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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Tan Twang Eng does not disappoint. I read The Gift of Rain some time ago and was interested to read more by this author. The Garden of Evening Mists, still set in Malaya and linked to the experience of the second World War there, provides more of the elegiac evocation of atmosphere so memorable from the first book. The writing here is more assured with seamless passages from the present, where Judge Teoh takes early retirement and goes back to Yugiri, the Japanese garden in the highlands, to complete some final tasks, the time when she was there as an apprentice to the mysterious Japanese gardener, Aritomo, and the more remote past when she was a prisoner of war. Throughout, the reader accompanies the Judge/narrator in the evocation of memories, many very painful, others with their own reward, learning about what was most important in her life and her perspective on the brutal events of the war and the successive communist insurgency. Although she aims to set down episodes from her past, while she still remembers them, the novel is really about learning to forget and the peace this brings, symbolized by the rice paper japanese lantern disappearing above the clouds.
Audiobook.
Captivating, mysterious, illuminating. Set in Malaysia. Lush descriptions, laundered and nuanced characters. Beautifully read by Anna Bentinck. I have been lost in the world of this book for a month and I’m sorry it’s over.
Captivating, mysterious, illuminating. Set in Malaysia. Lush descriptions, laundered and nuanced characters. Beautifully read by Anna Bentinck. I have been lost in the world of this book for a month and I’m sorry it’s over.
The Japanese believe that all the beauty and sorrow of life can be depicted with an image. The instant before the petals of the cherry blossom separate from the stem and start to fall to the ground. Mono no aware, the Japanese would say, is a difficult-to-translate term that denotes the strong emotions that certain objects can evoke in us. To make us think about life's fleeting nature.
Just like cherry blossom petals, so Yun Ling Teoh's memories vanish because of an intruder who devours her mind, and with it her memories. Wishing to protect them as long as possible, Yun Ling returns to the place where all the memories she wishes to preserve are kept. The Majuba tea plantation and its Japanese garden known as Yugiri, the Evening Mists. There, under the aegis of the goddess Mnemosyne, she will try to save from oblivion all the memories that have sprung from the past. Because a person without memory is nothing but a ghost, trapped between two worlds.
Her trip into the past also becomes a map of her journey to redemption, when she finally sheds the burden of hatred carried for years. She hated the Japanese for raping her sister, for making her do things she didn't want to do. She hated herself for betraying her sister, for surviving the camp.
Tan Twang Eng, like the imperial gardener Aritomo, character of the novel, constructed a garden dedicated to memory and forgetfulness, hatred and forgiveness. A garden built according to the shakkei principle, a borrowed landscape, where each stone, each detail has its own sense for the story. Presumably because of this, "The Garden of Evening Mists" resembles meditation while reading, it calms the reader.
Although there are things to complain about, sometimes Tan Twang Eng overwhelms the reader with information dumping, from which he escapes with fine prose. One might say that Yun Ling's relationship with Aritomo is not very elaborate. Missing parts, but it was the author's wish as his heroine writes what she wants to write, to remember certain things. Her memory is eaten by time and intruder in her brain, so it affects her writing.
The second half of the novel differs from the first, introducing threads of story that were not there, a bit abruptly. Although Yun Ling's story is intertwined with them, the impression remains that Tan Twang Eng could have done it in a better way. This certainly does not alter the fact that "The Garden of Evening Mists" is a rich novel that deserves to be read. The film adaptation brings some changes in the story, necessary due to the difference in medium. However, it brings to life the lush scenery of the Malaya Highlands and its green slopes covered with tea plants, same way it happens while reading the novel.
Just like cherry blossom petals, so Yun Ling Teoh's memories vanish because of an intruder who devours her mind, and with it her memories. Wishing to protect them as long as possible, Yun Ling returns to the place where all the memories she wishes to preserve are kept. The Majuba tea plantation and its Japanese garden known as Yugiri, the Evening Mists. There, under the aegis of the goddess Mnemosyne, she will try to save from oblivion all the memories that have sprung from the past. Because a person without memory is nothing but a ghost, trapped between two worlds.
Her trip into the past also becomes a map of her journey to redemption, when she finally sheds the burden of hatred carried for years. She hated the Japanese for raping her sister, for making her do things she didn't want to do. She hated herself for betraying her sister, for surviving the camp.
Tan Twang Eng, like the imperial gardener Aritomo, character of the novel, constructed a garden dedicated to memory and forgetfulness, hatred and forgiveness. A garden built according to the shakkei principle, a borrowed landscape, where each stone, each detail has its own sense for the story. Presumably because of this, "The Garden of Evening Mists" resembles meditation while reading, it calms the reader.
Although there are things to complain about, sometimes Tan Twang Eng overwhelms the reader with information dumping, from which he escapes with fine prose. One might say that Yun Ling's relationship with Aritomo is not very elaborate. Missing parts, but it was the author's wish as his heroine writes what she wants to write, to remember certain things. Her memory is eaten by time and intruder in her brain, so it affects her writing.
The second half of the novel differs from the first, introducing threads of story that were not there, a bit abruptly. Although Yun Ling's story is intertwined with them, the impression remains that Tan Twang Eng could have done it in a better way. This certainly does not alter the fact that "The Garden of Evening Mists" is a rich novel that deserves to be read. The film adaptation brings some changes in the story, necessary due to the difference in medium. However, it brings to life the lush scenery of the Malaya Highlands and its green slopes covered with tea plants, same way it happens while reading the novel.
Beautiful story about a history I didn't know anything about. Warmly recommended.
Exquisite, thoughtful, enigmatic. A novel which slowly unravels its characters secrets yet leaving unanswered questions even on the final page.
A truly gifted writer whose imagery through the use metaphors was breathtaking.
A truly gifted writer whose imagery through the use metaphors was breathtaking.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
devastatingly beautiful with reflections on life, memory, beauty, and what it all means
I loved knowing more about Malaysia and its history, and how the landscape was described.
For me the book lacked character depth and personality to bring them closer to the reader.
I'm glad I persisted to the second half because the vast majority of the interesting action happened there.
For me the book lacked character depth and personality to bring them closer to the reader.
I'm glad I persisted to the second half because the vast majority of the interesting action happened there.
A novel as lush and intoxicating as the highland jungle it’s set in, Tan Twan Eng follows up the engrossing The Gift of Rain with the beautiful Garden of Evening Mists. Yun Ling, trying to capture her life’s memories before they slip away, recalls her time with the former gardener to the Emperor of Japan. Despite being imprisoned by the Japanese during the Occupation of her country, Yun Ling yearns to build a memorial to her sister and approaches Aritomo to help her build a Japanese garden.
Over thirty years later Yun Ling returns to Aritomo’s garden and picks up threads of her past, learning just as much as she remembers about her past and her old tutor, prompted by her own situation as much as by Japan’s sudden interest in one of it’s once revered gardeners.
Tan Twan Eng paints a delicious canvas of Malaysia in turbulent times, with sumptuous prose and a plot that while never tense, never lets you drift away, like a leaf spinning gently down to the ground, not quite twisting and turning, but moving inextricably to it’s destination in it’s own time and path.
Yun Ling battles against her own hatred of the Japanese and what they did to her and her sister as she spends more time with Aritomo, while the communists flit around them like wasps, coming closer and closer to the Majuba tea estate where she lives, a guest of the owner, Magnus Pretorius.
Like The Gift of Rain, Eng includes a solitary Japanese character in a mentor position, whose life story unwinds throughout the book, as indeed does Yun Ling’s. When she reveals what happened in the camp, I felt a little something of the relief Yun Ling must have felt unburdening herself. Is Aritomo as far removed from her experience as she at first believes? By the end of the book it is less clear, and
I loved this book, while reading, it is possible to look up from the book and see the Cameron Highlands in front of you, and almost feel as if you’re there and now I’m patiently waiting for Tan Twan Eng’s next novel.
blog review here)
Over thirty years later Yun Ling returns to Aritomo’s garden and picks up threads of her past, learning just as much as she remembers about her past and her old tutor, prompted by her own situation as much as by Japan’s sudden interest in one of it’s once revered gardeners.
Tan Twan Eng paints a delicious canvas of Malaysia in turbulent times, with sumptuous prose and a plot that while never tense, never lets you drift away, like a leaf spinning gently down to the ground, not quite twisting and turning, but moving inextricably to it’s destination in it’s own time and path.
Yun Ling battles against her own hatred of the Japanese and what they did to her and her sister as she spends more time with Aritomo, while the communists flit around them like wasps, coming closer and closer to the Majuba tea estate where she lives, a guest of the owner, Magnus Pretorius.
Like The Gift of Rain, Eng includes a solitary Japanese character in a mentor position, whose life story unwinds throughout the book, as indeed does Yun Ling’s. When she reveals what happened in the camp, I felt a little something of the relief Yun Ling must have felt unburdening herself. Is Aritomo as far removed from her experience as she at first believes? By the end of the book it is less clear, and
I loved this book, while reading, it is possible to look up from the book and see the Cameron Highlands in front of you, and almost feel as if you’re there and now I’m patiently waiting for Tan Twan Eng’s next novel.
blog review here)
