- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; First Printing edition (7 Nov 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007216157
- ISBN-13: 978-0007216154
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 687,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Saving Fish From Drowning
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Review
‘An exciting, funny and thought-provoking story…a masterful novel.’ Telegraph
‘One can only admire Amy Tan for striking out into unchartered artistic lands.’ Sarah Churchwell, Times Literary Supplement
‘Sparkling…a very funny book.’ Metro
‘Tan’s compelling portrait of a drowning humanity, pain seeks us out in our hiding places, however far we would run.’ Observer
'She is a dazzling storyteller, equally adroit at negotiating the pitfalls of Ruth's freewheeling partnership with Art and recreating traditional family life in rural China, with its superstition, ritual and social hierarchies. The Bonesetter's Daughter celebrates the importance of family history, in particular the stories shared between mother and daughter, and makes an unobtrusive plea for the right of all human beings, however humble or displaced, to an informed, sensitive and patient hearing.' Literary Review
'Could there be a better model for writers today than Amy Tan? She tells great stories with powerful themes: love, belonging, exile, death, compassion. She moves easily between pathos, comedy and joy. She never shows off – the technique is so perfect it is invisible. She is that rare, enviable creature, a literary novelist who writes bestsellers.
This is great tragic writing, looking at the worst of human experience with a compassionate and understanding eye. I doubt if any writer alive is capable of telling such a story.’ Scotland on Sunday
Sarah Churchwell, TLS
'One can only admire Amy Tan for striking out into unchartered artistic lands'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you are looking for a "typical" Amy Tan novel about a Chinese mother and daughter, please be aware that this book doesn't follow Ms. Tan's marvelous prior novels into that rich story-telling vein. If you like satirical novels, you will wonder why Ms. Tan takes so long to lay waste to her targets.
But if you like novels rich in cultural and psychological irony, you've found a gem. I emphasize that point because irony is something that many readers avoid or don't enjoy very much. I find that there are too few well-written ironic novels, and I treasure all those that I find.
Like most stories about ironies, this one takes on such a broad theme that it can be easy to miss the message: Unintended consequences cause your purest impulses to backfire on you and on those you want to help. Ms. Tan's choice of a title gives a broad clue, in referring to an anonymous tale about a pious man who "saves" the lives of fish from drowning by catching them. When the fish die, he's disappointed but realizing that one must never waste anything, he sells the dead fishes to buy more nets . . . so he can save more fish from drowning.
Like a good symphony composer, Ms. Tan then endows her major characters with story lines that let them each play out that theme in their own variations. To make sure we get the point, each personal story is imbued with ironies that are both richly developed and humorous.
To be sure we understand that there are other forces at work, Ms. Tan sets as her initial narrator a wealthy patron of the arts who has just died . . . but is still lingering around to observe her own funeral . . . and the actions of the tour group she had organized. Although other such "friendly" spirits do not narrate, we can enjoy their visitations to the living throughout the novel.
One of the beauties of the book is that Ms. Tan takes us into the cultural realities of those from many different nations and backgrounds. Those contrasts make it more obvious how much of what we do is the result of our histories, family circumstances and education.
Enjoy a great read!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great comic drama. Reading it in public was risky - on the Tube I was on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, unable to look up to check whether I'd reached my stop, then cackling out loud like a mad lady.
It's also interesting to explore the idea that tourism is both necessary and detrimental to the countries visited. And the insensibility of the tourists to the fact that the funny foreigners were real people too, with real hopes and fears and beliefs, made me cringe with guilty recognition.
But I'm not sure why there were so many characters - far too many for them to be easily distinguishable. And the framing story of the narrator's death was silly - rich in symbolism, I'm sure, but it seemed unnecessary. And there was at least one loose end not tied up.
It's also interesting to explore the idea that tourism is both necessary and detrimental to the countries visited. And the insensibility of the tourists to the fact that the funny foreigners were real people too, with real hopes and fears and beliefs, made me cringe with guilty recognition.
But I'm not sure why there were so many characters - far too many for them to be easily distinguishable. And the framing story of the narrator's death was silly - rich in symbolism, I'm sure, but it seemed unnecessary. And there was at least one loose end not tied up.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved that book. I think it is the best Amy Tan novel I have read since the Joy luck club. What is exciting is that it is different from the others.It is the story of a group of American tourists who embark on a trip to South China and Burma. The woman who should have been their tour group leader, died before the trip in very mysterious circumstances and the trip will not go as smoothly as anticipated.She will be with them, as a ghost, to recount their experiences, both comic and tragic (the group disappears one day in Burma- have they been abducted, killed?- and to tell us lots about the places they are visiting.
Part comedy, part thriller, part detective book... it is unputdownable as you want to know what happened to each of them.... Very entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time.
Part comedy, part thriller, part detective book... it is unputdownable as you want to know what happened to each of them.... Very entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not the best Amy Tan book.
This book was a book club nomination from someone who had read a few Amy Tan novels. I could not get into this book at all. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jolly Olly
Not typical
This book is not what I was expecting from Amy Tan, but definitely not worse. This tale of a group of tourists going missing in Burma is written in an ironic style. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Pattycake
not bad but not great either
I'm currently half way through this book and I'm starting to lose interest. I'm just not bonding wiht the characters, I dont care for their anguish's or dilemmas. Read more
Published on 27 May 2010 by Steel Magnolia Girl
a great read
this is one of the best books I've read. it's interesting, exciting and very well written.
Published on 5 Nov 2009 by G. M. Higgs
Highly entertaining and a really good read
One of Amy Tan's best novels, in my opinion. Very well researched, this is one of those novels which teaches you something about another country at the same time as weaving a... Read more
Published on 11 July 2009 by Literature Lady
I prefer previous books
I have read and enjoyed all Amy Tan's previous books and this is not like the others. It seems the author has a need to show off her knowledge of Burma - sorry; Myanmar - which... Read more
Published on 13 April 2008 by Mr. Stephen Oldfield
The best read I have had for a long time
I have just finished this book and I loved every part of it. It was like going on a journey - one I do not want to end. Read more
Published on 5 April 2008 by Mrs. T. Browett
An edge of the seat, unusual story
This is a compelling and unusual story. The narrator is a dead woman - an unusual device in itself. The story centers around a group of American tourists on a trip to Burma. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2007 by A. Hope
I loved this book
I loved reading this book. I loved the humour, and the clever way Amy Tan makes suggestion about countries,cultures and religion in a book of fiction. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2007 by L. J. Hikmet
Misleading beliefs
I've enjoyed Amy Tan's work before and have an inteest and knowledge of the situation in Burma having lived in the region so I bought this hoping there might be some insightful... Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2006 by jpgr44
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