March Book Lunch, Garden of Evening Mists (Entry 6)

Just returned from Book Lunch at Jane's. Oh how I love love love book lunch days. You never know what is going to happen. You never know what will be said. Love the exchange of ideas, the differing viewpoints, the synergy of 14 minds revolving around a central axis of one book.

Jane (and Betty) whipped up quite a Malaysian spread. First warm nuts and wasabi peas. Then Oriental Chicken Salad (mainly chicken, but with some red bell pepper, asparagus, green onion, sesame seeds in a peanut dressing), duck tacos (these from Hawkers, a Malaysian restaurant on Mills Ave in Orlando. Who knew?), homemade Malaysia flat bread, and cut fruit. Dessert tropical sorbets and brownies.

And they dressed in authentic attire from Malaya. These gals know how to make us all feel warm and welcomed. Thank you ladies!

The discussion. Well, all agreed this was an excellently written book. Almost poetic, his prose. So many moments in these 332 pages to stop, visualize, go inward. Figure out.

What happened to Aritomo after he passed out through the garden gate?

 No concensus on this.

 He committed suicide.
He wandered into the Cameron wilderness intentionally for the remainder of his life.
He went to the high mountain church and lived with the nuns.
No one thought he returned to the Prison Camp Golden Lily to take the treasure.
No one thought he returned to Japan to garden for the Emperor. 

So was this intentional by the author, that we wouldn't know? Or were his hints there. Want to ask the author this. Maybe I will run into him someday in an elevator, and HOPEFULLY I will remember this question.

Did Yun Ling ever forgive Aritomo / the Japanese? Forgiveness is in stages, forgiveness of this depth. First an opening of the mind, an easing of the anger and the bitterness. An acceptance of her new reality. Finally forgiveness. We think it was complete. She was finally able, after 40-so years, to mail the blue envelope given to her by a dying Japanese war criminal.

What is forgiveness? See above. And when the past doesn't have that hold on you any more. You can move on, move forward.

The OED defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt'.  Move forward.

Did we think the tattoo was hokey? No, we liked the pulling together of Aritomo and Yun Ling, with Golden Lily and Aritomo's art.

Another theme besides forgiveness? Memory. Loosing your memories. Reconciling with your memories. How we are in charge of what we remember. Different filters. Loved the two goddesses at Magnus's Majuba garden - the goddess of Memory, named Mnenosyne, and the goddess of Forgetting, with no name. And with a face that is blurred. Which is older? Goddess of memory, as you need to have the memory before you forget it.

// Rhodesian Ridgebacks!// Several of us do have tattoos. Just saying.
// What makes you look more intently, a circular window opening or a rectangular one?
// Beautiful, intricate woodblocks shared by Rita and Marlene, as in the book.  Works of art.
// Enthusiastic history information passed around by Cathi.
// Shinto Priests.
// War is a business.
// Bird nest soup is gelatinous and gooey. A delicacy at formal dinners. Thank you Beth for sampling for us.
// Even ordinary nuts, when heated and served in a white ceramic dish, are first class.

I want to visit a Japanese garden. Soon. Now. Several have been the the Kyoto Gardens.
Not where the dragons are, that's Kimodo.
And not where you wear a silk robe, that's Kimono.
Seriously, we all growing batty?

Violence in book was appropriate. Very savage treatment of prisoners by the Japanese in Malaya and by the British in The Boer War. To live in such fear, such uncertainty every day must have intensified the joy of being alive for those choosing to stay engaged in society. Others fled to the jungles, disappeared from society.  I can't even imagine.

Contrast this book to The Buddha in the Attic (Julia Osaka), which we read a few months ago. There the Japanese women were diminished by American families. The diminished not the diminishers. A different side to the story. Same time period.

Such a worth while book to read. Highly recommended. But just don't rush through it.

Savor the author's sentences.
Savor the views he presents of human spirit, similar to Borrowed Scenery.

Jackie noted this book was elegantly and extremely carefully constructed. The author made us stop, pause, and look right where he wanted us to look. He told stories within the story to highlight points (Borrowed Scenery?). He was our guide, aiding us in contemplation.

Just like a Japanese Garden.

Bravo Tan Twan Eng!

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Jane's Nuts:

     1 lb of your favorite nuts

     2 Tbl. of melted butter

     1 Tbl. of brown sugar

     1 Tbl. of fresh rosemary (chopped)

     1 tsp. of kosher salt

     1 tsp. of cayenne  pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees,  spread nuts on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes until toasted.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Add the nuts and toss to coat.  Serve warm.  You can freeze them and then warm them briefly in the oven or microwave before serving.  Yields 3 cups. 

This was borrowed from Jane's friend in the kitchen, Ina. 

The Garden of Evening Mists (Entry 3) Finished it!

I have finished "The Garden of Evening Mists." Couldn't put it down until I finished it. Read the last third right through.

Wow.

Forgiveness.
Forgetting.
Or not forgetting.
Forgetting what we want to remember. Remembering what we don't want to remember.

SPOILER ALERT... I'm going to talk about details in the book that are best unfolded as you read...

SPOILER ALERT.SPOILER ALERT.SPOILER ALERT.SPOILER ALERT.SPOILER ALERT.

Lao Tzu leaving civilization on his Water Buffalo

The writer got me into their world. I was immersed in Malaya. In Malaysia. I was there at Yugiri and next door at Majuba in the late 1940's. I was there in 1989. I was in the corner of the room, sitting silently watching the tattooing. I could feel the humid air, the sensuousness. I was scared to death when the Kwai Hoon was in her kitchen, and when the people from the "Committee to Locate Prison Camps" or whatever came.  I told Yun Ling they were not to be trusted. Well, Kwai Hoon was to be trusted, but the CT's would find Yun Ling.  I knew that moment when Aritomo walked without Yun Ling that he wasn't coming back. He was acting out the path of Lao Tzu. He was finished. He wasn't going to return to Japan. He had his garden in Malaya. He had made his map. He was finished.

The spiritual world and the physical world intersect.
The memories.
Forgiving. Forgetting.

Yun Ling carried me through her life story. I ate up every word. I processed it all with her. I was confused when she was confused. I was in survival mode when she was. I floated when she did. I learned to trust when she did.

What wasn't perfect about this book? The map to show the treasure was contrived I thought. Too much hinting at the treasure, the gold. And her back, and the garden itself as the missing piece? I thought that a little too contrived. Too clever. I didn't think it was necessary actually. The story held up beautifully on it's own as a story of completion, of healing between Yun Ling and Aritomo, between a Chinese prisoner and a Japanese who knew what had happened. Okay, so the tattoo did pull them together. So maybe just the tattoo and the map, not the treasure. I'm softening a bit here on this point.

Superb how Tominaga Noboru was connected  with Yun Ling and with Aritomo. Loved that part. And how Magnus sacrificed himself for Emily, Yun Ling and Aritomo. What a guy. He and his son Frederik were so real to me. Frederik was the spoiled kid, Magnus was full of life. Bigger than life. Flying his Transvaal flag. Opening up his home to Yun Ling in the first place. The final sacrifice.

Okay, how about this: Were you surprised when you found out that Yun Ling was a snitch in the prison camp? WOW. I was. Opened up a whole 'nother side of her to my eyes. Maybe I should have seen it, how when she escaped she chose a career of getting revenge, of putting Japanese war criminals behind bars.

Can I really call her a snitch? She told Fumio what other prisoners were doing. It was survival. But still. I don't know. Thankfully I have never been in her shoes.

 And there's the comment made so many times, that she was the only one who escaped alive from that camp. When I heard that the first time, I thought there was some self-survival action she did to escape. But then I thought, she wouldn't leave her dear sister behind to die. Not to judge. In the book she had no choice.  Ferried off by Tominaga and set free... would I have run for it right away? She went back, only to watch the implosion. She did go back.

Returning to the story, were you surprised when Aritomo and Yun Ling spent their first night together? I was stopped in my tracks. Thought they had a mentor-student relationship. Guess I should have seen the bow-and-arrow sexual tension coming.

Did this book change my thinking? Does it seep into my mind randomly? Well yes. Even since finishing it last night, yes.

First the concept of memories. Writing down your memories, as you will forget them. Yun Ling had a powerful story to tell, quite the life. We all have a powerful story to tell. We are all in the midst of living our lives. But please please let us pause and reflect once in awhile. Let us listen to our life story, learn from it, grow from it, heal from it, accept it as our own.

I am not a true student of Japanese Gardening. I see it takes years and years to understand, and perhaps part of it is you never understand it all. But I gather the gardens can have several purposes. One is contemplation. Pausing in peace and controlled serenity. Which allows the person who enters moments to think. With nature controlled and surrounding you. Immersed in bound-by-people nature, yet with nature still moving forward. The heron. The change of seasons. The breeze.

Contemplate.

Loved the part where Aritomo asked Yun Ling to close her eyes. "I want you to listen to the garden. Breathe it in. Cut your mind from its constant noise. When you open your eyes again" - Aritomo's voice seemed to come from far away - "look at the world around you." 

Patience. I hope you all did just this. Close those eyes. Wait. Patience. Do it. Close those eyes. Listen. Breathe.

Then open them.

My eyes skimmed over the water to the camellia hedges, to the trees rising to the mountains, the mountains entering the folds of clouds. ..... For the first time I felt I was inside a living, three-dimensional painting.... A sigh, both of contentment and sorrow, drained from deep within me. 

There's a "way of life" component to this story Eng wrote. I like that.

Second big thing that is seeping into me. Forgiveness doesn't have to be complete, or at least at first. Doesn't have to be unconditional. Doesn't mean you say,"It's okay you hurt me. And that you killed my sister." But what is it?

So what is forgiveness?

I have thought it meant not needing revenge. Accepting the event as something done, and move forward with no judgement towards the doer. I will look this up.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offence or debt. In most contexts, forgiveness is granted without any expectation of restorative justice, and without any response on the part of the offender (for example, one may forgive a person who is incommunicado or dead).'

So forgiveness is me moving forward. Totally. As Yun Ling kept doing all through the book. How else could she have loved Aritomo so purely. BUT it took stages. It took years. It took conversations and events and processing. It took time and work. So worth it to not carry the anger and hate. So worth it. 

As a Christian, I think of Christ's redemptive act on the cross, for forgiveness of my sins. 
Forgiveness is me moving forward. 
Hope. 

All I can say is "thank you."

More on parts of the book I highlighted later. Off to church.