The Snow Fox

by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

Book Overview

At the dawn of 25 years of civil war, the beautiful but cruel poet Lady Utsu wages war with mens hearts, and falls in love with devoted samurai Matsuhito. Their epic romance resumes decades later, when they are reunited as vagrants through a mystical connection to a pair of snow foxes.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039305814X
• ISBN13: 9780393058147
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.8" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A Spellbinding And Poignant Novel Of Medieval Japan

Susan Fromberg Schaeffer has long been one of my favorite authors, so I was delighted to discover that she has written and published a new novel. She certainly does not disappoint her fans with "The Snow Fox," an elegantly written, multidimensional saga of 12th century Japan. Her characters, as always, are rich, compelling and three-dimensional. However, their various tales of love, both lasting and ephemeral, brutal civil war, loyalty to the ancient samurai code and to their warlord, Machiavellian politics, plague and illness, the camaraderie of noble soldiers and bandits alike, and the jealousies of beautiful court ladies, prove true the old adage that, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The author weaves here an intricate and complete tapestry - a portrait of three particular characters, set against the backdrop of a beautiful country during the most turbulent of times.One thousand years ago, while art and culture still flourished in Japan, warlords and their samurais vied for power, turning their land into a bloody battlefield where chaos and anarchy reigned supreme. Lord Norimasa, one of the most powerful of the Japanese lords, was ruthless in his ambition to reunite and stabilize the kingdom. Poetry, art and beauty were held in the highest esteem by Norimasa's opulent court. Lady Utsu, renowned for her extraordinary physical beauty, was a remarkably gifted poet. Lord Norimasa had brought her to court when she was just a child, ostensibly to teach Chinese to Lady Tsukie, Norimasa's wife. The little girl had learned the language from a man in her native village. The royal couple treated the girl as one of their own, until Norimasa took her as a lover when she reached her teens. This entanglement caused never-ending problems between Lady Tsukie and the young woman, who had little say in the romantic attachment her mentor formed for her. As she matured, Lady Utsu also become renowned for her cruelty to men. A later lover of Utsu's, once told her wisely that, "Pain that cannot be endured turns to cruelty. In your life, it has." This man was the samurai, Matsuhito, who was destined to love Utsu deeply all his life. He too was brought to court as a youth by Lord Norimasa. There he trained to be a great warrior and followed his lord until Norimasa's death, many years later, released him from his vows of loyalty and further participation in the ongoing war. These three characters are inextricably bound together throughout the novel and all bear love for the other, in different ways, to different degrees. The most enduring love and relationship, however, is Matsuhito's and Utsu's. They meet and feel the intense emotions of lovers in the prime of youth, but never reveal the extent of their feelings to each other. War and hardship separate them, seemingly forever. The two do reunite, as is their destiny. They meet in middle-age, so transformed by time that they do not recognize each other physically. However, the spiritual bond and attra

Snow Fox

The Snow Fox, that remarkable novel by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, is a book everyone should read. We read it in our book group and this was the first book discussed that the men liked as much as the women. This never happens. The characters come alive at once and are completely believable. Even the two foxes have personalities of their own.The Snow Fox begins with Lady Utsu, the most famous court poet of her time. She is ordered by the member of her clan, Lord Norimasa, to kill the man she most loves. She does, and after that, she is changed forever; she becomes cruel to men, probably (I thought) because she no longer wants to damage a man again. But she soon falls in love with a samurai who is Lord Norimasa's most trusted soldier. The two of them are separated by battle and by court intrigues, but after a great deal of time has passed, the two of them are reunited again, largely because each of them has a pet fox, and Lady Utsu, who is known to travel with a fox, is again found by the samurai who loves her. The love affair between the two is completely real--none of that drippy stuff you usually find in novels with romantic plots. The love affair is also very fragile. Both the samurai and Lady Utsu are afraid the happiness they find will not last. He believes this because life has taught him that lesson, and Lady Utsu has learned the same thing. She also (according to me) feels great guilt for the cruelty she has inflicted on men and believes she is sure to be punished. The end of the novel is simply heartbreaking and feels predestined. I don't want to give the ending away, but I didn't want anyone watching me as I finished reading the ending. It was too powerful. I wanted to read it in silence, without distractions.I am a fan of Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's work. Anya and Buffalo Afternoon were just republished. The three together are a remarkable triad about the suffering caused by the violence of everyday life and the unending suffering caused by war. I've reread The Snow Fox twice--it is an amazingly beautiful book, like all of Schaeffer's--and I reread the other two. You can't go wrong reading War and Peace. But then you can't go wrong reading these three amazing novels. I've never read anything that can touch them. And with the three of them available together--nuclear fission! In the dangerous time in which we live, these three books are essential reading. Schaeffer is one of the few great American writers, and it's about time people started saying so.

Best novel

This is the best novel I've read in many, many years. The characters of the lady poet and the samurai are profoundly engaging. I felt I learned a great deal about them, about medieval Japan, and about human love and loss. This is a war story and a love story I will want to read again. It is powerfully and even beautifully written. I don't know how the author manages to get inside the culture and the heads and hearts of her characters, but I am grateful she did.

surpassing beauty from one of america's premier novelists

In the one short week since "The Snow Fox" debuted, I have read this novel twice. Why? Because the book is so compelling in its plot, character development, and beauty of language that I needed to savor it more than once. However, this was not without costs: the closing chapters brought tears to my eyes and heart and the writing, from first page to last, transported me to a time and place from which it was difficult to return. All of my reactions reflect the particular genius for which the author Susan Fromberg Schaeffer is best known. In "Anya" and "Madness of a Seduced Woman," Schaeffer proved herself a master with few peers in evoking other times and places. Now she has taken on an even more difficult setting, that of medieval Japan. Schaeffer obviously devoted years to studying Japanese history and culture, but her talents as a novelist and poet are never overwhelmed by period details or the Zen-like sensibility that informs the latter part of the book, and her exceptional command of rhythm and image are used to dazzling effect. Wrap yourself in the beautiful fabric that Schaeffer has created in "The Snow Fox" and enjoy what is both a love story of remarkable complexity and a meditation on the meaning of life.