"The Garden of Evening Mists" Tan Twan Eng

Reporting about our discussion of The Garden of Evening Mists will be challenging, but I will summarize the highlights that I can remember.  We talked some about Malaysian history and the ethnic groups living in that melting pot of a country.  Then Maddy described for us the types of "borrowed scenery" in gardens, having written about it in her graduate work.  There was discussion about whether gardens can or should be natural or "artificial".  Some felt that Yun Ling was not a very likable character but rather tough and hardened by her past.  Her work as a prosecutor and as a judge seemed motivated by revenge, perhaps understandably.  But Zanna pointed out that she seemed to learn forgiveness in the end.  There was some confusion about how the section of Yugiri that would fit into Yun Ling's horimono became a map to where Yun Hong and the "Golden Lily" were buried.  Also there was consensus that the episode about the relationship between Tatsuji and Teruzen was extraneous and a distraction from the central story.  Otherwise all seemed taken by the number of layers to the story.  All of us sensed the mysterious and "misty" quality of the book throughout.

Sheri Linnell