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  • Le bureau des jardins et des étangs par Didier Decoin
  • Jennifer L. Holm
Decoin, Didier. Le bureau des jardins et des étangs. Stock, 2017. ISBN 978-2-234-07475-0. Pp. 396.

When Katsuro, the empire's most gifted fisherman and supplier of carp to the imperial city of Heiankyo, drowns in the waters of the Kusagawa River, his wife Miyuki assumes responsibility for delivering the extraordinarily beautiful carp to Nagusa Watanabe, the director of the Bureau des Jardins et des Étangs. The honor of her deceased husband and of her entire village will depend on her success in delivering the carp to fill the emperor's fish ponds. Katsuro's carp are the most beautiful and vibrant in all of Japan. To Miyuki, however, the carp that swim in the basins at her home also have a sentimental value. They are her last worldly ties to the husband she has lost. Too small to carry the twenty fish her husband would have delivered, Miyuki decides on eight, "un chiffre bénéfique, symbole d'abondance et de fortune" (46). However, abundance and fortune will not mark Miyuki's journey. Her route is long and perilous, especially for a humble, twenty-seven-year-old woman who has never left her village and who can only define happiness against that which it is not (133). During the long days, climbing through forest vegetation and scaling mountains, Miyuki uses the stories Katsuro has told her of his own trips to map her trajectory. She supports the weight of the fish she carries across her back by losing herself in memories of her husband. Their story is one of love, tenderness, humility, and respect, characteristics that increasingly contrast with the people Miyuki confronts on her journey. As she continues onward to Heiankyo, she faces unthinkable challenges and the worst of humankind. She falls victim to thieves and pirates. Men force her to prostitute herself, with the false promise of assistance afterward. She confronts threatening animals and survives all that is menacing in nature. Ancient spirits and myths along with Shinto and Buddhist figures and beliefs alternately frighten and give strength to Miyuki. As she loses carp along the way, an overwhelming sense of shame consumes Miyuki, and the terrible fate for which she believes she is destined becomes almost certain. Nevertheless, she continues on the path to Heiankyo, finding hidden strength within her frail frame. Didier Decoin's novel is a lesson in strength and perseverance as well as in Japanese history and culture. Readers walk through twelfth-century Japan alongside Miyuki. Vibrant and enthralling descriptions and metaphors plunge the reader into an era unknown by most. The odors of the forest floor following pounding rains, the calls of cranes taking flight, the early morning mist floating above a river, and [End Page 259] the feel of shimmering carp scales brushing up against a hand or leg are exemplary of the sensations that rise off each page. The scope with which Decoin writes consumes the reader, rendering this novel heartbreakingly palpable.

Jennifer L. Holm
University of Virginia's College, Wise
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