I started this book with high hopes. I have always been fascinated by stories about other lands, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, with the reviews I’ve done about books that take place in Egypt and Israel. “The Ginger Tree” promised to fulfill the expectations I placed upon it, at least for the first several pages.
The year is 1903. Mary MacKenzie is twenty years old, traveling to Peking to be married. She brings with her a chaperone and a small trousseau, not knowing what to expect of the land of China, but knowing that her fiancé is waiting for her at the end of her journey. They are married soon after she arrives and set up housekeeping together, but she soon finds her husband unaffectionate and strict. Her life is lonely and the demands put upon her seem unrealistic. When she has her first child, she finds it hard to bond with the baby, who reminds her too much of her cold husband.
He leaves on a military assignment and Mary is left alone. She is invited to dinner at the home of a friend, where she meets a young Japanese nobleman, and in the course of their friendship, they have an affair. She becomes pregnant, and when her husband returns, she is thrown out of her house, forced to leave her daughter behind.
Kentaro, her lover, arranges a place for her to live, and comes to see her often. She has the child, a small boy, and she devotes hours and hours to him every day. She is able to bond with him because he was conceived in love, unlike her daughter.
I won’t give the rest of the plot away, in case you’re interested in reading the book. I was disappointed, though. I had such high hopes for Mary, but so much was left out of the story, it was hard for me to feel compassion for her. There was not enough reason given for her affair. We knew she was in a loveless marriage, but we didn’t see enough of her attraction to Kentaro before the affair began, and it didn’t flow naturally into a romance. It’s true that Mary lived in a culture that barely tolerated women, but she seemed to sink to the level that was expected of her, rather than demanding more of herself and those around her. It was hard to respect Mary, and if there’s one thing I require of my books, it’s that I be able to respect the main character. The most difficult part for me is that she did not seem to mind the fact that she lost her daughter.
This book has been hailed as a masterpiece of its time and as a classic. It was made into a Masterpiece Theater presentation. It does have beautiful imagery and helps to instill knowledge of the Chinese culture in the reader, which is the reason I chose to review it. Overall, however, I was not as impressed as I would have liked to have been.
(This book was published in 1977 by Harper and Row.)