My Rating: 3.5 stars
In recent years, there has been much discussion about the saturation of World War II era books in the market. While this is definitely true, and with that, many people's general weariness over reading yet another book set in this time period is absolutely understandable, part of me still hopes that people don't give up on books set in this time period just yet, primarily because the fact remains that too few of these books tell about WWII from the less widespread perspective of the Asian nations that either participated in the war or were severely impacted by it. This is why I felt that Melissa Fu's debut novel Peach Blossom Spring— despite falling a tad short of expectations for me (more on this later) — was still very much worth reading overall.
In this generational story that spans decades, Fu explores the impact of WWII (as well as its aftermath) through the experiences of the fictional Dao family. With the onset of the Japanese invasion of China, wealthy and shrewd patriarch Dao Hongtse, who owns a lucrative kerosene and antiques shop in Changsha, sees his family torn apart when his youngest son Xiaowen is killed in battle, leaving behind his young wife Meilin and their 4-year-old son Renshu. Devastated by the loss of his most beloved son, Hongtse withdraws into himself and turns most of his business over to eldest son Longwei, who has returned home after also fighting in the war. Not long after Longwei returns however, news breaks out about the Japanese army's imminent advance into the city, forcing the family to leave nearly everything behind and flee their home. As they travel across their war-ravaged country seeking refuge and ultimately survival, Meilin and Renshu rely on the stories from an ancient scroll for solace. After the war, Meilin and Renshu settle in Taiwan, which eventually becomes "home" for them.
The second half of the story focuses primarily on Dao Renshu, who, as an adult, has settled in the United States. Having adopted the name Henry Dao, Renshu pursues his graduate studies and eventually meets Rachel, whom he marries and subsequently they have one daughter, Lily. As Henry becomes more immersed in his life as an American, he starts to distance himself from his past and his tumultuous childhood growing up during the war. Even though he continues to stay in constant communication with his mother Meilin in Taiwan, he feels more and more that his current life in the U.S. as Henry Dao is incongruous with the boy he was growing up in China and Taiwan. Believing that the only way to keep his family safe is to separate his past from his present, Henry refuses to reveal much about his childhood, despite his daughter Lily's persistence in wanting to understand her heritage. Much of the second half of the story focuses on Henry's struggles to reconcile his past life and experiences in China with his present one in America.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, this book ended up falling a bit short of expectations for me (though having said that, I'm still glad I decided to pick this one up). While there were many aspects of the story I really liked — such as the character of Meilin, the Chinese cultural elements referenced throughout, the fables revolving around the scroll, etc. — I felt that the writing was too uneven. The way this was written, I felt like it jumped back and forth too much between long descriptive sentences and short choppy ones, often describing relatively mundane things that I felt weren't really important to the story. With that said though, the first half of the story, which covers Meilin's story arc, was engaging enough that it was easier to overlook the inconsistencies in the writing - so much so in fact, that I was actually disappointed when Meilin didn't feature as much in the second half of the story.
Speaking of which, that's what didn't work well for me — the second half of the book when the narrative shifted primarily to Renshu's adult life in the U.S. I felt that these sections were too tedious to read, as there were too many unnecessary descriptions that bogged down the story (mundane things such as describing a character writing a letter, folding it up, putting it in an envelope, licking the flap, putting it in the mail — actions that could be described simply in one sentence were drawn out over several sentences). The other reason why the second half of the story (Renshu's story arc) didn't hold my interest as much as the first half (Meilin's story arc) is because the latter half veered too much into the political tension between China and Taiwan — a topic that I'm already very familiar with having grown up surrounded by constant discussion about the potential fates of Hong Kong and Taiwan in relation to China. At times, I felt like I was reading an overly drawn out primer on China and Taiwan geopolitics that was geared more toward those who may not necessarily be familiar with the history and context behind it. There were also some parts that came across like the characters were reciting matter-of-fact historical tidbits rather than having actual conversations with each other. For me, this definitely detracted from the overall story, but not only that, it also made the story less emotionally resonant when it had the potential to be so much more.
Overall, I would say that this was a good story with a premise that had a lot of potential, but needed more refinement in terms of writing and execution. Because of this, deciding how to rate this book was agonizing for me, as the first half I felt was pretty strong (and I would probably rate 4 stars), but the second half was definitely a struggle that took me way longer to get through (and to be honest, I probably would've rated 2-3 stars on its own). In the end, I chose a happy medium of 3.5 stars, mostly because I truly did love and appreciate the first half of the story, despite some elements that didn't quite work for me.
Received ARC from Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley.
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