense shock, and Mitsuko takes it upon herself to care for her and, eventually, figure out how to cure her. They are helped by tengu (mythological magical birds), and Mitsuko befriends a particular one who helps her on her journey to find the soul of her brother-in-law. Mitsuko and the tengu travel to many fantastical places: the underworld, Mt. Fuji, and a cave where they speak to a dragon of the sea.

The story is filled with Japanese lore and customs, which are charming and fascinating. For example, Mitsuko often keeps her face covered by her kimono sleeve (as depicted on the cover).
A few Japanese words are used throughout, which is fun -- though I still can't figure out why monogatari (story) is spelled 'monotagari' throughout the book.

It was very cute! I recommend it to anyone.