Customer Reviews

The Garden of Evening Mists

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In this wonderful book we are plunged into the Far East, and the conflicts between Malays, Chinese and Japanese. Against a background of total savagery in and after the Second World War there is a tale of love and forgiveness that unfolds with the slow inevitability of the garden that is the centrepiece of the book. The two central characters - a former gardener to the Emperor of Japan and the Malayan Chinese prosecutor of Japanese war criminals, who subsequently becomes a judge - are portrayed with astonishing sensitivity, as is the setting in the Cameron Highlands. I loved every single minute of it, and now know where I want to go on my next holiday!

Having so enjoyed his first book, I started reading this one with great anticipation. I was not disappointed. His main character, a woman judge who has been tortured by the Japanese when they invaded Penang, approaches the former gardener to the Emperor of Japan, wanting him to make her a Japanese garden in memory of her sister.

His writing is magical and he paints vivid pictures of the Malaysian jungle near Cameron Heights. His introduces a longstanding family friend who is a survivor of the Boer War. Like the Judge he has experienced loss as his family was put in a concentration camp by the British. The battle for independence and the fight against communism also adds further depth to this fascinating story, which is wonderfully crafted throughout.

A must read.

I found this second novel by Tan Twan Eng both absorbing and extraordinarily enriching. His hero is a woman. He writes in the first person singular and is obviously very much in touch with the female aspect of his psyche which adds to the authenticity of his plot.

I loved his first novel, 'The Gift of Rain,' and this one has an even greater profundity. I like especially the way in which he connects the past memories of his hero, Judge Teoh Yun Ling, with her present existence.

The real subject of the story is a Japanese Gardener, Nakamura Aritomo. He had once been the gardener of the Emperor of Japan. Yun Ling's story is intimately connected with Aritomo and the unique relationship between the two. There are several interesting characters and each plays a vital part in the unfolding of the story.

On the very first page Tan Twan Eng writes,

- "Thirty-six years after that morning, I hear his voice again, hollow and resonant. Memories I had locked away began to break free, like shards of ice fracturing off an arctic shelf. In sleep these broken floes drift towards the morning light of remembrance."

That's a marvellous paragraph and immediately hooked me on the story. Its a beautiful book full of wonderful and moving images as well as being an intriguing read.

For me, Tan Twan Eng's 'The Gift Of Rain' became one of those books that enter your subconscious on some level and keeps popping back into your mind. It was partly due to the evocative descriptions, partly the complexities of the central character. So when I bought my copy of 'Garden Of Evening Mists' I thought it unlikely he could achieve the same success twice. However, Tan Twan Eng has proved himself a genuine artist once again. The narrator is intriguing all the way through to the book's ending (which, by the way, carries a surprising twist and punch unusual in a so-called 'literary' novel). There is an air of beautiful sadness to some parts of the story. Again, the descriptions of the Malayan highlands are layered with deeper nuances, just as they were when Tan Twan Eng described the island of Penang in 'Gift Of Rain'. Finally, there are timeless (and some horrible) moral dilemmas swirling round this book like the mists round the eponymous garden. Dilemmas for the characters that made this reader, at least, think about the hard choices people face in the world. Tan isn't a prolific writer and reading his novel reveals why: every word counts.

In May, I read The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng and I thought it was an extremely beautiful novel, and I looked forward to reading his new offering The Garden Of Evening Mists, like its predecessor, it has been nominated for the Booker Prize and alongside its predecessor it shares certain thematic approaches.

Yun Ling, a newly retired Judge returns to her country home Yugiri in the Malaysian hillside. Terrified by an illness, the symptoms of which have begun to cause dementia, she begins to write down her recollections of when she first came to Yugiri in her twenties.

Yun Ling's story begins in Post war Malaysia which is recovering from Japanese occupation. Yun Ling herself was a prisoner of war. Determined to honour the memory of her sister who did not survive, Yun Ling came to Yugiri to persuade master gardener Aritomo to build her a garden in her sisters memory. Aritomo refuses, but offers her an apprenticeship. The two begin an uneasy relationship, for Aritomo is Japanese, and Yun Ling a victim of their wartime atrocities.

In many ways the construct and concept behind The Garden Of Evening Mists ape those of The Gift Of Rain, Philip that novels protagonist like Yun Ling is Chinese, and like Yun Ling is telling a story about his past. Again like Philip, Yun Ling has the dilemma of an intense friendship with a Japanese person at a time when Japanese people were extremely hated in Malaysia and Aritomo like Endo-san has hidden secrets. Both novels have a present day storyline, for Philip the visit of Michiko and for Yun Ling the visit of Tatsuji both of whom are come to make enquiries after each protagonists Japanese friend.

It frustrates me that the novels should have such overt similarities, because again like The Gift Of Rain, The Garden Of Evening Mists is beautifully crafted and stunningly written, there is no doubt in my mind that Tan Twan Eng is a wonderful writer. Yet, as a writer of his calibre, surely he should have been able to create more difference, more distance between the two, unless they are somehow intended as companions, which if they are I'm not aware of it. Clearly, Eng is fascinated by the Japanese occupation of Malaysia, but The Gift Of Rain was such a detailed well crafted look at the issue that another novel on the same kind of topic, albeit from a later angle, and so similar is somehow superfluous.

However, detach this novel entirely from its predecessor and take it of its own accord, and what you have in your hands is a great novel with everything a great novel ought to have. It is moving, absorbing, has great characterisation, and above all superb prose that you can almost forgive Eng the overdoing of thematic emblems, because there are many successful authors out there drowning in status, plaudits and awards who cannot write prose even half so well as him. 8/10

I am not a fan of Man Booker Prize books as I find them a bit highbrow. However, I loved this book and I bought it because I loved his first book. Having been born and raised in Penang myself I recognised a lot of the places mentioned in the first book. Likewise, having visited Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur it was interesting reading the book. Tan Twan Eng writes beautifully and I really enoyed the book.

A Chinese Malayan by birth, Judge Teoh Yun Ling retires to the house at Yugiri in the Cameron Highlands and the "Garden of Evening Mists" developed by the enigmatic Nakamura Aritomo, sometime gardener to the Emperor of Japan. Since she has suffered brutal treatment and lost her sister in a Japanese camp during World War 2, one is curious to learn how she managed to form a bond with Aritomo before his death. Shifting back and forth in time, the story is an account of her recollections, revealing some kind of truth layer by layer, as she follows a friend's advice and attempts to capture her memories before the aphasia with which she has been diagnosed destroys her mind, making her a stranger even to herself.

At first, I was put off by the cumbersome opening chapter, the dwelling on small details, the slow pace and the writer's preoccupation with metaphors which, although sometimes striking, too often seem clunky and distracting, even unintentionally comical - "the waterwheel dialled ceaselessly" and so on.

Then I became hooked by Tan Twan Eng's exquisite poetical descriptions of the garden, his enlightening explanations of the principles of Japanese garden design related to a Buddhist/Taoist philosophy of the meaning of life, linked in turn to woodcuts and the art of tattooing, and by his evocation of life in 1950s Malaya with the interaction of different cultural groups, including an introduction to a neglected aspect of colonial history in the rise of communist terrorism in Malaya in the 1950s. The main characters are well-developed, complex and flawed so that you want to know why they behave as they do, what secrets they may be hiding, how a known fate came to befall them.

I began to think that perhaps this should have won "The Man Booker", or that it may be "above prizes" but in the later chapters, where Yun Ling recalls her experiences in the prison camp or recounts Professor Tatsuji's period as a kamikaze pilot, the book loses some of its originality as the pace quickens and the prose becomes more commonplace - a pale imitation of say, "Empire of the Sun".

The final revelations prove a little contrived yet would have satisfied me if the final twist had not seemed a little too implausible - there is an over-reliance on coincidence in this book. Tan Twan Eng seems to have introduced a denouement only to leave it half-knotted, although I suppose this is a point for discussion in book groups.

After a rocky start, I found this novel absorbing, often a page turner, moving blend of unflinching and sentimental, thought-provoking and very informative as regards Malayan culture understood from the inside. It was useful but disruptive to look up various terms, often employed several times before they are explained in the text, if at all, so brief footnotes would have been helpful. I am also left wondering if some of the (to me) overwritten prose may be due to Tan Twan Eng's fluency in a language other than English, in which this style is highly regarded. His style may also reflect a continued focus in Malaysian study of English literature on the work of poets like Shelley (such as "The Cloud" quoted in the novel).

When I started this book I was afraid it might be a bit too misty in style for me, but the pace accelerated and it became a real thriller. The characters are intriguing. The storyteller is a female Chinese judge working in Kuala Lumpa, or was until she was sacked. She goes to meet the man who was once the official gardiner to Emperor Hirohito, but also sacked. A visitor to the Garden is a former Japanese suicide pilot who failed in his mission because his aircraft wouldn't start, and thus he survived the war.

I found this book masterly, both in style, structure, narrative, and character development. There is some lovely imagery. It's one of those books that leaves you with a lump in your throat as you get towards the end. Google the author to get a synopsis and background information, there isn't much in the Kindle version. I have no patience with stories that don't grab me. This one, I give five stars.

Wonderful book, although I prefered his other book 'The Gift of Rain'. Both these books give a great view of the history of Malaysia and this part of the world, especially around the 2nd World War and the Japanese take over.
The story line and the characters keep the reader gripped and you can't help being fascinated by the Japanese sense of beauty and spiritualism.

I brought this book as it seemed one of the most interesting and unusual books on the booker long list. I really struggled with this book to begin with. I felt the plot was too slow to develop and nothing much really seemed to be happening in the story. I almost gave up but persevered and was glad that I did as the last 100 pages or so were extremely enjoyable to read. It's an interesting book in as much as you learn about the Malayan emergency and the Japanese invasion of Malaysia. The book is like the karate kid meets gardeners world. I wouldn't really recommend it on the basis that I did struggle to get into it. Of course it's horses for courses and I'm sure lots of people would enjoy this book. It is well written but unfortunately wasn't my cup of tea (Malaysian tea?).