The third book: #3 The Tale of Genji
And that's another big book finished. The Tale of Genji was pretty up and down for me. While interesting in places, it also dragged on from time to time with a lot of drama series style will they/won't they and a revolving door of love interests - made more confusing by the common lack of names, who was 'the girl' again?
The shift in protagonist was interesting, but less compelling because you don't follow along with Genji's early rise - there is less of an understanding of the character. Even so, the difficulty with keeping up is that the book doesn't have the larger plots most stories have - there was less of a plan in what was written, and that makes it more difficult to keep track of it. Things just happen. It's realistic, but not as satisfying to read about.
Still, even from the historical perspective this was interesting to see, figuring out more about Japanese court life, how these people interacted and what the proper conduct was... as well as how the lower classes seemed mostly ignored in the story. They're there and contribute, but they feel separate still. Certainly happy I read this.