Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan

Synopsis :

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 is forced to watch from the spirit world as the eleven travelers bumble through their adventures.

Determined to make the best of it, the pleasure seekers embark on a trail paved with uncertainty, questionable food and tribal curses.  Then, on Christmas morning, they cruise across a misty lake - and vanish.  

Coloured with picaresque characters and haunting imagery, this mesmerizing tale is about the actions we choose, the moral questions we might ask ourselves, and above all, the deeply personal answers we seek when happy endings seem far out of reach.


This is what I say :

I have not read a novel by Amy Tan for quite a long time.   Although Saving Fish From Drowning is not a new title,  I have never come across this title before.  I got this copy from a '2 for 1' deal in October last year and I am most certainly glad I did although I have to give up 2 titles for this 1 title.

I have quite forgotten how Amy's books are like even though I have read her classic titles such as The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife.  All I know is that she does write about her Chinese heritage and culture which is a major influence in her writings.

It is slightly different for Saving Fish From Drowning.  Although the story is told from the view point of a Chinese lady (or rather, a dead Chinese lady), the Chinese cultural elements are not prominent.  Maybe because she set the story in Burma or Myanmar and a majority of her characters are of mix ethnic and nationalities, it doesn't have have the 'Amy Tan' flavor.

That doesn't mean it's bad but it's just different and because I quite forgotten her earlier work (like what I mentioned above), this absence of 'Amy Tan's flavor' doesn't bother me much.

I quite enjoyed Saving Fish From Drowning.  In fact, it's the second book I bought with me during my recent gateaway.