Peach Blossom Spring

Unexpectedly powerful. Fu paints with broad and fine strokes; she's much better at fine, but the broad is necessary in an epic like this. Her eye for everyday detail makes scenes vivid and believable. Her sensitivity to emotion makes the story compelling, although, to be honest, her characters felt a little too pat at times. Just a tad too noble. But I'm ok with it.There's a lot of pain all throughout: the suffering of nonstop war, that of paranoia and suspicion, the loneliness of hiding inside oneself. Of being unable to connect. I kept flashing back to [b:Fukuyama 57980 Trust The Social Virtue and the Creation of Prosperity Francis Fukuyama https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409522132l/57980.SY75.jpg 56475] and his exploration of high- and low-trust societies; here we see the human cost of low trust and how it can—but does not have to—ripple across and down over time. Fu admits in an afterword that the story has parallels to hers and her family's: I felt that while reading, but it was never blatant or uncomfortable. Kudos to Fu for transforming life experience into a memorable story.For me the theme that kept hitting hardest was the heaviness of living with ourselves after hard choices. Most of the characters carried that burden, each in different ways. It hurt to read. I don't expect insights like these from so young a writer, and feel crushed that she's able to describe that so effectively. And right now, what I feel most strongly is the need to reread [b:Kundera 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1265401884l/9717.SY75.jpg 4489585].