8: A Song for the Peach Tree In My Master’s Garden
By Christopher M. Struck
Hachi is a slave training to become a samurai. He sees taking up the sword as his only chance to better his life and social standing, and he envisions the freedom it could provide. The story is revealed through Hachi’s point of view.
In addition to his daily training activities, Hachi introduces us to two creatures of his imagination. He focuses considerable attention on a peach tree within his master’s estate. The reader goes along to a few encounters with the tree but uses the tree as a symbol of his ambition and goals. He also dwells on a chance encounter with his master’s daughter Umi whom he believes to be his one true but unattainable love.
Seeing the story through Hachi’s eyes has both its strengths and shortcomings. Being inside Hachi’s mind offers the reader into both Hachi’s experiences and his idealized views through images such as the titular peach tree and Umi. But such a view also limits the reader’s views and characterizations to Hachi’s often superficial evaluations. The reader gets an in-depth look into Hachi’s world as he sees it, but is only one side of the story.
Hachi’s viewpoint is claustrophobic at times because of all of the repetition. It makes sense that Hachi would dwell on certain thoughts and circumstances while banishing others that the reader may want to understand more. The lyrical prose draws the reader into the world, but excessive repetition can leave the reader stuck in less essential parts of the story.
I was drawn to this book as a fan of Asian historical fiction, such as Memoirs of a Geisha and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I would have preferred more plot but appreciated the poetic prose.
Thank you, NetGalley and BHC Press, for providing me an advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
