She was taught to submit, to obey . . . but she dreamed of an empire.The sole heir to the House of Omura, a venerable family of Kobe sake brewers, nineteen-year-old Rie hears but cannot heed her mother's advice: that in nineteenth-century Japan, a woman must "kill the self" or her life will be too difficult to bear. In this strict, male-dominated society, women may not even enter the brewery — and repressive tradition demands that Rie turn over her family's business to the inept philanderer she's been forced to marry. She is even expected to raise her husband's children by another woman — a geisha — so that they can eventually run the Omura enterprise.But Rie's pride will not allow her to relinquish what is rightfully hers. With courage, cunning, brilliance, and skill, she is ready to confront every threat that arises before her — from prejudice to treachery to shipwrecks to the insidious schemes of relentless rivals — in her bold determination to forge a magnificent dynasty...and to, impossibly, succeed.An epic and breathtaking saga that spans generations as it sweeps through the heart of a century, Joyce Lebra's The Scent of Sake is a vivid and powerful entry into another world...and an unforgettable portrait of a woman who would not let that world defeat her.
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Picked up this book during waiting time between editing sessions at work. I surely wish I didn't though, because I ended up disliking this book to an absurd level.
There are many things that disturbed me about the culture of Japan written in this book; mostly the lackluster details, the disjointed writing, and the ? ? ? descriptions that might or might not fit the timeline... but what bothered me the most are the portrayal of geisha and the heroine herself.
First, the portrayal of geisha. This is an issue commonly seen in books about Japan: geisha are portrayed as prostitutes or concubines. True, some of them do sleep with their customers, but they are mainly what the term “geisha” means—entertainers. In this book, however, they got knocked up and had illegitimate children... and no, the father isn't necessarily a man of power.
The heroine is, frankly speaking, annoying to the highest degree. I do understand how she feels at first because women rights were strictly limited in 19th century Japan, BUT that doesn't make it okay for Rie to do all the crap she did later on in the book. She whines, whines, and whines. She whines a LOT, she's bossy, and she's forceful in a bad way IMO. I couldn't sympathize with her AT ALL.
I wanted to like this book, but I simply couldn't.
