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A review by nini23
The Light of Eternal Spring by Angel Di Zhang
reflective
4.0
A lovely debut about the journey of Wu Aimee back to her home village in NE China on receipt of news of her mother's passing. As I had read the blurb too fast, I thought that Aimee would have to go through the underworld to reconcile with her mother. The Light of Eternal Spring is a reflective lyrical take on the role of art in storytelling. As Aimee is a photographer, she perceives the world through framing and light. Some of the images described such as ladybugs blanketing a wall and lanterns alight at the Mid-Autumn Festival are just gorgeous.
The stories of Manchu shamanism, folktales, mythology, culture and herbalism imparted by Aimee's mother when she was young form a guiding framework for her internal journey. The relationship was fraught then estranged after Aimee left the village to go to Harbin to study then onward to New York. Aimee or Amy has established for herself a life in New York. As with many diaspora, she feels her selves being split and this visit home to her family is not only for reconciliation with them.
Although knowing the village could be fictional, I couldn't help being inquisitive about Eternal Spring (would it be yongchun or yongquan?) With the clues in the text, I gather it's in the province of Heilongjiang in the Dongbei region, situated at the trifecta border of China, North Korea and Russia. Aimee's disorientation at finding the village turn from a few hundred population to a town of two hundred thousand after an oil boom is understandable. Reconnecting with her Manchu heritage and the redemptive love of family in Eternal Spring brings about an unexpected chrysalis transformation.
Thanks to Random House Canada and Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Light of Eternal Spring's publication date is 25th April 2023.
The stories of Manchu shamanism, folktales, mythology, culture and herbalism imparted by Aimee's mother when she was young form a guiding framework for her internal journey. The relationship was fraught then estranged after Aimee left the village to go to Harbin to study then onward to New York. Aimee or Amy has established for herself a life in New York. As with many diaspora, she feels her selves being split and this visit home to her family is not only for reconciliation with them.
Although knowing the village could be fictional, I couldn't help being inquisitive about Eternal Spring (would it be yongchun or yongquan?) With the clues in the text, I gather it's in the province of Heilongjiang in the Dongbei region, situated at the trifecta border of China, North Korea and Russia. Aimee's disorientation at finding the village turn from a few hundred population to a town of two hundred thousand after an oil boom is understandable. Reconnecting with her Manchu heritage and the redemptive love of family in Eternal Spring brings about an unexpected chrysalis transformation.
Thanks to Random House Canada and Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Light of Eternal Spring's publication date is 25th April 2023.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent