Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu
| Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu | |
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| Category: Historical Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Lesley Mason
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| Summary: This re-telling of modern Chinese history through the story of one family is heavy on detail but fails to engage the emotions. | |
| Buy? No | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 400 | Date: March 2022 |
| Publisher: Wildfire | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1472277534 | |
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I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled Origins. Unfortunately it is the only truly poetic part of a book that I expected more from, covering Chinese history from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one family's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japan, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, and in Renshu's case eventually to America.
Along the way they travel with and without family members. They make and lose friends. Rarely do they find places where they feel safe, where they can build a home. There is always a threat of some kind – overt or otherwise – which drives or limits their actions.
To comfort her child, and other young ones they encounter, Meilin re-tells a number of Chinese folk tales, which are illustrated on a silk scroll that she carries and treasures. Some of the tales may be familiar to other readers as they are to me, others were new. As he grows older Renshu discovers that his mother doesn't necessarily always tell the full story.
Peach Blossom Spring, named after a fairy tale, is a fictionalised version of the life of the author's father. It is not a bad rendition by any means, but the same ground has been done by others much better. For me, part of the problem is that this is a book that wears its research quite heavily, and in places reads clumsily as a result. Also, shifting perspectives left me unclear as to whose story it was that was being told – whether it was Meilin's or Rensu's or even his daughter Lily's (though obviously she doesn't appear until near the end).
Ultimately I couldn't decide whether the book would have benefited most from a tighter edit, or from expansion so that Meilin's story, and then Renshu's could have been told in greater detail. It seems to fall somewhere between there being too much detail and not enough. Either way, I personally struggled to emotionally engage with the characters and as a result found it a long and unsatisfying read.
For Chinese history in fact & fiction try The Forbidden City by Geremie R Barme, Blue China by Bamboo Hirst or Peony in Love by Lisa See
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