And I had to look at those points of view and raise enough questions to ask the reader what is it we do when we see this kind of suffering.'

And other people say you should go there purely for the culture and history and art, and get to know the people of the country. 'And other people say you should engage in constructive ways of dealing with the country and be a guiding hand to improving the way they treat people. 'I was faced with the difficult question of should I go, because it was a country some people say you should boycott because of the illegal military regime that has been there since 1990,' she says. Halfway through the story, 11 of the Americans are kidnapped by members of the ethnic Burmese tribe known as the Karen, who have fled the persecution of government soldiers and taken refuge in the jungle.Īmy Tan says the book was inspired by her own trip to Burma, where she too was invited to take an art tour. Saving Fish from Drowning revolves around the mishaps of a group of American tourists who set out on what is supposed to be an art tour of China and Burma. Part ghost story, part mystery, and part travel adventure, the novel is set mostly in Burma, the country renamed Myanmar by its government. Those same themes reemerge in her latest novel, Saving Fish from Drowning (G. The other is The God of Small Things.Amy Tan is famous as the author of The Joy Luck Club and other best selling novels that explore the links between mothers and daughters, China and America, past events and present day consequences. *For those interested in the craft of writing, The Poisonwood Bible is one of the two best books I’ve found for the treatment of voice. You won’t find any ghosts in these pages except perhaps for the metaphorical variety. The intertexture of myth and reality, past and present, is so compelling, you can return again and again. Instead of this book by Tan, I recommend her novel The Joy Luck Club for pure reading pleasure. Reading the prose-so thickly filtered via a self-indulgent narrator-was akin to diving for freshwater pearls in congealed gravy.

Not so Saving Fish from Drowning, despite the diligently applied Laurie test. The Poisonwood Bible is a masterful piece of writing.* Once, while reading The Poisonwood Bible, I felt so discouraged and confused I wanted to chuck the novel into the nearest Goodwill receptacle.

I made it that far only because of my friend Laurie. The writing lacked both luster and momentum. I loved the comforting heft of the book as I settled beneath my Tree of Life quilt and snapped on the bedside lamp. I loved Tan’s trademark fusing of myth to narrative, particularly the satiric vignette detailing how one goes about saving a fish from drowning. I loved the idea-a novice ghost follows her museum friends on an ill-fated tour through Myanmar.

Saving fish from drowning author