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 | The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery | Reviewed by Harriet Klausner | |
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| Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
http://www.us.penguigroup.com ISBN: 1594489300 Genre: Fiction Subgenre: Historical Release date: Dec 2006 Format: Hardcover Pages: 400 Price: $24.95 | |||
| Now an elderly woman, Aurelia Bernard looks back on her life, starting with the pivotal event in 1865 New York when her mother was dying and her missionary Uncle Charles took his nine-year-old niece with him to Japan to do the Lord’s work. Less than a year later in Kyoto, he was dead and Aurelia was taken in as a servant to the Shin family by their teenage daughter, Yukako.
The patriarch head of the Shin brood, dubbed “Mountain” by Aurelia whom the localed call Urako, was a grandmaster teacher of the tea ceremony temae. However, the western invasion with its technology had made tradition look ancient, so unless experts like the Mountain made a paradigm switch to adapt to the invasion, they would become like the dinosaur. As it was, the Meiji government had withdrawn its subsidies to the arts, like the temae ceremonial rite. Mountain worried that his legacy would not survive his offspring Yukako and there was little he could do even as he was humiliated watching his mother and his spouse sell valueables at horrendous deflationary prices to pawn dealers. Worse, Yukako rejected tradition; as she easily adapted to the economic opportunities the west had brought to Japan. The Teahouse Fire is an insightful historical tale that provides the audience with a vivid look at mid-nineteenth century Japan during a period of incredible change. The key players surprisingly are the father and daughter, as Mountain sees his reason for living dying while Yukako hugs the new economy. Surprisingly Aurelia is more symbolic as a stranded westerner. The amount of information slows the plot somewhat, but armchair traveling fans will appreciate this trip to Japan where tradition is losing the battle to outside influences. | |||
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