The book club review:The Samurai’s Garden

Published on by ortensia

Fifteen years in Ireland and despite my many efforts and attempts I never been able to join a book club.The problem with this country is that the book clubs are either an excuse to drink wine in a different house every month or,the real ones,are impenetrable lobbies. Exclusive clubs where only few very selected elements are admitted. Rules of admission are strict and unbreakable:once you succeed the initiation test,you then have to provided an impeccable family background and the prove that your are a direct descendant of some previous or current member.

That is why when my two bloggers friends Viola Bleau(IdeaBecomesWords)and Joseph Beeech(flowersinbloomnothingtoaddteatime)suggested to create our own book club, I immediately jumped in.

“The Samurai’s Garden” is the first book this little cyber book club decided to read on Joseph’s suggestion.
I am grateful for the choice and the chance to discover this excellent american writer :Gail Tsukiyama. My only experience with Japanese literature was limited to the books of Banana Yoshimoto that I used to be very fond of in my previous youth and to “Memoirs of a Geisha”,a book that I loved.While,Banana Yoshimoto is miles away in time and space, Arthur Golden and Gail Tsukiyama describe a very similar social,political and cultural reality.

The story starts at the eve of WWII .The young Stephen, son of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father,(exactly like the author),is sent to recover from tuberculosis in Japan where the father lives for business related reasons,while the rest of the family is in Hong Kong.Stephen will stay at the family beach house where the loyal Matsu will take care of him along with the house garden that has soon become his garden. Matsu is a samurai in the soul and his garden is its mirror.Reluctantly Matsu open his heart to Stephen and let him in in his private life that evolves around Sachi,his loved one afflicted by leprosy. Stephen starts to leave his emotional shell thanks to Matsu and Sachi and also starts to explore the the unknown world of female friendships. As more the garden take shapes and as more Stephen’s soul and mind take shape.A new vision of the world and human nature is forming in front of him.A new reality that doesn’t spare not even his own parents.

The writing is light and the words flow captivating in their simplicity. Since the beginning the modernity of the father and in his will to follow western world is openly highlighted.The difference from two cultures,Chinese and Japanese,is briefly and clearly exposed but,delicately penned down.

Chapter two is waiting and whoever wants to join is welcome.

Advertisement

93 thoughts on “The book club review:The Samurai’s Garden”

      2. 👍🏻it’s just hard finding the time for everything 😫I have three books on my bedside table ,plus book for the book club and few others already on a list……..I’ll never make it🤦🏼‍♀️

        Liked by 2 people

      4. One I do like,is the Camilla Lackberg one,nothing too engaging but her characters are like family friends after all there years,the other two are not really my style so as I’m already nearly at chapter three…I’ll jump to last one🤣the wisdom of the Scandinavians cannot be bitten,thank you😉🤩❤️

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you and yes I’m excited to be Eventually in a book club but can’t take the merit of its creation,I only jumped in when suggested😉now or in the future if there are books you find interesting feel free to join it is open to everybody who is interested.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  12. Ortensia, I too spent a little time in Ireland.
    Wasn’t looking for a book club,
    but I found in Derry,
    they like to write on the
    house walls ?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. If you want to start with this book just catch up with first chapter and leave your review.Viola beau and Joseph beech are the other two members.check their blogs for their review too.
      We haven’t agreed on the next timeframe yet.I suppose we are still working out rules etc. so your timing is perfect😉😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. You can write a little post too.we three did that.
        I suppose then we can have a proper chat altogether and decide exactly what next.im so excited you are in too😀

        Like

  18. I love the story line.🌺
    I would love to join but I really can’t do a lot of book reading now, I have my infant to care for, classes and blogging too. I will be back for chapter 2. ♥️
    Please post it soon. 😊

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  21. Love your take on the book – isn’t it sublime?
    So pleased it provided some calm amongst the crazy few days you had. How funny that Travelling Husband did his best but was happy to hand the baton of housespouse back over to you!
    I LOVED Memoirs of a Geisha too – I read it probably fifteen years ago now and would happily read it again. Take care and I hope Easter Weekend is good for you xx

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. I mentioned Sunday as a possibility but don’t think Joseph came back on that specific point.
        I’m around page 100 now and could easily talk about a bit more in next day or so… you?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I ll catch up in the next couple of days.Came back from Italy with serious migraine so didn’t read or write at all.yesterday was the first day my head was totally good.Actually just got to bed now with intention to read😊I’m really enjoying the book

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s