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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (view source)
Revision as of 17:45, 27 February 2012
, 17:45, 27 February 2012no edit summary
|summary=Teoh Yun Ling survives a Japanese WWII slave camp with one enveloping desire – to build a Japanese garden as a memorial for her late sister. She is apprenticed to the famous Japanese garden expert Nakamuro Aritomo but, against a background of Malayan Communists destroying all vestiges of normal life, Yun Ling has to come to terms with more than horticulture.
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Malay Chinese Teoh Yun Ling travels to the Cameron Highlands of Malaya to meet the legendary Japanese garden designer and expert, Nakamura Aritomo. As the sole survivor of a World War II Japanese slave labour camp, Yun Ling has many reasons to hate the Japanese but some things are stronger than hatred. For, whilst in the camp, she promised her sister a Japanese garden. When life became difficult during interment, the sisters discussed and visualised the finish finished result to keep them hanging on. Ling's sister perished but the dream of a memorial garden drives her on. Nothing is that straightforward, though. The designer refuses the commission. Instead he suggests that she stays, as his apprentice, learning the art in order to become her own designer. Yun Ling agrees and discovers more than horticultural finesse.
Tan Twan Eng wields a masterful pen. There's a mass of local colour oozing from this novel; the majesty of the Highlands and surrounding jungle seep through the plot as world history is brought alive and the fear of the locals is almost tangible as the Malayan Communists rampage. At a more 'micro' level, the detail in the garden is recounted in a way that ensures fascination rather than boredom. Little snippets draw the reader in, e.g. the reasoning behind the use of copper in a pond and the symbolism connected with Japanese standing stones.
