A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama

Rating

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The book's description from the publisher's website:

China, 1957. Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Y ing’s husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, T ao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “reeducation.”

A year later, still missing his father desperately, Tao climbs to the top of the hundred-year-old kapok tree in front of their home, wanting to see the mountain peaks in the distance. But Tao slips and tumbles thirty feet to the courtyard below, badly breaking his leg.

As Kai Ying struggles to hold her small family together in the face of this shattering reminder of her husband’s absence, other members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is falling. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage.

Quietly unassuming. I have always wondered how to best express what Tsukiyama's novels are like and with A Hundred Flowers I have  finally found the right words: quietly unassuming, until at the very end the true beauty of it stunned me.

What can I write about A Hundred Flowers that I haven't already praised when writing about The Street of a Thousand Blossoms and The Samurai's Garden? I've loved them both and although I approached Ms. Tsukiyama's newest 'jewel' with trepidation (I was anxious about how it would measure up to her other 'jewels'), I love A Hundred Flowers. I love the writing, I love the tone, and especially, I love the message it carries: the hope that keeps us humans going despite the almost equal despair and unfairness of life. 

I could give you a rant about the deceit and cruelty of communism (living through the last decade of it myself), a socialist movement that may sound good in theory, but it never, ever is good in practice. But I won't. A Hundred Flowers will hopefully compel you to research further and learn about Mao's
Hundred Flowers Campaign and Great Leap Forward. Trust me, it's worth it. This greatly talented writer will show you the truth in words such as these:

Kai Ying tried to imagine what it must have been like to have servants doing all the things that now filled her days. It was the bourgeoisie lifestyle Mao and the Communist Party had despised and fought against, declaring victory for the people. And yet, why was there never enough rice or oil or coal for the people?

Gail Tsukiyama will first and foremost, however, help you understand what the truest hardship is, how decisions of one person (in this case, Chairman Mao Zedong's) have the power to shake the foundations of whole families, the power to cause suffering of wives, husbands and children, who quite possibly suffered the most just like little Tao. He couldn't fully comprehend what was happening, why people he loved disappeared from his life or caused him heartbreak. And in the end he had to grow up faster than any child ever should. But those decisions will never break those people. As long as there is hope, they'll persevere. And therein lies the true beauty of A Hundred Flowers.

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FTC: I received an e-galley of A Hundred Flowers from the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for review.

Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman

Rating

* * * * *

The book's description from the author's website:

A sweeping novel of thirteenth-century England, Falls the Shadow is the story of a weak and willful king and a brilliant but uncompromising baron: once they had been friends, yoked by ties of marriage and by mutual if irksome need; ultimately they became implacable enemies enmeshed in a brutal war from which only one would emerge alive.  
Falls the Shadow is the story of Henry III, cursed with the Plantagenet temper but lacking the Plantagenet will: faithful son of the Church, faithless liege lord; father of England's most famous warrior-king, wretched ruler of a rebellious realm. But for an accident of birth, he might have been a visionary architect, content in the role of paterfamilias. Instead, he inherited a crown -- and with it, all the problems left unresolved by the untimely death of his father, King John. Unable either to rule or to subdue, he would retreat into querulous impotence. And Falls the Shadow, finally, is the story of Simon de Montfort, youngest son of an influential French family, entitled to inherit neither land nor titles -- who talked his way into an earldom and marriage with the King's sister. Theirs would be a singular union: founded on a lie, defended by intense carnality, yet preserved by a fidelity unimaginable in an age of shifting allegiances based on self-interest alone.
Uncommonly able and dangerously outspoken, a fierce battle commander and a ruthless ally willing to risk all in defense of honor, Simon de Montfort embodied the chivalric code, stirring passions -- for good and for ill -- in all he brushed. It was inevitable that he would clash with Henry. 

 Oh what a book! And what a writer! I can count on the fingers of my one hand the contemporary authors of historical fiction whose skills parallel those of Sharon Kay Penman (and no, Philippa Gregory is not on that list). You read Penman's books and you can hope that maybe not all is yet lost in this 'limping' literary world of ours. We're lucky to have Sharon (and very few others) still write for us.

I'm sure you've heard it said (written) about good or great historical fiction authors (including Penman, no doubt) that they bring history to your doorstep. Well, let me tell you what Sharon does: she takes you and brings you to history's doorstep. What I mean by that is when you read Falls the Shadow, you read history in its purest, most entrancing form. The author doesn't modernize it, make it fluffy and simplistic enough to be easily processed and assimilated by our contemporary minds. As soon as you open this book (just as any other by SKP) and start reading, you will be whisked away, dropped off at 'the doorsteps' and will be given an enormous opportunity to walk through the history's wide open door.

And it's not only thanks to the author's impeccable research but also because of her great writing. Penman's gift to make all the characters be alive again just for us, readers is truly something to be treasured. And no, she doesn't make those people, who once lived and made history, just like us. No, she writes them just as they may have been during the reign of Henry III. They're their own persons and when you read about Simon de Montfort, about Nell, Countess of Pembroke, about King Henry III, his wife and about every other character thrown into this creature called History, you'll know there's no need to have them emulate our feeling, behaviors and personalities. I rather had a desire to be like them instead.

I've seen it written that Falls the Shadow wasn't up to a readers standards because they disliked Simon or Nell, or any other character because of the things they did. The problem with this is that Falls the Shadow might be fiction but the people in it, just like things they'd done were very much real. Ms. Penman couldn't have very well made Simon different from what he was. This book wouldn't then be claimed to be very well grounded in fact, would it?

Two more words of advice. Falls The Shadow is part two of The Welsh Trilogy (Here Be Dragons coming before and The Reckoning after). It's better to read them in order. Besides, Here be Dragons, which I reviewed previously, is just as fantastic. Another caution, make sure you have a box of tissues handy for the last 100 pages, because you will cry. I thought my heart was being ripped open, I swear.