Books
by Amy Tan
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Saving Fish from Drowning |
Eleven American tourists on an art expedition to Burma simply disappear. What happens to them is narrated by the ghost of the woman who organised the tour but died bizarrely on the eve of their departure. It's a tale of naivety and corruption, good and bad intentions, tyranny and humanity which veers rather uneasily between comedy and tragedy and has too many characters who seem like prototypes. Worth reading but wait for the paperback.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 34 April 2006) |
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The Bonesetter's Daughter |
Luling speaks excruciating English, is obstinate, forgetful, critical, superstitious and forever threatening to die. Her American-born daughter, Ruth, uncertain of her mother's love, regards her with embarrassed exasperation until she reads Luling's account of her early life in a remote Chinese village. Uncovering the secrets of Precious Auntie, dragon bones and Peking Man, Ruth comes to terms with the events of her own childhood and learns to understand herself. It's quintessential Amy Tan. Read it!
(Jenny Baker - bwl 10 August 2001) |
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The Kitchen God's Wife |
Pearl and her Chinese mother Winnie have secrets from each other. Then for devious reasons, Winnie feels compelled to tell her life story: pre WWII Japanese invasion of China, WWII and above all her appalling marriage. (How does Tan manage to recreate, utterly convincingly, the reality of Chinese life during that period? She wasn't there!). Winnie's truth releases Pearl from her own silence. So a tasty sandwich: mother-and-daughter each end with enthralling historic reconstruction as filling.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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