Oh, mama; Chinese-American fiction; "The Bonesetter's Daughter".(Books and Arts)(Review)

Economist (US), The, April, 2001

THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER.

A SPIRIT-RIDDEN past casts its shadow on the present for Amy Tan, a Chinese-American writer who has built a formidable reputation by describing the cross-cultural confusion of her people. In 1999, just as Ms Tan was completing the first draft of her fourth novel, "The Bonesetter's Daughter", the past intruded in a much more immediate way.

Ms Tan's mother died, posthumously revealing secrets that she had spent a lifetime hiding. And what secrets! Ms Tan discovered that she did not know her mother's real name, let alone of the existence of a first husband and half-siblings left behind in China or that her grandmother committed suicide. In response, Ms Tan, who acknowledges using writing as therapy, rewrote the novel,...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.