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Old 06-30-2020, 01:45 AM   #12
sun surfer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Deskisamess View Post
I enjoyed this book. The writing was nicely descriptive and calm, and I had no trouble "picturing" what was going on.

I was more puzzled by the activity level of the young man with TB. He did an awful lot of walking etc. but I didn't let this detract from the story. Overall, I totally enjoyed the book, even with the overall sad content.

As a side note, my grandfather worked for years (1950's-1960's) in a local TB sanatorium. When he was old and on his own, he ended up in a nursing home near that now closed TB facility, and the TB was was "reactivated" in his system. He didn't develop actual TB, so they didn't isolate him, but it was there in his system.
I hadn't thought about all the walking he did but you're right. And that's an interesting tidbit about your grandfather, and I'm glad to hear he didn't develop TB when it reactivated!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl View Post
I finally finished this book. It's one of my favorite books so far this year. I think the word beautiful sums it up. Beautiful writing, beautiful story. There were a lot of layers and emotions to the story even though the writing was so "nicely descriptive and calm" as Deskisamess described it.

I enjoyed the development of the relationships between the characters. It was both a coming of age story and a story of older people coming to terms with their past and future. It was not without pain and grief, but it emphasized healing and growing. I loved the integration of the gardens into that process.
It's also one of my favourites of the year, and it made me want a garden.

It reminded me somewhat of Kazuo Ishiguro's writing, which I thought interesting since Ishiguro is Japanese and was born in Japan but left Japan and focused more on Britain in his writing, while Tsukiyama is half Japanese but born in the US yet focusing on Japan here. The styles of writing are different enough, but both write with a similar languid, thoughtful and detailed melancholic aura.
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