The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro [Hardcover]

Alison Fell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 1996

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this novel, apparently based on the classic Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, and edited by a Scottish poet and novelist. Lady Onogoro is a poet and mistress of an imaginary general Motosuke in 11th-century Japan. To assist her performance in bed, Lady Onogoro, who has been having trouble achieving orgasm, hides the blind stable boy, Oyu, behind a screen at the head of her bed. He arouses her by whispering erotic stories in her ear while the general has sex with her. Complications arise and Lady Onogoro gains some insight on her own situation. Cleverly and humorously written, this novel portrays court life in Kyoto from a woman's point of view. The erotic stories are fanciful and entertaining. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Md.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

In this novel, apparently based on the classic Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, and edited by a Scottish poet and novelist. Lady Onogoro is a poet and mistress of an imaginary general Motosuke in 11th-century Japan. To assist her performance in bed, Lady Onogoro, who has been having trouble achieving orgasm, hides the blind stable boy, Oyu, behind a screen at the head of her bed. He arouses her by whispering erotic stories in her ear while the general has sex with her. Complications arise and Lady Onogoro gains some insight on her own situation. Cleverly and humorously written, this novel portrays court life in Kyoto from a woman's point of view. The erotic stories are fanciful and entertaining. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Md. (Library Journal )

An inventive and charming quantum leap into new fictional territory from the Scottish poet and novelist best known for her Mer de Glace (1992, not reviewed). Ostensibly a modern translation of an 11th-century erotic novel, this witty conflation (whose title partially echoes that of the classic Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon) describes the sexual dissatisfaction of a gentle poet and concubine who quietly defers to the married General she serves - until attaining erotic fulfillment through the stories whispered into her ear (during lovemaking with the General) by a blind stableboy whom she hides behind their bed. The tales that the boy (Oyu) tells the Lady Onogoro are vividly detailed, very sexy indeed, and deliciously imaginative - especially a bleak account of a variety of amorous baptism ("The Phosphorescence of Ise"), a hilariously confrontational story of woman's revenge on man's smugness and insensitivity ("The Dragon's Bath"), and a brilliant tale of a self-denying priest's sexual comeuppance ("The Doll Festival"). But there's much more to this accomplished novel than the triangle containing Onogoro, Oyu, and (General) Motosuke. The heroine is a member of a circle of women poets, and the haiku and other verses attributed to Onogoro and her peers are wonderfully convincing. Furthermore, Onogoro adroitly performs the difficult feat of weaving unobtrusively into her narrative an enormity of fascinating information about the period and its culture. She also skillfully varies the story's content, introducing such other characters as the real Sci Shonagon and Lady Murasaki (whose The Tale of Genji has been called the world's first novel), and a suspicious Regent who places (his rival) General Motosuke under surveillance, precipitating a chain of intrigue that will also involve, and transform, the General's mistress and her devoted storyteller. The late Angela Carter would have loved this wondrous fever dream of a novel - an R-rated, Orientalist Arabian Nights. It's a stunning performance (Kirkus Reviews ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st U.S. ed. edition (February 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151001863
• ISBN-13: 978-0151001866
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,425,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Feminist that LOVED this book, March 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro (Paperback)

The beauty of this novel is not simply that it arouses thereader with its erotic stories told from behind the screen by the LadyOnoguro's Pillow Boy, but that in each erotic narrative, the Pillow Boy crafts a story for the Lady which illustrates, and ultimately guides her out of her life of dissatisfaction. The more "sadistic" stories are not there to solely titilate, but to illustrate the relationship that the Lady endured with her paramour...the stories were a conduit for liberation, not a shackle of further oppression. To come to the conclusion that the book is without merit because of the content of some of the erotic stories is to miss the point and wholeness of the novel entirely.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exquisite treasure of a book, January 15, 2002

By 

MommaLeeO (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro (Paperback)

This story of a poetic concubine and her relationship to the general has many smaller stories scattered throughout like wonderful little presents. The Lady Onogaro, in order to endure her lover's visits, hires the services of a storyteller to whisper erotic stories in her ear while she makes love to the general. The larger story is also interesting, and told in a beautifully translated language. Lady Onogaro's discovery of what is important transcends time and culture.

Much of the poetry of the Lady Onogaro is also included (more presents), contributing to the pleasure of reading. I found the stories stimulating, and keep a personal favorite marked for special occaisons.

A pleasurable book for those who like their erotica with a dash of exotica.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rare book that excites the mind as much as body, October 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro (Paperback)

This is a rare book of erotica that intends to excite the mind as well as the body. One point that the reader from New England misses when she states, "this book survives as a piece of literature resurrected from the past" is that the author has cleverly invented a story under the guise of translating an actual artifact. Successfully, apparently. A careful reading gives the book the credit it deserves.