Just finished 'The Garden of Evening Mists' by Tan Twan Eng. I bought it at a remainder bookstore because I liked the title and vaguely hoped that exploring the ideas that form Japanese gardens might be interesting. Also, it felt refreshing to be reading a book about Malaya and its sense of identity as seen through the eyes of Yun Ling, a Malaysian Chinese woman. There were two obvious and probably superfluous narrative devices. The first, that Yun Ling had some form of dementia, was about to lose her memory and needed to record her story. The second, that she was inevitably telling her story to the Japanese gardener, Aritomo who became her lover and was also a tattoo master who ultimately used her as a canvass that somehow mysteriously explained the garden. However, there really wasn't much information about the working of Japanese gardens apart from a couple of hints about borrowing/mirroring scenery and digging-in rocks. Aritomo was indistinctly drawn as a shadowy character - almost a caricature. Their relationship felt quite cold - almost to the extent that it was hard to understand what drew Aritomo and Yun Ling together as lovers other than to satisfy the needs of the narrative. The book seemed almost burdened with superfluous stories (interesting as they were) about Japanese pilots, hidden gold and South African tea planters. All against a backdrop of attacks by communist terrorists (the CTs). The text was sprinkled with Malay and South African words which I couldn't quite pronounce but that was my failing. Overall, a good but unsatisfactory read that promised far more than it delivered. ( )

This story told by the fictional sole survivor of a concentration camp during Japan's occupation of Malaya will stay with me a long time. After being diagnosed with aphasia that will dull her mind and steal her memories, retired Chinese-Malayan Judge Teoh Yun Ling, returns from Kuala Lumpur to Yugiri, in the mountains, to record her memories of the place she visited three decades earlier, just after the end of World War II, to persuade ex-Imperial Japanese gardener Nakamura Aritomo, who is also an artist, to make a garden in memory of her beloved older sister, Yun Hong, who was an artist as well. The sisters had spent four years in a brutal Japanese slave labor camp, nourished and transported by memories of the gardens in Kyoto they had visited with their parents and brother before World War II. Aritomo turns down Yun Ling’s request, but she, instead, becomes his apprentice and then his lover.

Aritomo is a complex, fascinating character infused with exacting patience, artistry, and wisdom, but he might also be a spy. Only years later, when Yun Ling finally deciphers his last message to her, can she reconcile her grief and guilt over surviving the slave camp, while her sister and all the other prisoners who were sent there in the four years of her stay perished. It is a melancholy, but compelling, story that weaves together acts of inhumanity, violence, and deception with moments of beauty, grace, and redemption. ( )

I listened to the audio book, which I enjoyed. Still, i think i'd like to read it again because i feel like i may have missed some ideas while distracted. ( )

Audible audio narrated by Anna Bentinck

This is Eng’s second novel, following his Booker-Prize nominated The Gift of Rain. Once again, he sets the work in Malaysia, specifically Penang, Yun Ling Teoh is the sole survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, who now (1951) lives in the Cameron Highlands, where she hopes to find peace. She discovered Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, Aritomo, the exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling asks Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp. He refuses, but he does agree to take her on as an apprentice, at least until the monsoon comes, so that she can design the garden herself. World War II is over, but there is still a communist guerrilla war raging in the mountains, and there is considerable danger for the residents of the area. Slowly their stories - how Aritomo came to Penang, and how Yun Ling escaped the camp – come to light.

What a marvelous book! Poetic writing. Complex characters. Atmospheric descriptions. Eng brought right into this world. I felt the peace and serenity of the garden, and the terror of guerilla attacks. I could smell the jungle, feel the humid heat, hear the rain. I was fascinated by the tattoo art.

The story is told in flashback, as Yun Ling is trying to recollect the time she spent as an apprentice to Aritomo. But her memories, and her ability to commit them to writing are hampered by her physical deterioration. She is slowly but inextricably descending into a kind of dementia. Yet she faces her future, as she did her past, with courage and grace. “Before me lies a voyage of a million miles, and memory is the moonlight I will borrow to illuminate my way.”

The audio is narrated by Anna Bentinck. She is a skilled actor, but the accents she used for some of the Asian characters were rather badly done. I almost wish she had abandoned the idea of using different voices and just read it without the accents. I very nearly took away a half-star for her performance, but ultimately felt that the book deserved the full 5-star rating. ( )

This was a beautiful and immersive book. I love to get lost in slow historical fiction but some readers may lose patience with this one. ( )