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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I just couldn’t get into the story at all, and the main character wasn’t very likable.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Me ha gustado, pero no es mi favorito de la autora.
Nos habla de la relación de la protagonista, Olivia, con su hermana Twan. Cuando viajen juntas a China será el momento de redescubrirse a sí mismas, de redescubrir su relación y sus raíces. Un viaje de reconexión.
La primera parte del libro se ambienta en EEUU y la segunda parte sería este viaje a China. Sin duda, la segunda parte es la que más brilla.
Además, el libro tiene dos tramas: por un lado, la trama de Olivia en el presente, con su hermana y con su marido Simon, del que se está separando. Por otro lado, tenemos las historias que Twan cuenta, historias de fantasmas, de una vida anterior. Estas partes he de decir que me hicieron desconectar un poco de la historia, se me hacían cuesta arriba y no me interesaban tanto. De hecho, muchos trozos me los saltaba. Por eso ha sido un poco mitad y mitad: la parte de Olivia me encantaba, la parte de los fantasmas de Twan... eeeeew.
También el final me ha dejado cosas que desear. Esperaba un poco más de desarrollo por parte de Olivia (que es un personaje con el que resulta difícil de conectar y sobre todo hacia el final, a veces me sacó de mis casillas) y un poco más de cierre, sobre todo en cuanto a su relación con Twan, que me pareció un poco brusco todo.
Es bueno, lo he disfrutado, tiene partes muy bonitas, pero ha sido un poco 50/50.
Nos habla de la relación de la protagonista, Olivia, con su hermana Twan. Cuando viajen juntas a China será el momento de redescubrirse a sí mismas, de redescubrir su relación y sus raíces. Un viaje de reconexión.
La primera parte del libro se ambienta en EEUU y la segunda parte sería este viaje a China. Sin duda, la segunda parte es la que más brilla.
Además, el libro tiene dos tramas: por un lado, la trama de Olivia en el presente, con su hermana y con su marido Simon, del que se está separando. Por otro lado, tenemos las historias que Twan cuenta, historias de fantasmas, de una vida anterior. Estas partes he de decir que me hicieron desconectar un poco de la historia, se me hacían cuesta arriba y no me interesaban tanto. De hecho, muchos trozos me los saltaba. Por eso ha sido un poco mitad y mitad: la parte de Olivia me encantaba, la parte de los fantasmas de Twan... eeeeew.
También el final me ha dejado cosas que desear. Esperaba un poco más de desarrollo por parte de Olivia (que es un personaje con el que resulta difícil de conectar y sobre todo hacia el final, a veces me sacó de mis casillas) y un poco más de cierre, sobre todo en cuanto a su relación con Twan, que me pareció un poco brusco todo.
Es bueno, lo he disfrutado, tiene partes muy bonitas, pero ha sido un poco 50/50.
DNF
I made it to page 146 out of 358 and have to put this down. I am so terribly bored.
The plot idea isn't bad in general, but I really don't enjoy the execution. It's also hard for me in general to follow stories about people I don't care about.
Regarding the style, my biggest complaint is Kwan's dialogue. She speaks English with a big accent, which would be fine for me to read if her dialogue was presented as it often is in novels (new paragraph for each speaker, with time for other character to respond, etc.) but she goes on for entire monologues, in her highly stylized way of speaking, about people that I completely don't understand the significance of in the context of this story. It's confusing, boring, and constant.
*Note: In general, I don't like reading great lengths of highly stylized English. I think I had a similar experience when reading Huckleberry Finn and The Color Purple.
My other complaint regarding style is the excessive detail that just doesn't matter. For example, I don't need to know every single small detail of how women work in their day-to-day lives on Thistle Mountain. I don't really care about the minute detail of the house that Olivia and her husband bought, especially when the house doesn't even matter to the story's big picture. If these details matter, I want to know why.
The second big issue I have is with the other main narrator/character - Olivia. I find her to be very unlikeable. She's rude, unfairly judgmental of her family members, and has a freakish relationship with her soon-to-be-ex-husband. The constant presence of her partner's dead ex-girlfriend as a source of stress in their relationship is so weird and un-relatable, and while that might not necessarily be a deal breaker in fiction, I don't think Tan did a good job of making this set-up interesting enough or making Olivia sympathetic enough to keep me invested.
So between my dislike for Olivia as a character and my dislike for Kwan's dialogue, not to mention I still don't understand what Kwan's extremely detailed stories about living in China and encountering English missionaries have to do with Olivia's story, I have completely lost interest in continuing this book.
I made it to page 146 out of 358 and have to put this down. I am so terribly bored.
The plot idea isn't bad in general, but I really don't enjoy the execution. It's also hard for me in general to follow stories about people I don't care about.
Regarding the style, my biggest complaint is Kwan's dialogue. She speaks English with a big accent, which would be fine for me to read if her dialogue was presented as it often is in novels (new paragraph for each speaker, with time for other character to respond, etc.) but she goes on for entire monologues, in her highly stylized way of speaking, about people that I completely don't understand the significance of in the context of this story. It's confusing, boring, and constant.
*Note: In general, I don't like reading great lengths of highly stylized English. I think I had a similar experience when reading Huckleberry Finn and The Color Purple.
My other complaint regarding style is the excessive detail that just doesn't matter. For example, I don't need to know every single small detail of how women work in their day-to-day lives on Thistle Mountain. I don't really care about the minute detail of the house that Olivia and her husband bought, especially when the house doesn't even matter to the story's big picture. If these details matter, I want to know why.
The second big issue I have is with the other main narrator/character - Olivia. I find her to be very unlikeable. She's rude, unfairly judgmental of her family members, and has a freakish relationship with her soon-to-be-ex-husband. The constant presence of her partner's dead ex-girlfriend as a source of stress in their relationship is so weird and un-relatable, and while that might not necessarily be a deal breaker in fiction, I don't think Tan did a good job of making this set-up interesting enough or making Olivia sympathetic enough to keep me invested.
So between my dislike for Olivia as a character and my dislike for Kwan's dialogue, not to mention I still don't understand what Kwan's extremely detailed stories about living in China and encountering English missionaries have to do with Olivia's story, I have completely lost interest in continuing this book.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved Amy Tan's prose in this novel - it felt very immediate and fresh, and I completely believed Olivia as a character. The book doesn't shy away from showing how cruel and flawed Olivia can be, and I thought Tan did a great job making her partially self-aware of this but not fully.
The book is also a fascinating time capsule of the 1990s, not just from its references to Discmen and pagers, but from its reference to a specific social and political climate. In particular, the unease that the American characters feel about China's increasing shift towards capitalism and many references to the inferiority of Chinese-made goods feels very "of its time". Similarly, there were several passages about their reactions to Chinese cultural practices and traditions that made me cringe reading them 30 years later.
Where the book shines is the depiction of Olivia and Kwan's relationship, and the emotional tug of war that the two of them have persisted with their entire adult lives. The idea of what we owe to the people who love us is a theme that I never tire of, and Olivia's turmoil over her relationship with her sister is a poignant and believable depiction of this issue.
Olivia's relationship with Simon is less believable - while Olivia's anxieties and resentments towards him rang true, Simon was quite hollow as a character and I never fully warmed to him the way I did to the central women of the story.
I also enjoyed the historical b-plot of the novel, both on its own merits and for the way it was woven into the a-plot. It wasn't about an aspect of Chinese history I was familiar with, but I chose not to read up on it until after I had finished the book, so that I could experience the same confusion/half-remembrance that Olivia does listening to Kwan's stories. This meant that I was relying on the characters and emotional through line to sustain me through these sections of the novel, and Tan does this very successfully.
I was surprised by the ending of this book. The tone had lulled me into a false sense of security that I would be getting a run of the mill happy ending where Olivia and Simon are reunited and her and Kwan develop a better, more profound sisterly bond. Kwan's disappearance felt quite abrupt and came as a shock, but reflecting on the rest of the book it felt like the appropriate rebalancing of the karmic scales.
In summary, despite some of its awkward moments, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a strong family-driven, historical novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love the mother daughter relationships that Amy Tan tends to write about. The story is also rich in history, fables, and culture. I learn so much about life after having read her books.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It took me a while to put together the parts of this book into one cohesive whole, but once I figured out how Kwan's story of past lives fit into the present-day narrative I was hooked. I especially enjoyed the second half of the book, where Kwan and Olivia go to China together.
On the one hand, this is very much a lit fic book, where the main themes are people and family relationships. On the other hand, it's also almost a paranormal book with ghosts and reincarnation. It's really up to the reader to determine how much of the paranormal side they want to believe.
This is a hard book to describe, but it was a lovely experience.
On the one hand, this is very much a lit fic book, where the main themes are people and family relationships. On the other hand, it's also almost a paranormal book with ghosts and reincarnation. It's really up to the reader to determine how much of the paranormal side they want to believe.
This is a hard book to describe, but it was a lovely experience.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Racism
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A wonderful hardcover version of The Hundred Secret Senses was a present from my friend Tara, and it was truly a gift. Although it took a while to settle into the rich tapestry of the storyline, I was happy to let it slowly unfold for me. It’s a love story, really—between two sisters, between husband and wife, between two cultures. And like any love story, it’s detailed with heartache and loss, magic and surprises.