Reading 1001 discussion

Chapters 42-54: The story shifts to Genji’s grandson Niou and supposed son Kaoru.

I am over 3/4's of the way through the book.
At the end of Genji's life and after his passing, the book bogged down for me with Yugiri and Kashiwagi and their various loves. It all seemed a redundant parallel to Genji's own life, which was probably the point, but didn't make for engaged reading. However, now that I am reading about Kaoru, Niou and Ukifune, I am captured again. Here also, we have the courtly romantic intrigues coupled with marriages made for alliances with power rather than love, but I felt that Murasaki had captured the egotistical nature of the men with all their weeping on their sleeves while allowing the women to have some voice. Although the women had no effective way of protecting themselves from the men's intrigues, other than death or the convent, I felt that they actually had more personality than some of the earlier women. I also believe that Murasaki was writing by building some real tension and some real character development which is a sign of her growth as a writer as she shapes this first novel.

Interesting Gale, I actually found this last section to be quite tedious with all the angst and weeping instead. We no longer had much appreciation for the beauty of the world, the ceremonies and musical evenings and pageantry stopped being a part of the story and it became very internal - people worrying about what others were thinking about them. And the idea that there is only suicide or shaving your head also was so pessimistic - combined with the first part it means that only the perfect man (ie Genji) is capable of creating a space for a decent life for a woman.