Review: The Library of Legends
The Library of Legends by Janie Chang My rating: 5 of 5 stars 4.5 Stars, bumped because Emily Woo Zeller. Set against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of Nanjing China in 1937, The Library of Legends is partly inspired by author Janie Chang's father's real-life experience as a refugee university student after the exodus from universities in region invaded by the Japanese to deep in China's interior. At the height of the war, seventy-seven colleges and universities had relocated their faculty and students to places like Chengdu and Kunming. Their travel often occurred under arduous conditions but not as dangerous as the lives of those who remained behind in cities like Nanjing. Chang ties together the story of one such university, the fictionalized Minghua University, community, and the Siku Quanshu, or Complete Library of Four Branches of Literature, here renamed The Library of Legends. A collection of 36,000 books and some 800 million words of Chinese classics, histories, philosophy, and literature, the Siku Quanshu was, until 2007, the largest known encyclopedia in world history. (In 2007 it was surpassed by Wikipedia.) Housed in a library in Hangzhou, university faculty and students carefully packed and safeguarded the books for the duration of the war, after trekking a thousand miles (literally) with them to Guizhou. The books were hidden in caves in Guizhou to protect them from the risk of Japanese bombings. (You can read an article on this amazing collection and its protection here.) If this wasn't a rich enough story, Chang imbues the tale with elements of Chinese folklore and magical realism by including several immortal characters in the novel. To describe them in detail would be a major spoiler. Hu Lian is a young woman with a complicated past, living in an era in which differing Chinese factions fought each other almost as much as they battled the Japanese. She is trapped in a situation in which a faculty member encourages her to spy on a young man who has befriended her, Lui Shaoming. Shaoming is from a powerful Shanghai family and there are concerns that some of the Minghua student body is espousing communism. Lian is left in a difficult position during the university's flight from Nanjing to Chengdu, as she really likes Shaoming, and several others who might be mixed up in a political group. When a young woman who was leading the group is found murdered, things deteriorate into an increasingly dangerous scenario. Lian and Shaoming both wish to leave the traveling Minghua 123 and return to Shanghai, each in order to reconnect with their mothers- one who has been displaced by the Japanese invasion and the other who may be seriously ill. Against this backdrop, Lian begins to see that the legend of the Willow Star and her Prince may be acted out in her world. Can a star truly come to earth? What is the price of immortality? This is a lyrical read. It took me a while to get through and I picked up the novel again in audiobook, narrated by the wonderful Emily Woo Zeller and her voicing really tipped the book into five-star territory for me. This is, in many respects, a subtle novel. It blends fact and fantasy in such a skillful way. I will miss these characters. Oh, little Duckling... I was so glad for you. I received a free paper ARC of this novel from the publisher.
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https://ift.tt/2AIpTkg Chinese mythology, historical fiction, Janie Chang, magical realism
