I immensely enjoyed this first novel by Kij Johnson about a young fox girl who is smitten with a married man named Kaya no Yoshifuji. The obvious problem here, other than Yoshifuji's marital status, is the species barrier. Of course, the heart wants what the heart wants, and the fox and her family go through a transformation in order to become humans (or the illusion of humans) using ancient fox magic.
The book is mainly told through a series of diary entries, written by the three main characters:
The fox, Kitsune, the nobleman Kaya no Yoshifuji, and Shikujo, his wife. One of the things I like the most about this novel is that the characters are not stagnant; their lives change, so they change and grow as well, learning important life lessons in the process. The language used in the text is beautifully descriptive and poetic. Johnson is a gifted writer. She really knows how to string words together to produce a visual of the events in a story
Kij Johnson has done an incredible amount of research for this novel, both on the structured and modest lives of the medieval Japanese people, and on the wild and free world of foxes. The time and effort Johnson put into research for "The Fox Woman" is apparent, and shines through every page of her work. Every artfully crafted poem feels authentic, and fits seamlessly into the flow of her story. I truly felt immersed in Japanese history while reading this novel.
I have seen other reviewers of this book criticize the "unrealistic" qualities of the plot, typically in reference to a fox loving a man, but these readers must not realize the nature and purpose of most (if not all) fairy tales: To both delight and entertain the reader with a tale of magic and whimsy, and to impart with them some sort of lesson with which to live by. "The Fox Woman" certainly does not disappoint on either count.
I do not wish to give away any more of the plot details, but this brilliantly-written work is incredibly cerebral, exploring such complicated themes as what it means to be human, what it means to love, along with the sacrifices we must often make when we do love another. The book also examines illusions that we create for ourselves.
All-in-all, if you are anything like me, and you enjoy beautiful prose, fantastic fairy tales, and literature that truly makes you think, I urge you to give "The Fox Woman" a try.