|
Saving Fish from Drowning: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) | 
 enlarge | Author: Amy Tan
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.99 (100%)
New (70) Used (269) from $0.01
Rating:  204 reviews
Sales Rank: 9438
Media: Paperback
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 1.5
ISBN: 034546401X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345464019
ASIN: 034546401X
Publication Date: September 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Some wear on book from reading, spine creases, wear on binding and pages, we guarantee all purchases and ship all items via USPS mail.
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Amy Tan, who has an unerring eye for relationships between mothers and daughters, especially Chinese-American, has departed from her well-known genre in Saving Fish From Drowning. She would be well advised to revisit that theme which she writes about so well. The title of the book is derived from the practice of Myanmar fishermen who "scoop up the fish and bring them to shore. They say they are saving the fish from drowning. Unfortunately... the fish do not recover," This kind of magical thinking or hypocrisy or mystical attitude or sheer stupidity is a fair metaphor for the entire book. It may be read as a satire, a political statement, a picaresque tale with several "picaros" or simply a story about a tour gone wrong. Bibi Chen, San Francisco socialite and art vendor to the stars, plans to lead a trip for 12 friends: "My friends, those lovers of art, most of them rich, intelligent, and spoiled, would spend a week in China and arrive in Burma on Christmas Day." Unfortunately, Bibi dies, in very strange circumstances, before the tour begins. After wrangling about it, the group decides to go after all. The leader they choose is indecisive and epileptic, a dangerous combo. Bibi goes along as the disembodied voice-over. Once in Myanmar, finally, they are noticed by a group of Karen tribesmen who decide that Rupert, the 15-year-old son of a bamboo grower is, in fact, Younger White Brother, or The Lord of the Nats. He can do card tricks and is carrying a Stephen King paperback. These are adjudged to be signs of his deity and ability to save them from marauding soldiers. The group is "kidnapped," although they think they are setting out for a Christmas Day surprise, and taken deep into the jungle where they languish, develop malaria, learn to eat slimy things and wait to be rescued. Nats are "believed to be the spirits of nature--the lake, the trees, the mountains, the snakes and birds. They were numberless ... They were everywhere, as were bad luck and the need to find reasons for it." Philosophy or cynicism? This elusive point of view is found throughout the novel--a bald statement is made and then Tan pulls her punches as if she is unwilling to make a statement that might set a more serious tone. There are some goofy parts about Harry, the member of the group who is left behind, and his encounter with two newswomen from Global News Network, some slapstick sex scenes and a great deal of dog-loving dialogue. These all contribute to a novel that is silly but not really funny, could have an occasionally serious theme which suddenly disappears, and is about a group of stereotypical characters that it's hard to care about. It was time for Amy Tan to write another book; too bad this was it. --Valerie Ryan
Product Description
“A rollicking, adventure-filled story . . . packed [with] the human capacity for love.”
–USA Today
“A superbly executed, good-hearted farce that is part romance and part mystery . . . With Tan’s many talents on display, it’s her idiosyncratic wit and sly observations . . . that make this book pure pleasure.”
–San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco art patron Bibi Chen has planned a journey of the senses along the famed Burma Road for eleven lucky friends. But after her mysterious death, Bibi watches aghast from her ghostly perch as the travelers veer off her itinerary and embark on a trail paved with cultural gaffes and tribal curses, Buddhist illusions and romantic desires. On Christmas morning, the tourists cruise across a misty lake and disappear.
With picaresque characters and mesmerizing imagery, Saving Fish from Drowning gives us a voice as idiosyncratic, sharp, and affectionate as the mothers of The Joy Luck Club. Bibi is the observant eye of human nature–the witness of good intentions and bad outcomes, of desperate souls and those who wish to save them. In the end, Tan takes her readers to that place in their own heart where hope is found.
“Amy Tan is among our great storytellers.”
–The New York Times Book Review
“Amy Tan has created an almost magical adventure that, page by page, becomes a metaphor for human relationships.”
–Isabel Allende
“With humor, ruthlessness, and wild imagination, Tan has reaped [a] fantastic tale of human longings and (of course) their consequences.”
–Elle
“A book that’s easy to read and hard to forget.”
–Newsweek
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 199 more reviews...
 What happened? October 30, 2005
carolynindenver
101 out of 132 found this review helpful
What happened? Amy Tan's normally highly engaging and emotionally empathetic style is completely missing...much to this book's downfall. Instead, Saving Fish from Drowning is hard to read and hard to follow. I thought if I kept reading I'd eventually find the rhythm, but it just wasn't there. I tried to like it because of the equity Amy Tan has earned from her previous excellent work, but this book just doesn't measure up. Too many characters, too many rambling sidebars...try re-reading Kitchen God's Wife if you need an Amy Tan fix, because you won't get it here.
 Glad I didn't read the negative reviews before I read the book December 13, 2005
K. L. Cotugno (San Francisco, CA USA)
93 out of 99 found this review helpful
I found this book highly engaging and readable, the characters clearly defined. There was a great deal of humor, much of it black, and a great deal of heart. This book was a page turner with a message. Each character is a recognizable tourist type, and most of them would be horrified if they were saddled with the "Ugly American" label. But then, they really aren't "ugly" at all, but well meaning if clueless. On the other hand, the natives are not all innocents, and there is a lot of humor in the misdirections and misunderstandings that ensue. As I say in my title, I am glad I didn't read all these negative reviews first because I probably wouldn't have picked the book up at all and would have missed a nice reading experience.
Step Aside, Mr. Wolfe October 24, 2005
Steve Koss (New York, NY United States)
36 out of 43 found this review helpful
Fans of Amy Tan are in for a surprise with her latest novel, SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING. In this satirical tale of cross-cultural faux pas, international media, and uninformed American goodwill turned mostly bad, Ms. Tan writes an Asia-centered version of Tom Wolfe's BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES (or perhaps Richard Dooling's WHITE MAN'S GRAVE). Only here, she substitutes Burma (Myanmar) for the Bronx and GNN (read CNN) for the media precipitator of much of the climactic action. The end result, much like Wolfe's 1987 novel, is amusing for its social commentary but light in its literary heft, substituting caricature and fantastic naivete for character and improbable events for plot. Nevertheless, the result is quite entertaining, although hardly likely to spawn any anti-CNN, save the rain forests, or boycott Burma movements.
Ms. Tan chooses as her storytelling vehicle the ghost of a wealthy art patron, Bibi Chen, who has just met an untimely and rather ghastly violent death. Bibi had already organized an art and culture tour for a number of her longtime friends that had planned to follow the fabled Burma Road from Lijiang in southwestern China (claimed by some to be the inspiration for Shangri-La) across the closed border into Myanmar. Despite Bibi's death, her friends decide to follow her itinerary with a new (and unbeknown to them, gay, seizure-prone, and completely inexperienced) guide, Bennie Trueba y Cela. A series of misadventures and misunderstandings plague their trip, most of which the omniscient Bibi-ghost is powerless to prevent, but the group eventually crosses the border with Bibi's mysterious help. Once in Myanmar, more misunderstandings ensue and the twelve travelers finds themselves unknowingly involved in a sort of pseudo-Christian, second coming of Christ cult with members of a Burmese minority group called the Karen. All but one of the group disappear into the deep jungle on what they believe is a Christmas surprise part of their tour, but the rest of the world believes they have either been lost, killed, or kidnapped by anti-government insurgents.
SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING could well have been subtitled "Murphy's Law Comes to Myanmar," or perhaps "The Laws of Unintended Consequences." Innocent behavior turns to cultural insult, and everyone's best intentions create the worst of results. Ms. Tan draws of picture of hopeless cross-cultural confusion, where outdoor latrines turns out to be a sacred shrines, a copy of Stephen King's MISERY becomes the Holy Bible, and smuggled jewels and generous gifts of American dollars threaten or result in violent death at the hands of dictatorial governments. This indeed is the underlying premise of the Chinese fable about saving fish from drowning, that such acts of charity mask other objectives and often do little but harm to their intended recipients.
While Amy Tan's story line is serviceable in its role as socio-cultural satire, her characters are annoyingly stereotyped. The cast is filled with bumbling and culturally obtuse "ugly Americans," from the oversexed television star Harry Bailley to his sex-starved and swooning Chinese-American bombshell of a love object Marlena Chu, from the ultra-hypochondriac Heidi to the remarkably underdrawn Vera, a black woman who objects to the phrase "lazy eye" because "lazy" is a pejorative word. Most editorially unforgivable is the last chapter, a 42-page appendage that adds little and detracts much from the author's focus on events and misunderstandings in Myanmar, in the media, in intergovernmental relations, and among the group members themselves. Even the true nature of Bibi's death, once revealed, lends much weight to the outcome - just one more example of a fish saved from drowning only to die as an unintended result.
With SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING, Amy Tan has abandoned her usual cultural assimilation haunts for satirical realpolitik, tossing a Jon Stewart eye at American values and behavior and the dangers of unthinking, ratings-chasing media sensationalism. While this book is not on a literary par with Ms. Tan's THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER, it is nevertheless an engaging and often humorous read.
Not her best October 23, 2005
Nancy J. Mumford (W. Barnstable, MA USA)
22 out of 33 found this review helpful
I have enjoyed all her other books but Amy Tan is off her stride in this one. From the narration by a dead person to the ill placed and clunky humor, to the endless and boring side stories taking place, I found this book to be a real disappointment. I pushed myself to read it and wanted to like it but just couldn't no matter how hard I tried.
A literary tale, a comedy, a history lesson, and an expose on the political workings of the military regime in Burma January 31, 2006
Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA)
20 out of 25 found this review helpful
Tan's latest novel is a beautiful and comic tale about a group of San Franciscan tourists who disappeared during a trip to Burma (aka Myanmar). The novel opens with an author's note that this is a fictionalized account of tourists who did, in fact, disappear, so from the opening pages, the reader knows the fate of the group. Their ll-fated tour through China and into Burma is still captivating.
The title of the novel refers to well-intentioned Asians who "save fish from drowning" by pulling them from the water and allowing them to breathe fresh air. The title relates to the entire theme of the novel, which focuses on the intended but many times favorable outcomes of events which are beyond our control. What is one man's unfortunate fate is another's bounty, and what appears to be a horrible fate may actually have its own rewards.
The novel is a winner due to the narrative voice of one Miss Bibi Chen, a wealthy arts patron and the organizer of the trip to Burma. She died under mysterious circumstances right before the group's departure. Events are told from Bibi's omniscient point of view, as the group falls into anarchy and foolishly departs from her exceptionally well-crafted itinerary (the spunky Bibi is not shy about declaring where she was right and others were wrong or poorly behaved). Bibi's voice, her foreshadowing, and her insight into her friends' motivations make this story a winner.
Tan's novel manages to make all 12 tourists come to life, to leap vividly off the pages of the novel. I was a bit apprehensive about my ability to follow all these people, but it works! At times, the characters may seem overdrawn as caricatures of themselves, of American tourists who bumble along and manage to offend every foreigner they come across, but the style is necessary to make the characters stand out. Every misunderstanding in a foreign shrine or with the military police is purely comic, if a little scary for the participants at the time. The novel wraps up with five "miracles" that present themselves to a tribe of Burma and to our tour group (Bibi and the reader, of course, know the truth behind what appears to be miraculous to the people of the story).
This is a thoroughly enjoyable book that can be enjoyed as a literary tale, as a history lesson, and as an expose on the political workings of the military regime in Burma.
|
|
|
|
| |
