Sarah's review
Saving Fish from Drowning: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Amy Tan
Sarah's review
Saving Fish from Drowning: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Amy Tan
Sarah's review
rating:
recommended for: fiction lovers; those with an interested in asian culture
I have to say that I think this book is best tempered with a bit of knowledge of Chinese - or at least on some sort of Asian - culture. The central characters are all westerners, thrown together on a tourist trip to the eastern hemisphere. Our narrator for the tale is Bibi, and there's a reason that she's narrating rather than participating: she's dead.
The book is quirky and fun and it does a good job of showing the differences between "us" and "them" - remember, Tan herself is a born-and-bred American. She does a good job of highlighting the distinct difference between "Chinese" and "Chinese-American," though it should be kept in mind that her descriptions of the locals is purely fictional - she events them off of stereotypes just as much as any other American might.
All in all, I think that Tan does a good job of making up for this with the fact that her narrator readily admits that she's a biased Chinese-American lady with a tend...more
The book is quirky and fun and it does a good job of showing the differences between "us" and "them" - remember, Tan herself is a born-and-bred American. She does a good job of highlighting the distinct difference between "Chinese" and "Chinese-American," though it should be kept in mind that her descriptions of the locals is purely fictional - she events them off of stereotypes just as much as any other American might.
All in all, I think that Tan does a good job of making up for this with the fact that her narrator readily admits that she's a biased Chinese-American lady with a tend...more
