Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Nov 07, 2008

Yulia rated it:

This is a chronicle of voicelessness across three generations of a Chinese family: it captures how these women lost their voices, why they continued to be voiceless, and how they attempted to reclaim their voice. Voice in this book is both literal and figurative: it's about standing up for oneself, speaking one's truth, being acknowledged, being understood, and not being censored. And the perpetrators who claim the women's voices can be cultural, personal (through the violation of one's secret More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 23, 2008

Irish rated it:

This was the first Amy Tan book I read. This book wasn't specifically recommended, but the author was. I was expecting something magical to happen as I turned the pages, but I couldn't get past the first four or five chapters of the book. Besides the overly long sections of actionless description (the story stagnated because of a poor balance between backstory, scene setup and description, and actual let's-move-things-along plot), the main character Ruth is so weak and whiny that I couldn't empa More...

6 comments like (12 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2008

Amelia rated it:

Amy Tan has a way of starting a story that's impossible to put down. For the first half of the book I kept wondering what about it made it so good. Anecdotal stories, relatable characters, Chinese folklore for interest ... these are all good, but I finally realized in the last quarter of the book why I liked it so much. Because it's a book about learning to love your past no matter how many scars it gives you, and learning to love and forgive your parents and ancestors, no matter what they may h More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Aug 09, 2007

Titin rated it:

usually I like reading books with historical background, but this book is not that enjoyable to me.
Amy Tan is famous for her writing of the mixture of Chinese and America culture.
I always love culture, so I decided to read this book.
I usually skim the book first.
Unfortunately, the first and second chapter is not that interesting.
I have to admit that my imagination was not run wild.
The latter chapters were better.

Funny things happened after I read t More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Holli rated it:

Like most of Tan's books, this novel focuses on mother-daughter relationships extending over several generations. It is a tale of discovering the truth about our past and ourselves. Ruth's mother LuLing is suffering with the early stages of Alzheimer's and carefully writes down the "Things I Know Are True" and the "Things I Must Not Forget" - leaving them for her daughter to find. These are the vehicles through which Ruth discovers the secrets and truths hidden in her mot More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2008

Suzanne rated it:

I just didn't enjoy this as much as Amy Tan's other books. Her plot development, with its mother-daughter issues, has become almost a formula. She does do a credible job describing life in China in the last century and I came away with a deeper understanding of that culture. I just never thought of Amy Tan as the Maeve Binchy of Asian writing. This is not meant to be a criticism of Maeve Binchy, an author whose well-written books I think are fun to read. It just is I get the impression that More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Holly rated it:

At the beginning of Amy Tan's fourth novel, two packets of papers written in Chinese calligraphy fall into the hands of Ruth Young. One bundle is titled Things I Know Are True and the other, Things I Must Not Forget. The author? That would be the protagonist's mother, LuLing, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In these documents the elderly matriarch, born in China in 1916, has set down a record of her birth and family history, determined to keep the facts from vanishing as her min More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2008

Pat rated it:

Amy Tan immerses me in mother-daughter relationships and all the behavior that is leftover from a mother's unknown past world. She brings this to bear on Ruth's, the daughter, current relationships and way in the world. Ruth is a ghost writer. I love the list of the books she helped to write:

"The Cult of personal Freedom. The Cult of Compassion. The Cult of Envy.

The Biology of Sexual Attraction. The Physics of Human Nature. The Geography of the Soul.

The Y More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 24, 2008

Dalene rated it:

I loved that I started reading this--with its interesting metaphor of fire and water coming together to make steam--while on vacation to West Yellowstone, in particular on the day we visited the geysers.

Amy Tan's mother-daughter conflicts speak to me in ways that don't need explaining. This episode did not disappoint. My only regret (is it experience or simply jealousy?) is that everything wrapped up so happily at the end in such a perfectly tied bow. I'm not so good at tying bows an More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2011

Dee added it

Amy Tan is such an awesome author. She really pulls you in to her stories. I have handed this book to my mother, who thinks she is "loosing it" and wanted her to know what a woman loosing it really experiences. But in this story, the mother seems to tell more truths, that have never been uttered, as he mind starts to go. At first, as Ruth's mother tells the doctor that she is older than Ruth knows her to be, Ruth chalks it all up to her mother's mind going. Then she tells everyone More...

0 comments like

Jan 28, 2009

Cynthia rated it:

Another wonderful book by Amy Tan. This book tells the story about 3 generations of women: Ruth, her mother Luling, and Luling's mother "Precious Auntie." All three generations had difficulties understanding each other due to secrets, personalities, misunderstandings, guilt, superstitions, etc...

Ruth's day is separated by carefully planned tasks and obligations with little time for enjoyment or sponetaity. One of those obligations is dealing with her diffuclt mother, L More...

0 comments like

Jan 21, 2012

Karen rated it:

I read "The Joy Luck Club" when it was popular 5 or 6 years ago. It was good, but didn't cause me to deliberately seek out Tan's other books. A year or so ago, my oldest daughter left a copy of "The Bonesetter's Daughter" on our coffee table. The few times she's been at home since then, she always asked if I'd read it yet. Well, I finally did. To my amazement, I was completely sucked in to the portion of the story involving the grandmother and mother when they lived in " More...

0 comments like

Nov 06, 2011

Ryan rated it:

***1/2

Not the sort of novel I'd normally pick up, but I got a cheap copy at a yard sale, and -- surprise -- I enjoyed it. Tan's portrait of a challenging relationship between a daughter and a stubborn mother in the early stages of dementia is authentic and touchingly written. My willful Irish-American grandmother had Alzheimer's, and these scenes struck familiar chords. The story becomes even more involving when it travels back into the colorful past, through the mother's writings, to More...

0 comments like

Oct 25, 2011

Kelly rated it:

I sincerely loved this book. Part I is about Ruth, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant name Liu Ling. Her mother is elderly and has been difficult her entire life. I found this part to be the least interesting. At the time the stories felt random and a little overly drawn out. However, in the grand scheme of the book it fit and made me understand and care about the characters more deeply. Part II was more fast paced and covered Liu Ling's life in China and how she came to the United States More...

0 comments like

Jun 27, 2011

Sandie rated it:

I pondered my review for about 24 hours. I didn't know how I felt about this book...my fluctuation was between not enjoying it and it was ok. I have decided that the book was ok. I enjoyed some of the history of the Chinese Americans involved in this story, but the lack of depth of characters, lack of story detail, lack of background, and just an all-round 'heavy' read. I kept waiting for the story to get more interesting...to bring me into this world and become invested in the characters or the More...

0 comments like

May 20, 2011

Cyndy rated it:

A long-time fan of Amy Tan's writing, I was recently going through some of my books to determine which could be released in my BookCrossing.com releases when I can upon The Bonesetter's Daughter. I immediately sat down to reread it in order to determine whether it might be a helpful read for my mother, whose relationship with her own mother has several parallels with this book.

::: The Plot :::

For those unfamiliar with Amy Tan's writing, her books usually center on family rela More...

0 comments like

Apr 05, 2011

Emma rated it:

I enjoyed The Bonesetter's Daughter so much that I read the entire novel in one day, which is saying something for a 350-page book.

The book is divided into three sections: first, we meet a Chinese-American woman, Ruth, who has a difficult relationship with her elderly Chinese mother, LuLing. We read about their current struggles and get extensive flashbacks from their often dramatic past. The heart of the novel comes in the next section--LuLing's memoir about her young life in China More...

0 comments like

Nov 22, 2010

Joan rated it:

I like Amy Tan and I liked this book. On occasion I found it confusing, mostly because it took me a while to get the point of view changes. As usual, Tan deals with a mother/daughter relationship. I think here she writes close to home. For a time I though the protagonist was Ruth, daughter of LuLing Liu Young. Ruth is virgually paralyzed in her relationships because of her relationship with her mother, forgetful, whining, difficult, claiming she will kill herself. Interestingly, Ruth's par More...

0 comments like

Aug 10, 2010

Katje rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 13, 2010

Rachel rated it:

I finally decided to look for The Joy Luck Club at the library – and found The Bonesetter’s Daughter instead. In a way, this book was a similar experience to it – I went into it expecting to find one thing and found another.

What I think is expert on Amy Tan’s part is the way she unveils her characters over the course of the book: to begin with, LuLing is the silly, pushy, morose, slightly embarrassing Alzheimer’s-suffering mother of Ruth. Her identity, for being what I thought a st More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 28, 2010

Mimi rated it:

Although I am familiar with Amy Tan’s work after seeing and enjoying the movie adaptation of The Joy Luck Club, this is the first time I actually read one of her novels, and it was one of the best I read all year, right up there with The Red Tent, The Ghost of Hannah Mendes, and The Color of Water (not to mention some other 5-star specials!).

As Ruth is forced to cope with her mother LuLing’s increasing onslaught of Alzheimer’s disease, she finds herself learning more about her moth More...

0 comments like

Feb 18, 2010

Felice rated it:

In Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter, middle aged ghostwriter Ruth Young is losing a parent by inches. Ruth is a woman who has defined herself in many ways but now suddenly she sees herself only as the daughter of a newly diagnosed Alzheimer patient, her mother LuLing. LuLing was raised outside of Peking by her beloved Precious Auntie. When her Aunt is lost to her through betrayal and deceit, LuLing eventually makes her way to America. As LuLing wanders in and out of the tenacious disease that More...

0 comments like

Oct 02, 2009

Kim rated it:

First paragraph of the book:

These are the things I know are true:

My name is LuLing Liu Young. The names of my husbands were Pan Kai Jing and Edwin Young, both of them dead and our secrets gone with them. My daughter is Ruth Luyi Young. She was born in a Water Dragon Year and I in a Fire Dragon Year. So we are the same but for opposite reasons.

And so begins The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Mothers and daughters, and Chinese families in America is what A More...

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2009

Monique rated it:

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Amy Tan has a gift of writing about the mother and daughter experience. One that transcends race or culture. The Bonesetter's Daughter is about the experience of a daughter coming to terms with her mother's illness and past. Just like the characters in The Joy Luck Club Ruth and her mother LuLing have a difficult relationship. Mostly do to the fact that the mother grow up in China and her daughter was raised in America. It is also a story of a daughter learning to ap More...

0 comments like

Jun 11, 2009

Dee rated it:

This book - about a mother and a daughter; her mother and her daughter was hard for me to listen to. (And yes, I am aware that it is almost like cheating to listen to a book on CD. Almost) I fear the idea of my family getting to the point of dementia and Alzheimer's b/c my great grandmother had dementia and it is an all too real possibility. And the fact that LuLing was slowly slipping into it kinda bothered me. I cannot say that I was too fond of Art. There was something about him that didn't c More...

1 comment like

Mar 29, 2009

bookczuk rated it:

Am Tan is a thoughtful writer and an interesting woman. She has a unique way of exploring mother daughter relationships. I think this was one of my favorites of hers, but I would need to re-read to say exactly why. I think it was the historical component that hooked me.

I read this a while ago and just stumbled upon a paperback copy, for free. I remember liking the book- not to the point of ecstasy, that my friend who recommended it did, but thought, all in all, it was not an unpleasa More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2010

marg rated it:

This was Amy Tan meets Ann Tyler with the new NIffeneger novel thrown in for kicks. The premise of the novel is actually extremely clever and original. The problem? I only realized that once I read the binding.
Apparently this is about a parallel between a timid, insecure woman who is a ghost writer, fittingly, while her mother, an irascible and bad tempered woman who is falling into dementia, turns out to be keeping her own strict account of her life back in China but was unable to talk ab More...

5 comments like

Jan 06, 2009

Christina rated it:

For the first half of The Bonesetter's Daughter, I kept wondering about LuLing's story. It's quietly possibly the best part about The Bonesetter's Daughter. I enjoyed Ruth's own addition to the story and it helped me understand the secrecy that surrounded her all her life, but I wasn't all that interested in Ruth's life set in the present. I muddled through the details about her relationships with her boyfriend, Art, whom she lives with, Art's daughters, Dory and Fia, and her aunt, although I un More...

0 comments like

Jul 30, 2011

Pikachu rated it:

This was basically a rehash of Joy Luck Club's plot. Chinese woman gets midlife crisis and seeks solace in finding out her family's history. Instead of a network of characters, this story only really revolved around Ruth and her mother, LuLing. I liked LuLing more than I liked Ruth, who struck me as whiny and high-strung. Hearing about LuLing's history explained a lot of her behaviors and trauma. The subplot about Precious Auntie, Bao Bomu was unexpected. That's the thing about Amy Tan's writing More...

0 comments like

Feb 23, 2011

Alex rated it:

Goddamn can Tan write an ending. I'm not sure if this is my third or fourth go-round (Tan was one of my favourite authors in high school), but it's not as fresh to me as it once was. The first 40% is a bit of a slog, because Tan's "neurotic Asian-American daughter" characters are almost never as interesting as the stories told from the perspective of their mothers in the old country (the digression from this formula is what makes The Hundred Secret Senses Tan's strongest novel).

More...

0 comments like

reviews