Summary: “Within every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes, until the end of time.”
It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge.
Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story?
Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home? (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
My Review: I find other cultures fascinating, and historical fiction from other cultures is just that much more fascinating. There are many reasons I love reading about other cultures, but I think the main one is that it opens my eyes. Sometimes I get so set in my own world view, and I figure that I’m always right and have figured it all out. Well, that’s a dangerous path to go on, as we all know, but it’s not easy to just change what we believe and where we come from. We can’t live every life and experience every thing and learn what it is like to have a different experience as viewed through other cultural lenses, but we can read. I think that’s one of the things that makes reading so amazing–it gives us access to other cultures, other lives, other experiences, and helps us learn empathy and helps us understand. Not one of us on this planet has it all figured out, but if we work together and learn more about each other and maybe even take the good from each other’s experiences, we’ll come a little closer to having it figured out.
This book was a journey, both literally and figuratively. As is indicated in the summary, Meilin and her son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home due to war and political circumstances out of their control. They are just a few of the many who have been displaced, and they are forced to move around until ultimately they are able to settle, and Renshu, now Henry, lives a life in America. I didn’t see this book going all the places it did. At first I thought it was a book about the horrors of war (in a not so distant past!) in China, and changing leadership that greatly affected the population of China, but then it became about more than just that. It was fascinating learning about and seeing America through the eyes of Henry, who was afraid for many reasons. I think that as Americans we often think that if immigrants are able to make it to America they’re “in the clear,” as it were. Henry’s perspective reminded me and taught me further that there are dangers not only in America for an immigrant, but also dangers that come from their motherland.
One interesting thing I remembered while reading this book: my maternal grandfather was in the Navy and served in Taiwan during this time. I have heard about this time, which was a struggle for his family back at home as they had little children, and I even have some interesting Taiwanese decor from that time period that I inherited when my grandparents passed. Reading this book made me appreciate it more.
I thought this story was beautiful, and it was surprisingly deep and varied. There was a lot going on, but Fu did an excellent job of keeping it all accessible. The reader learned a lot about history, and also was exposed to a life that we as the modern reader will hopefully never experience, but one that we are better for having read about.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
For the sensitive reader: There is war and some war-related violence, some language and some discussion of sex, but I would say it’s all pretty tame, especially for the genre.
