The Samurai's Garden
The novel The Samurai’s Garden (1994) by Gail Tsukiyama is an engaging story of a young boy and four friends who become a part of his life. The story is set between Japan and China directly before WWII. In this story, humanity and respect take precedence over cultural differences. I read this as part of Dolce Bellezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge.Sick with tuberculosis, the young Chinese protagonist, Stephen, is sent from Hong Kong to recuperate at the family’s seaside summer home in Tarumi, Japan. In Tarumi, Stephen is able to experience a quiet that allows him to express himself and appreciate the people around him more fully than he had done in the past. Here he is given the time to appreciate people and surroundings for more than their surface beauty and to think more deeply about things.
Tsukiyama’s style flows very easily to this reader’s mind. Written in English, there was no loss of poetry or meaning lost to me in translation, yet at the same time I sensed that Tsukiyama had a strong grasp of the cultural sensibilities of each country she wrote about in the novel.
Labels: fiction, japanese literature challenge, Tsukiyama
posted by reader kay at
7:05 PM
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