The Bonesetter's Daughter KINDLE MOBI by Amy Tan H.A.

Amy Tan's 4th novel (2001- an opera based on this book premiered in 2008), The Bonesetter's Daughter, again explores family history, particularly the often left silent or hidden history of the women of the family, with the first part of the book centred on the American born Ruth and the second on her mother LuLing's story about her Chinese childhood. At times funny or touching, and at other times filled with the frightening violence in China during World War II, The Bonesetter's Daughter is (IMHO) perhaps the best of Tan's novel. As she usually does, Tan imbues her novel with the realism only Tan's intense historical research and attention to detail can provide, yet despite the realism, Tan at times leans more towards the metaphoric magic-realism of meaningfully imbued locations and events, while also delivering the ordinary and often comedic interpretation of the world of a naive teenaged girl growing up in early 1960's America. Ruth, raised in America, does not understand her mother's behaviour and intentions, and LuLing often does not understand her daughter. Their relationship is tumultuous, but beneath it, and often unrecognized by both, there is an abiding love and commitment. As LuLing begins to experience age related dementia, Ruth reads the story LuLing has written out for her over the years of the history of LuLing's life and family in China. The tale of "Precious Auntie" (someone LuLing often and mysteriously referred to while Ruth was growing up) and the cruel, dysfunctional (and apparently cursed) family LuLing grew up in, her struggle to survive the war, and finally her marriage, emigration to America and the work she did to support a daughter alone in a new country, provides Ruth with a means to understand her mother, to see just how strong and unique a woman she is; through this understanding Ruth begins to value herself more and to make some necessary changes to her own life. It's has been often noted that Tan's greatest gift as a writer is in understanding the power of language and particularly of memory, and here she brings her talents to their fullest fruition. (H.A.)