The Samurai's Garden : A Novel

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Summary: Another wonderful book by Gail Tsukiyama
Review: The Samurai's Garden - Gail Tsukiyama

A young Chinese man comes to Japan to recuperate from tuberculosis in THE SAMURAI'S GARDEN, a beautiful book written by Gail Tsukiyama filled with wonderful images and poetic prose that paints a gentle backdrop of rural Japan before the start of World War II.

Stephen has grown up in Hong Kong and lives most of the year there, but in the late 1930's he comes to Japan to stay at his family's summer residence to get away from the humidity and heat. It is his parents' hope that the cooler drier climate may help clear up his tuberculosis and improve his health.

Stephen comes to the ocean-side town of Tarumi, expecting the worse. He is not happy that he is being sent away from home. However, he adjusts to his new way of life, learning to love the solitude and peaceful life that their housekeeper Matsu has led for nearly all his life. Through Matsu, Stephen learns to appreciate a different way of life, and finds that he enjoys being in Japan and learning about the people in the town of Tarumi, and in the nearby mountain town of Yamaguchi, where Matsu's dear friend Sachi lives. He spends his days painting or taking walks along the beach or visiting with Matsu and his friends.

Stephen also befriends one of the local girls, Keiko, who is closer to his age than Matsu or Sachi are, and they develop a relationship that is rather tenuous throughout it's entire existence because of the war between their two countries.

In the meantime, the Japanese Imperial army has captured many key cities in China and are slowly making their way south, heading towards Hong Kong. Stephen feels the tension around him, as he himself is an outsider and is considered the enemy by those who know he is Chinese. On the other hand, Stephen learns that despite the fact that he is living with the Japanese, he loves his new friends and does not want this war to come between them.

Gail Tsukiyama's story of Stephen and his experiences during his year in Japan is no more than a series of observations and reflections of a young man viewing life through a new set of eyes. Written in the form of a journal, THE SAMURAI'S GARDEN lacks a strong plotline and doesn't have much action. However, it is made up by the beautiful prose and commentaries that form the thoughts of young Stephen as he discovers love of a young woman in a foreign land, love of friends, and love of a foreign country that he will never forget. Having already read DREAMING WATER, THE SAMURAI'S GARDEN was another wonderful treat and I am looking forward to reading yet another novel by this author.

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Summary: A Book to Be Savored
Review: Towards the end of The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, Matsu one of the main characters says, "Beauty can be found in most places." And as I read this sentence, I thought no better words than beauty could be applied to this book. For sometime I have been told by many readers how much they enjoyed this book and now I wonder why it took me so long to pick up this title. Now I can only agree wholeheartedly with these readers and add my grateful appreciation to this author for writing such a wonderful book.

Beginning in prewar China, we travel with Stephen a 20 year old man recuperating from tuberculosis, to his grandfathers beach house in Japan. Isolated from his family and friends in Hong Kong and his studies at the University, Stephens sole companion in Japan is Matsu, caretaker and gardener of the beach house. At first there relationship is strained and they have little in common. But as Stephen begins to paint and Matsu works in the garden, they begin to interact with one another and eventually become the best of friends. As Matsu introduces Stephen to the surrounding villages of Tarumi and Yamaguchi, Stephen also becomes acquainted with Matsu's friends which include Sachi and Kenzo. And as Stephen becomes more familiar with them he also learns more about their lives and entanglements and we as readers are first intrigued by these three people and then become enchanted as their stories unfold. Ultimately we learn as Stephen does about life, loyalty to family and friends, betrayal, attachments but most of all unconditional love. We watch as Stephen becomes more and more ingrained in the daily lives surrounding the beach house while Japan begins to invade China and Stephen's own family is going through their own eprsoanl upheavals. All too soon, with his health restored, Stephen knows he will need to leave this solitary life at Tarumi. The approaching war and distance leaves both him and readers to wonder if he will ever see these people again.

Gail Tsukiyama has crafted a marvelous novel with layers placed upon layers to tell the story of extraordinary friendships. I found that when I read this book it was as if I was a next door neighbor to the beach hosue and priuvy to all that happened in these people's lives. And as I closed the book I had a profound sense of loneliness that my visit with them had come to an end. Although I seldom yearn for a sequel, I would love to know how life treated these characters in the future.

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Summary: Sweet, calming and enjoyable
Review: This is an endearing story of a Chinese man recovering from illness in Japan during turbulent times. The characters are strong and inspiring. A beautiful story written by a very talented author. A great book to spend time enjoying.

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Summary: There's no there there
Review: This is a story told in diary form about a young Chinese man (a student) living in Hong Kong who, at the outset of World War II, has developed tuberculosis and is sent away to recover from the disease at his family's Japanese beach house. There he comes to know the Japanese caretaker of the house, the caretaker's female friend, and a girl who catches his fancy, people from whom we are to believe he has learned life's great lessons. The caretaker is silent, private, kind, and wise. The caretaker's friend is a once-beautiful, gentle, and loving soul, unfortunately sidelined with leprosy and confined to an inhospitable leper colony. And the girl develops a romantic interest in the young man, sealed with a kiss, despite her Japanese father's hatred of the Chinese. Noble creatures all.

From the customer reviews, The Samurai's Garden appears to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of book, with the Love-Its weighing in overwhelmingly, if not entirely incomprehensibly: while the book is lacking in every criterion of measurement (writing, research, character development, plot) it's a sad truth that serious fiction has always engendered little public favor here, and for its writers little financial reward. (For those who have not read this book, here's a hint: the serious reviewers (the New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, etc.) didn't waste space and ink on this thing.)

With The Samurai's Garden, I found book meant not to enlighten but to sell. Add the book's unchallenging style, at most on the seventh-grade reading level, to its heavy dose of schmaltz, and it becomes inescapable that The Samurai's Garden was written with "best seller" twinkling before the eyes of author Tsukiyama, her agent, and her publisher.

I was under no preconceptions when I picked up this book; I wanted to like it. Sadly, it disappointed. It is so shallow that you can skate across its surface. Its wobbly premise collapses under the least scrutiny. Its characters have the attributes and the attraction of stick figures. Its dialogue is tediously juvenile. But its most grevious sin is that it is boring. The writing is so flat that it doesn't have a pulse.

One of the book's more disconcerting (if not outright funny) features is that Tsukiyama assumed that she could make the narrator (the young guy) a male, but she hasn't the ability to get inside the male head, and so for much of the time that character's aura was hermaphroditic.

In terms of poor research, the most egregious example is tuberculosis. From her depiction of TB, I could believe Tsukiyama did no research whatever, as she seems to see living through it then as an extended vacation. On such a vacation, the caretaker meets the young man on his arrival at the train station and has them (the young guy schlepping his suitcases) jogging several miles to the beach house (had the wheel not come to Japan?), and later has the two of them jogging to the leper colony. This is crazy. In fact, TB was one of the leading causes of death during the time period in which the book was set. It had no medicinal cure. Rest -- not marching about -- was crucial to the patient's recovery. TB is highly contagious, is airborne, and spreads rapidly in enclosed spaces. The patient becomes very sick. He is febrile, loses weight, has night sweats, and is crushed by constant fatigue. You get none of this from Tsukiyama. A person with active TB is a serious health menace. That Tsukiyama should have him visit lepers whose immunity is already compromised (!), and for her to have him kiss the uninfected girlfriend (!) is grotesquely irresponsible.

There is more. The story's possibilities lie in the ethereal vapor of unrealized hopes. Tsukiyama had the path open to explore differences in Chinese and Japanese cultures, but she didn't. She could have examined what the war meant to the Chinese and the Japanese, but she didn't. She could have enearthed the complexities of the Oriental servant-master relationship, but that was another missed opportunity, as was why the young man had the bizarre notion that the beach house really belonged to the the Japanese caretaker.

"The most engaging powers of an author," said Thackery, "are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new." Of all of Tsukiyama's missed opportunities, the blue ribbon must go to her failure to heed this. It would have been lovely to experience the sights, smells, and energy that abounded in Hong Kong and at the Japanese seaside at that time, and how war affected the lives of those affected.

It has been claimed that Tsukiyama writes clean, pure lines, which are of a piece of Oriental art. Well, for that matter, the Dick and Jane stories have clean, pure lines. I suspect that the clean, pure lines here are aimed at a targeted best-seller readership.

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Summary: Rave reviews from the Heritage Greens Book Club
Review: The Samurai's Garden is a soothing, hypnotic, heartbreaking, evocative book we all enjoyed. Is it the story of Stephen, a young Chinese man recovering from tuberculosis in pre-war Japan while under the care of a loyal family servant, the "samurai" of the title. The book explores cultural differences and similarities as it portrays the development of friendship and respect in disparate characters.

With sparce and simple prose, Tsukiyama depicts her principals as humans who try to be good but not perfect; as people accepting their circumstances and finding inner peace despite their flaws and mistakes.

Appropriate for all age readers, particularly young adults, we found a number of themes especially appealing: relationships, isolation/alienation and subsequent reconciliation, and the appreciation of inner beauty over physical appearance. Matsu, the "samurai," was a perfect teacher/mentor for Stephen, as he avioded putting him under a microscope, but rather served as his guide to realizing his spiritual self.

We hope you enjoy this book as ,uch as we did!

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Summary: The best book written by Gail Tsukiyama
Review: This is so far the best book written by Gail Tsukiyama. A few years ago my book dciscusssion group met her at a bookstore. She said that " Samurai's Garden " was the favorite book of hers by many people. It has a wonderful story with lovely people.
It is a beautiful ove story. Read it.

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Summary: Accepting One's Fate
Review: I found that reading this book had a very calming effect on me. It makes you think about one's place in society, the value of friends and family, what it feels like to be ostracized, and how some people find peace in their lives despite dealing with difficult issues.

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Summary: My Favorite Book
Review: I thought The Samurai's Garden was an excellent book. It is one of my favorite books if not my favorite. I tohught it had a great vocabulary and it taught me a lot about life. It also made me feel like I was right in the book.

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Summary: Literature Lite
Review: It was a mindless, plodding book, fun, lite, good for summer at the camp if you don't want excitement and suspense. Some of the writing was ok, other parts very dull. The plot leaves much to be desired, motivations are weak. Characters are wooden and never clearly seen. At times the plot even contradicts itself. Yet, reading this is like walking through a garden looking at flowers, it's fun for a while but then you crave looking at people and eating a hearty lunch. Unfortunately this book doesn't deliver the latter two experiences.

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Summary: Somehow wired for Japanese people
Review: As a person who was born in Japan and lived there for more than 15 years, this book "The Samurai's Garden" seemed somehow wired rather than "beautiful", as some people have described.

The reason why I read this book was that it was the assignment in my World Literature class. We were assigned to write an essay about this book, and I got an A on it, paradoxically. The theme of the essay we were supposed to write on was "Why this novel is beautiful." When I heard the theme, I couldn't help but laughed with my Japanese friends. When I was reading this book, I did not feel that it was beautiful at all.

The reasons are the characters' behaviors. First of all, the name "Matsu" for a man seemed really wired for me because usually Matsu is a name for a woman. Therefore, as I was reading this book, I could not help thinking that Matsu is a kind of gay, or a womanish man. Also, the relationships between the villagers and Stephen seemed unrealistic since usually in Japan, the residents tend to be unfriendly and ignore foreigners. For example, when the native girls see Stephen on the beach, they shyly but friendly approach him. It is understandable if toddlers do that; but Japanese teenagers such as these girls should have avoided approaching him to avoide any danger. It seems that the author did not know how Japanese people habitually behave. The most astounding scene was when Stephen and Matsu hug each other just before Stephen leaves the village. That scene was so embarrassing for me because in Japan, men never hug each other unless they are gays. I could not help but imagine if the villagers saw them hugging, they surely had thought these men were gays.

I have listed the scenes that bewildered me. However, I still had some favorite scenes also. I really liked how the author describes Sachi's disease -- Rai Byo, some Japanese people used to describe it ironically -- and imposes questions to the readers. I appreciate this author's accomplishment for letting the readers ponder about the discriminations in today's society. I would recommend this book to a person who does discriminate the other people.