The Garden of Evening Mists by Twan Eng Tan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a truly, truly beautiful book. On the one hand it's a fascinating look into a place and a period of time that no longer exists. On the other hand, it is best described as a meditation on memory and time and love. It's easy to summarize and say that the book is about an English-Speaking Chinese Malayan survivor of a Japanese slave-labor camp in WWII, and how she comes to find some peace in the garden of a man who used to be the Japanese Emperor's gardener. But that does this story no justice.
Yun Ling is suffering from a disorder which will eventually take her thoughts from her. She will be left unable to use words, which is why she finds it important to set down her memories before she loses the ability to do so. The memories, however, seem to me to have been more of a burden to her than anything else. Memories of losing her sister in the camp, memories of her lost love, memories of friends dying. It makes one wonder what life was worth for her. Maybe losing her memories would eventually be a blessing. At the end I wasn't sure if it was a tragedy or not. She ensured that her sister would be remembered by others when she was no longer capable, and perhaps that's more real than living in the memories of one person. Maybe not.
This book is beautifully written, despite not being full of elaborate prose. Sometimes simplicity is best, as realized in the idea of wabi-sabi. I highly recommend this book.
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