Customer Reviews

The Ash Garden

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read The Ashgarden twice; Dennis Bock has a beautiful style and the storyline flows.
The book is filled with lyrical passages as the one when, after Sophie's death, Anton remembers how 'she had tended her garden like weather massaging the land'. It's interesting too how Bock compares the skins of Emiko and Sophie: Emiko's burns were 'like patterns on the skin ... tattoos of fire, and Sophie's skin, revaged by Erythematosis, was 'like small bits of smouldering fire ... wishing to be released from her body'. It's reinforcing the idea that Sophie, in a mystical way, was connected with the awful happenings in Hiroshima in August 1945.
I agree with previous reviewers that Bock's characterizations have flaws, and that the scene with the children playing in the snow is somewhat distracting from the story. (But the description of the snow landscape reads like a painting!)
Similarly I didn't feel the relationship between Sophie and Stephano, the Italian from Pescara, was convincing enough to be included. However, the deepening relationship between Anton and Sophie is a touching one, and altogether this book is worth to own, to read again and again. Hopefully Bock will bring us more books in the future.

This will likely be one of my more difficult reviews to write. Usually after finishing a novel I have no trouble knowing what to say about the book, not here. This is a novel of contemplation, it is both lyrical, poetic and at times slow. The story of a Japanese girl disfigured by the atomic bomb and the German/American scientist who helped create it, covers some complex philosophical issues. Is the use of a weapon of mass distruction justifiable if it brings about a perceived greater good? (in this case the end of WW2) The opening scene of Emiko and her brother witnessing the drop of the bomb is truly haunting and brilliantly written. While I had great sympathy for Emiko she was not a particularly empathetic character. I felt much more warmth for Anton the scientist and his long-suffering wife Sophie. My reason for not giving this novel 5 stars was echoed by another reviewer. I never felt like I got to know the characters well enough or understood the motivation for many of their actions. This especially applied to Sophie, who seemed both disillusioned and content with her lot in life.
There is a lot going on in this book, although it is a quick read it is by no means "light" reading. In conclusion, a line from Anton has been staying in my thoughts, he states he is less haunted by the dropping of the bomb, and more haunted by what the world would have become if the bomb had not been dropped. What indeed?

"The Ash Garden" is a poetic read that helped me cope with the aftermath of Sept 11th. It's a true literary work, one whose examination of the people affected by the Hiroshima bombings (scientists as well as citizens) is written more eloquently than most modern novels; you are moved by both the content and the author's fluid style. I found myself finally feeling more at peace with the horror that was 9/11; I hadn't expected that a novel would be my helpmate as I've struggled with what has occurred, but it's overall calming force was very welcome. I recommend the novel highly.

I was somewhat disappointed with this novel. After all the press & critical attention it was getting, I expected to be blown away. Instead, I found that while it started off strongly (amazing opening!), it petered out eventually. I also found the character of Emiko woefully one-dimensional. Bock had better success with Anton and Sophie, and I love how their relationship was portrayed. I didn't like Bock's first novel, Olympia, either. I do think that perhaps my reaction does stem from the fact that I don't like Bock's themes - war, sport, etc. don't appeal to me. Perhaps it was a great book (everybody else certainly seems to think so) but it just didn't "ring my chimes".

Let it be said right now: Dennis Bock's The Ash Garden is a very beautiful book. It is lyrical and has a very powerful poetic quality. As a matter of fact, the book reads like one long sad poem about loss and despair. This is the type of book that takes it time to tell its story. It is quiet and serene.

The books concentrates on two major characters. You have Anton, a German scientist who escaped his native land in the 40s and moved to America where he helped build the atomic bomb that would later destroy Hiroshima. Then you have Ekimo, a Japanese woman who's face was burnt by the bomb and who has lived in misery ever since. Both their lives are entwined in more ways than one as the book tries to show how much the war affected their existence. They are both still haunted by the horrors of that day.

The characters are highly believable and very well drawn out. The only problem is that the book sometimes tries to dig too deep into their lives. A lot of unnecessary back story is given in order to make these character seem more real. There is one long section where Anton looks at young kids playing in the snow which is very beautiful but which seems totally out of place in this book. It's as though Bock is trying too hard to give his characters a realistic back story.

The story is very similar to the styles of Michael Ondaatje or Alice Munro. But Bock still has to find the amazing power these two authors are able to convey through their prose. The Ash Garden is a good first novel, just not a perfect one.

This is a story about memory and what it causes people to do, in an indirect way. The story is quiet, beautifully told, and may make you cry. Definitely a book to curl up with on a rainy day.

I picked this novel because I have recently become enamored with atomic history and so was drawn to this story as it revolves around one of the scientists that created the atom bomb that fell on Hiroshima, a Japanese girl who was severely burnt by that bomb, and the woman who married the scientist. The best thing about this book is the subtlety with which Bock goes about examining the gray areas in these situations. No character is clear-cut or one dimensional; when you think you have them pinned down, there is a shift and realize they are far more complex then you realized. There is no "good" and "evil", but just people that oscillate back-and-forth between these two and mostly fall in the shady middle ground.

Bock keeps the story fresh by including passages from multiple different time periods and different points of view, but maintains enough of a structure over the whole novel as to keep it feeling like one cohesive whole, which is a venerable feat for a first time novelist I would say. His writing is lyrical and poetic, so those that love Ondaatje will find much to praise here. Mostly though, Bock knows how to spin a good tale and I found I was riveted the entire time I was reading. The mesh of history and fiction was perfect, making it hard to believe that Bock was writing about subjects so far from his own cultural upbringing or history.

Highly recommended. I will definitely be reading "Olympia", his book of short stories, and "The Communist's Daughter", which is a fictionalized tale of Norman Bethune in China.

Sometimes, chance encounters with books lead to discoveries you wouldn’t want to miss. Finding “The Ash Garden” has been one such experience. It is a superbly written, subtle, yet complex human interest story placed against the backdrop of historical events. Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the atom bomb’s devastating short term impacts reverberate through the story. The lingering long term effects, politically and emotionally, connect the three protagonists: the German scientist, having left Europe to participate in the bomb’s development, the documentary film journalist who survived the attack as a child, seriously scarred, and the scientist’s wife, a refugee from the Nazi regime. Bock succeeds in creating a deeply moving portrait of the three people whose lives are dramatically connected through these events. They also draw them to each other, almost despite themselves.

Each section is written in the distinct voice of one of the protagonists, thereby allowing each to express his or her perspective on the events over a period of fifty years. The narrative moves between present and past, each episode providing another building block for us to understand their lives’ complexities. We are exposed to their emotional conflicts and follow the often detached scrutiny of their respective behaviours and attitudes. Their recollections of the historical events naturally differ, so do their assessments of their human emotions, whether love, betrayal, guilt, shame, selfishness or atonement. Yet, the story builds gently and none of what is shared overwhelms the reader. Bock writes with great empathy for the characters, exploring their personalities without passing judgement on their action or inaction at the different stages of their lives.

Bock has described his interest in writing fiction as “raising big questions” of human society. Major topics that escape clear black and white answers. For example, the scientist joined the Los Alamos team because building the atom bomb “ was the only way to end the war”. Yet, during his research mission to Hiroshima to “scientifically assess the bomb’s impact”, he is exposed to the human suffering of innocent civilians. In "The Ash Garden", Bock proves himself a master in exploring the grey zones between right and wrong, innocence and responsibility. The narrative moves towards the anticipated and necessary confrontation between the victim and the scientist, in her view co-responsible for her suffering. The outcome is everything but clear-cut or obvious, but consistent within the story and the intentions of the author.

A deeply moving and beautiful novel with important messages for us all. [Friederike Knabe]