She is the only character whose story is told in the first person. Having access to the mother’s perspective makes her at once more human and scarier. There is a chapter in particular where this is shown so chillingly and realistically that I doubt I’ll ever forget it. Donna Jo Napoli does not shy away from showing the effects of this imprisonment and isolation on the mind of the young girl. Zel is kept in the tower for two years, completely isolated except for her mother’s daily one hour visits. Konrad due to his obsession with Zel, the mother due to fear and guilt, Zel due to the effects of isolation. At the start of the book, the tone is simple, even light, but it grows increasingly dark and becomes downright disturbing as each of the main characters deals with a different kind of madness. As a result of this, her mother locks her away in a tower.ĭonna Jo Napoli uses multiple points of view to tell this story: the mother’s, Zel’s and Konrad’s (the young Count). After that visit, Zel begins to show some interested in the boy, portraying him in her pictures. During that time, Zel soothes the horse of a young count who comes to the smithy, and the young man takes a liking to her. Zel’s mother leaves her alone in the smithy for a while, so that she may get her a surprise birthday present. Shortly before her thirteenth birthday, they go to the market in a nearby town.  Zel is a happy child with a great fondness for animals and a talent for drawing. Zel and her mother live alone in an isolated mountain house. This retelling of “Rapunzel” takes place in sixteenth century Switzerland.

Zel by donna jo napoli

The novel was made into a three-part movie by Director Hiroshi Inagai.Hardcover. Full of gusto and humor, it has an epic quality and universal appeal. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and absolute dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. And, inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival. He is supremely successful in his encounters, but in the Art of War he perceives the way of peaceful and prosperous governance and disciplines himself to be a real human being He becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and been touched by.  Continually striving to perfect his technique, which leads him to a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously, he travels far and wide, challenging fighters of many disciplines, taking nature to be his ultimate and severest teacher and undergoing the rigorous training of those who follow the Way. Ever so slowly it dawns on him that following the Way of the Sword is not simply a matter of finding a target for his brute strength. When he is set free again, he rejects the position of samurai and for the next several years pursues his goal relentlessly, looking neither to left nor to right. During three years of solitary confinement, he delves into the classics of Japan and China. The lovely Otsu, seeing in Musashi her ideal of manliness, frees him from his tortuous punishment, but he is recaptured and imprisoned. On his way home, he commits a rash act, becomes a fugitive and brings life in his own village to a standstill-until he is captured by a weaponless Zen monk. Lured to the great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 by the hope of becoming a samurai-without really knowing what it meant-he regains consciousness after the battle to find himself lying defeated, dazed and wounded among thousands of the dead and dying. Miyamoto Musashi was the child of an era when Japan was emerging from decades of civil strife. The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman.

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