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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book pulls off a high-wire balancing act... it is serene and beautiful and slow, with sparkling prose about plants and gardens and meditations and reflections, but it frequently opens you up into a grove of thrilling, nerve-jangling suspense or wrenching moment of high drama. It balances a lot of things fairly much perfectly, actually, including how much/little to spell out for the reader, how open-ended to leave things/how much satisfying conclusion to give to story arcs, and how much to focus on the grand sweep of history its caught up in versus how much to focus on the little moments that have nothing to do with it. I had a fragmented start to reading this (over Christmas and New Year), and it still managed to drag me in such that I had to finish it as soon as possible (while, at the same time, wanting to draw it out and stop it from being over). Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Arresting.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this, though it wasn't a book that really stuck with me. It's the story of a woman who survives a Japanese concentration camp, and how the loss of her sister and the brutality of the camp itself affect her for the rest of her life. The main part of the story is framed as a flashback, and she writes her memoirs after retiring as a very successful judge. Most of the story is concerned with the time not long after she leaves the camp, when she is apprenticed to a Japanese gardener in an attempt to learn how to design a garden in memory of her sister.
After being a prisoner of war during World War II, Chinese Malaysian Supreme Court judge Yun Ling Teoh hates everything Japanese. That is everything but the gardens, of which she must embrace when she decides to enlist help from the Japanese Emperor’s former gardener to build a memorial garden. Rather than helping, the former gardener, Aritomo asks Yun Ling to be his apprentice, then the journey begins.
There is a seriousness to this book, especially as it centres around war and the loss of a sister and so many others in a prisoner of war camp. In fact, one of the mysteries of the book is why Teoh Yun Ling was the only survivor.
I have read a few books that centre around the second world war, but this was the first from the perspective that didn’t centre around Europe.
Upon reflection, I really liked the pace of the book and how information was gradually released. Even though there were mysteries throughout, the journey to finding out the answers was like a winding walk through a garden.
From my job writing about gardening and garden design, I really do appreciate the beauty and practical side of Japanese gardens and find the meanings throughout fascinating. It made this book all the more lovely, as it managed to evoke that calm-like feeling through the writing, whilst writing about something so horrific and haunting.
Thanks so much to Canongate for sending me this copy.
There is a seriousness to this book, especially as it centres around war and the loss of a sister and so many others in a prisoner of war camp. In fact, one of the mysteries of the book is why Teoh Yun Ling was the only survivor.
I have read a few books that centre around the second world war, but this was the first from the perspective that didn’t centre around Europe.
Upon reflection, I really liked the pace of the book and how information was gradually released. Even though there were mysteries throughout, the journey to finding out the answers was like a winding walk through a garden.
From my job writing about gardening and garden design, I really do appreciate the beauty and practical side of Japanese gardens and find the meanings throughout fascinating. It made this book all the more lovely, as it managed to evoke that calm-like feeling through the writing, whilst writing about something so horrific and haunting.
Thanks so much to Canongate for sending me this copy.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes