Review: The Library of Legends (by Janie Chang)

My Ratings:  3.5 stars

The first thought that popped into my head after I finished reading this book was how different it turned out to be from what I had expected.  From a historical perspective, this is a story I greatly appreciated, as it covered a portion of history not widely known, set during a time period not often depicted in novels about the World War II era.  The year is 1937 in Nanjing, China — as Japanese bombs begin to fall on the city, students and faculty at various schools are ordered to evacuate, heading 1000 miles on a journey toward the safety of China's western provinces.  Minghua University student Hu Lian and her classmates, led by revered teacher Professor Kang, head toward the city of Chengdu, where the university will reassemble to wait out the end of the war.  The journey is tenuous, as the students not only need to avoid the constant threat of Japanese air raids, they also need to make much of the trip on foot.  Additionally, the Minghua students have also been tasked with the responsibility of bringing with them one of the university's greatest treasures — a set of encyclopedias containing ancient myths and folklore collectively known as the Library of Legends.  Along the way, Lian grows close to several of her schoolmates, including second year classmates Yee Meirong and Wu Ying-Ying as well as wealthy fourth year classmate Liu Shaoming and his maidservant Sparrow Chen.  But Lian lives in the shadow of a family secret that she has carried with her most of her life — a secret that, if found out, she fears could destroy everything she worked so hard to achieve.  Later in the journey, Lian discovers a connection between those in her group and the story of The Willow Star and the Prince, which is one of the mythological tales contained in the Library of Legends.  Beyond that though, Lian soon learns that transporting the books awakens various immortals and guardian spirits who are headed on a journey of their own.

Overall, I enjoyed this story well enough, but I wasn't as mesmerized by it as I thought I would be.  Part of the reason is because, while I liked most of the characters, they were written in a way that I found it difficult to connect with them. I felt there was a lack of emotional depth to the characters (and to the story itself, in some aspects), which made it hard for me to feel anything for them when various things happen.  Also, the crossing over of genres – this one incorporated historical fiction, romance, and fantasy --  didn't work as well for me in this instance.  I think the problem for me is that I was expecting the story to lean more toward historical fiction and perhaps feel a little more "epic" in scope (especially given the premise and the setting), but instead the historical elements were too brief and, in my opinion, mostly overshadowed by the fantasy aspects with the mythological tale involving The Willow Star and the Prince and the love story associated with it.  Some parts of the story felt a bit all over the place and didn't flow together as well as it could have, which I think was due to the attempt to blend multiple genres.  The story did have a light-hearted, hopeful tone to it though, which made it a good choice to read during this time of uncertainty.

With historical fiction, I oftentimes enjoy reading the Author's Note almost as much as reading the story itself, and this instance was no different.  Reading about the real life events that certain details in the story were based on and seeing how the author adapted these details is always fascinating and, for me, the additional insight often puts the fictional story in better perspective.  Prior to reading this book, I had heard about the evacuation and temporary relocation of China's universities during the war, but had not read anything substantive about it until now.  I appreciate that author Janie Chang decided to cover this largely overlooked historical event, though of course, I would've preferred for the historical aspect to be stronger as I had mentioned earlier.  But that's just me – overall, this was still a worthy read, one that I would heartily recommend, especially for those who enjoy historical fiction with quite a bit of fantasy (more along the lines of magical realism I guess) mixed in.

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via Edelweiss.