Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
The mythology that this book creates for itself just speaks to my soul for some reason. It is my favorite Amy Tan book so far. I didn't think anything could top Joy Luck Club for me, but this book did.
Hands down, Amy Tan's best novel. I'm not sure why Joy Luck Club is her best-known work; this book blows that one out of the water.
This is a difficult one to review. Overall, I found it distinctly underwhelming. Some people describe Tan's novels as though they're life-changing. Can't say I agree given my experience with 'The Hundred Secret Senses'.
I thought that I was going to join the protagonist in her exploration into Chinese culture, which she'd always disregarded despite it being a large part of her heritage. Instead I got a story which I found rather flat. Having said that, Tan's emotive description should not be ignored. Her characters are good, flawed in ways that make them both real and likable. But at no point did I feel like I was being swept away by the story, or surprised about anything that happened.
The last half of the novel is better than the first. A particular plot trigger sets off a chain of events that makes it ever so slightly more compelling. There were points during the first half when I considered giving up, but allusions to an interesting plot twist occurring at some point down the line kept me reading. Just enough hook to make me finish it, but not with much motivation. I finished the book because I wanted to finish the book, not because of the overwhelming desperation to find out what happens that you get with a really excellent story.
I thought that I was going to join the protagonist in her exploration into Chinese culture, which she'd always disregarded despite it being a large part of her heritage. Instead I got a story which I found rather flat. Having said that, Tan's emotive description should not be ignored. Her characters are good, flawed in ways that make them both real and likable. But at no point did I feel like I was being swept away by the story, or surprised about anything that happened.
The last half of the novel is better than the first. A particular plot trigger sets off a chain of events that makes it ever so slightly more compelling. There were points during the first half when I considered giving up, but allusions to an interesting plot twist occurring at some point down the line kept me reading. Just enough hook to make me finish it, but not with much motivation. I finished the book because I wanted to finish the book, not because of the overwhelming desperation to find out what happens that you get with a really excellent story.
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
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
This was an interesting story that sort of didn't tie up completely at the end, in my opinion. I did appreciate hearing the stories about past lives and how they intertwine with each other in present and future lives. So did Kwan leave only to be reborn as Olivia's baby girl, granting Olivia and Simon the child they had been wanting and gave up on, the eventual daughter of Yiban and Miss Banner reincarnated as Simon and Olivia in this life? Reading this comes at a time when I'm wondering about someone in my present life, if this person is meant to be here right now, a relationship from a past life to serve a purpose for me, likely in healing parts of myself that were damaged in past lives, maybe by this same person in a different form, in a different life. I feel the connection and familiarity so strongly, but maybe it's a story I'm making up in order to soothe myself with some sort of explanation for the turmoil and angst in the present.
"I learned to make things not matter, to put a seal on my hopes and place them on a high shelf, out of reach. And by telling myself that there was nothing inside those hopes anyway, I avoided the wounds of deep disappointment. The pain was no worse than the quick sting of a booster shot. And yet thinking about this makes me ache again. How is it that as a child I knew I should have been loved more? Is everyone born with a bottomless emotional reservoir?" pg. 8
"Our break up was the result of many things: a wrong beginning, bad timing, years and years of thinking habit and silence were the same as intimacy. After seventeen years together, when I finally realized I needed more in my life, Simon seemed to want less. Sure, I loved him--too much. And he loved me, only not enough. I just want someone who thinks I'm number one in his life. I'm not willing to accept emotional scraps anymore." pg. 24-25
"Let me tell you, Libby-ah, I didn't know how much she hungered for love, any kind. Sweet love didn't last, and it was too hard to find. But rotten love!--there was plenty to fill the hollow. So that's what she grew accustomed to, that's what she took as soon as it came back." pg. 63
"When I was with him, I felt as if a secret and better part of myself had finally been unleashed. I had dated other guys to whom I felt attracted, but those relationships seldom went beyond the usual good times induced by all-night parties, stoned conversations, and sometimes sex, all of which soon grew as stale as morning breath. With Simon, I laughed harder, thought more deeply, felt more passionately about life beyond my own cubbyhole. We could volley ideas back and forth like tennis pros. We wrestled with each other's minds. We unearthed each other's past with psychoanalytic gusto." pg. 67
"'Good ol' Mom,' I added. 'She's the quintessential social worker, totally obsessed with helping strangers and ignoring the homefront." pg. 68
"As I stared at the list, I began to panic. Suddenly, everything about our life seemed predictable yet meaningless. It was like fitting all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle only to find the completed result was a reproduction of corny art, great effort leading to trivial disappointment. Sure, in some ways we were compatible--sexually, intellectually, professionally. But we weren't special, not like people who truly belonged to each other. We were partners, not soul mates, two separate people who happened to be sharing a menu and a life. Our whole wasn't greater than the sum of our parts. Our love wasn't destined. It was the result of a tragic accident and a dumb ghost trick. That's why he had no great passion for me. That's why a cheap chandelier fit our life." pg. 125
"And that's when I feel the grief for what we've lost over the years: the excitement and wonder of being in the world at the same time and in the same place." pg. 165
"With my former sweethearts, I had selfish love. They gave me only enough to take back what they wanted from me.
'Now I am content,' Miss Banner said. 'With Yiban, I love and am loved, fully and freely, nothing expected, more than enough received. I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.'" pg. 180
"She wears the face of someone betrayed, and I am the one who has wounded her. Certainly she must have seen herself recently in a mirror? But then the way we see our reflections from changing angles allows us to edit out what we don't like. The camera is a different sort of eye, one that sees a million present particles of silver on black, not the old memories of a person's heart." pg. 244-245
"At times I feared that our love had never overflowed into plenty, that it had been enough for a few years but was never meant to last a lifetime. We mistook a snack for a recurring harvest. We were two people starved for abundant love but too tired to say so, leg-ironed together until time passed us by and we left this world, two vague hopes without dreams, just another random combination of sperm and egg, male and female, once here now gone." pg. 279
"Now that our marriage is over, I know what love is. It's a trick on the brain, the adrenal glands releasing endorphins. It floods the cells that transmit worry and better sense, drowns them with biochemical bliss. You can know all these things about love, yet it remains irresistible, as beguiling as the floating arms of long sleep." pg. 279
"I survey the night sky, now clear of rain clouds. I remember another night long ago with Simon, when I said something stupid about the night sky, how the stars were the same that the first lovers on earth had seen. I had been hoping with all my soul that someday he would love me above all others, above all else. But it was for just a brief moment, because my hope felt too vast, like the heavens, and it was easier to be afraid and keep myself from flying out there. Now I'm looking at the heavens again. This is the same sky that Simon is now seeing, that we have seen all our lives, together and apart. The same sky that Kwan sees, that all her ghosts saw, Miss Banner. Only now I no longer feel it is a vacuum for hopes or a backdrop for fears. I see what is so simple, so obvious. It holds up the stars, the planets, the moons, all of life, for eternity. I can always find it, it will always find me. It is continuous, light within dark, dark within light. It promises nothing but to be constant and mysterious, frightening and miraculous. And if only I can remember to look at the sky and wonder about this, I can use this as my compass. I can find my way through chaos no matter what happens. I can hope with all my soul, and the sky will always be there, to pull me up. . ." pg. 323
Book: borrowed from Mom.
"I learned to make things not matter, to put a seal on my hopes and place them on a high shelf, out of reach. And by telling myself that there was nothing inside those hopes anyway, I avoided the wounds of deep disappointment. The pain was no worse than the quick sting of a booster shot. And yet thinking about this makes me ache again. How is it that as a child I knew I should have been loved more? Is everyone born with a bottomless emotional reservoir?" pg. 8
"Our break up was the result of many things: a wrong beginning, bad timing, years and years of thinking habit and silence were the same as intimacy. After seventeen years together, when I finally realized I needed more in my life, Simon seemed to want less. Sure, I loved him--too much. And he loved me, only not enough. I just want someone who thinks I'm number one in his life. I'm not willing to accept emotional scraps anymore." pg. 24-25
"Let me tell you, Libby-ah, I didn't know how much she hungered for love, any kind. Sweet love didn't last, and it was too hard to find. But rotten love!--there was plenty to fill the hollow. So that's what she grew accustomed to, that's what she took as soon as it came back." pg. 63
"When I was with him, I felt as if a secret and better part of myself had finally been unleashed. I had dated other guys to whom I felt attracted, but those relationships seldom went beyond the usual good times induced by all-night parties, stoned conversations, and sometimes sex, all of which soon grew as stale as morning breath. With Simon, I laughed harder, thought more deeply, felt more passionately about life beyond my own cubbyhole. We could volley ideas back and forth like tennis pros. We wrestled with each other's minds. We unearthed each other's past with psychoanalytic gusto." pg. 67
"'Good ol' Mom,' I added. 'She's the quintessential social worker, totally obsessed with helping strangers and ignoring the homefront." pg. 68
"As I stared at the list, I began to panic. Suddenly, everything about our life seemed predictable yet meaningless. It was like fitting all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle only to find the completed result was a reproduction of corny art, great effort leading to trivial disappointment. Sure, in some ways we were compatible--sexually, intellectually, professionally. But we weren't special, not like people who truly belonged to each other. We were partners, not soul mates, two separate people who happened to be sharing a menu and a life. Our whole wasn't greater than the sum of our parts. Our love wasn't destined. It was the result of a tragic accident and a dumb ghost trick. That's why he had no great passion for me. That's why a cheap chandelier fit our life." pg. 125
"And that's when I feel the grief for what we've lost over the years: the excitement and wonder of being in the world at the same time and in the same place." pg. 165
"With my former sweethearts, I had selfish love. They gave me only enough to take back what they wanted from me.
'Now I am content,' Miss Banner said. 'With Yiban, I love and am loved, fully and freely, nothing expected, more than enough received. I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.'" pg. 180
"She wears the face of someone betrayed, and I am the one who has wounded her. Certainly she must have seen herself recently in a mirror? But then the way we see our reflections from changing angles allows us to edit out what we don't like. The camera is a different sort of eye, one that sees a million present particles of silver on black, not the old memories of a person's heart." pg. 244-245
"At times I feared that our love had never overflowed into plenty, that it had been enough for a few years but was never meant to last a lifetime. We mistook a snack for a recurring harvest. We were two people starved for abundant love but too tired to say so, leg-ironed together until time passed us by and we left this world, two vague hopes without dreams, just another random combination of sperm and egg, male and female, once here now gone." pg. 279
"Now that our marriage is over, I know what love is. It's a trick on the brain, the adrenal glands releasing endorphins. It floods the cells that transmit worry and better sense, drowns them with biochemical bliss. You can know all these things about love, yet it remains irresistible, as beguiling as the floating arms of long sleep." pg. 279
"I survey the night sky, now clear of rain clouds. I remember another night long ago with Simon, when I said something stupid about the night sky, how the stars were the same that the first lovers on earth had seen. I had been hoping with all my soul that someday he would love me above all others, above all else. But it was for just a brief moment, because my hope felt too vast, like the heavens, and it was easier to be afraid and keep myself from flying out there. Now I'm looking at the heavens again. This is the same sky that Simon is now seeing, that we have seen all our lives, together and apart. The same sky that Kwan sees, that all her ghosts saw, Miss Banner. Only now I no longer feel it is a vacuum for hopes or a backdrop for fears. I see what is so simple, so obvious. It holds up the stars, the planets, the moons, all of life, for eternity. I can always find it, it will always find me. It is continuous, light within dark, dark within light. It promises nothing but to be constant and mysterious, frightening and miraculous. And if only I can remember to look at the sky and wonder about this, I can use this as my compass. I can find my way through chaos no matter what happens. I can hope with all my soul, and the sky will always be there, to pull me up. . ." pg. 323
Book: borrowed from Mom.
After a while, I feel like she is just writing the same book over and over.
Masterful storytelling, truly inspired. Would not want to give any of it away. You'll just have to read it.
It is a really good book, I like the parallel stories and the way the landscapes are described and the personalities of the characters, i looooove kwan i can almost see her all weird and funny.
But i hated the end, maybe i didn't get it or whatever, but i don't see the need of she despairing, when she was finally understood, now that they could have a real relationship, why was there a "sacrifice" on her part, i think the author is aiming at a happy ending any way, so kwans end doesn't add anything to it, from that point on the book loses all senses to me.
But i hated the end, maybe i didn't get it or whatever, but i don't see the need of she despairing, when she was finally understood, now that they could have a real relationship, why was there a "sacrifice" on her part, i think the author is aiming at a happy ending any way, so kwans end doesn't add anything to it, from that point on the book loses all senses to me.
As I had a couple of flights and a lot of time touring airports, this story was a perfect background flow. It is a remastered piece and yet a few sections were still very gritty sound wise but this just added to the mellowness. As a fan of SEA, I concur fried frog, fresh chicken broth with lots of greens, chewy chicken feet as well as thousand year old eggs had me yearning for a trip back to the streets of Asia …
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced