The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Interessant Buch

I have always enjoyed purchasing books from Amazon, and again, it did not disappoint. The book came in good condition, the pages were of good quality with clear print. I needed the novel for my college course and the book was delivered on time.

Amy Tan has done it again in this novel. She's captured the experience of being a Chinese-American daughter in cultural clashes with her Chinese-born mother. And she tells a fascinating story that moves between modern San Francisco and a rural China in the 1920s. Ruth Young, in her mid-forties, makes her living as a ghostwriter for self-help books and is going through difficulties with her live-in boyfriend and his children. Her mother is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and Ruth is watching her gradual decline. But when she comes across a memoir her mother started writing years earlier, it not only brings up her own memories, but she starts to understand her mother better through the gradual revelations of the family secrets. The chapters about Ruth set the stage for the core of the book, which is the story of LuLing, the mother. We learn about the bonesetter's daughter, the terribly scared nursemaid named Precious Annie who raised LuLing and the connections between the generations. It's a story of betrayal and ghosts and a curse through the ages. It's a story of relationships between sisters and teachers and mothers. It's the story of healing and hope and redemption. And it's all so interesting that it's hard to put the book down. Ms. Tan is a fine writer. She brings out some universal truths about a world I'm familiar with as well as those of a world that has vanished and can only be recreated by the skill of the author. Her sense of place is extraordinary and she puts the reader right into the skin of the characters, building the story gradually and adding telling details at just the right moments. I was swept right into it and found bits and pieces intruding on my thoughts until I could get back to it later. It was 353 pages but I wish it had been longer.

For me this is her best book. I have read Joy Luck Club, 100 Secret Senses and Kitchen God's Wife all of which are excellent but this book tops them all. You can understand the conflict inside, as the heroine feels she is American yet her roots are chinese, so some loyalty must lie there. I feel this should be a must read for our multicultural society to gain awareness of the struggle children of emigrants have to go through to find out where they belong.

I was a bit disappointed with the paper quality. Not bright white but more a bit beige and rougher. But the story itself is wonderful. Been a fan of Tan's style of writing. Especially how she captures mother-daughter relationships taking place across a generational and cultural divide.