22. Writing tag
I read The Opposite of Fate, by Amy Tan
Book 3, Page 3 under the writing tag list (7-30-08)
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My score for this book:
25 points for the writing tag
10 points for the review
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My total score for this book: 35 points
My cumulative score so far in the game: 790 points
Number of books I've read for TITTM: 18
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My rating for this book: 5 stars
I chose this book for the writing tag because I've heard Amy Tan speak and knew that her stories about her real life are as interesting as her fiction. And The Opposite of Fate not only lived up to my expectations, it exceeded them. This is a wonderful book!
It isn't a writing manual, but a compilation of short essays about many subjects. There is a love letter to her husband, and an essay she wrote at the age of 8 about what the library means to her. She talks about what it's like to be a famous writer, why she writes, where she gets ideas for her books, and about the very dramatic and often tragic events in her family and in her own life. Some of these events appear in her novels, although they are not autobiographical. And she explains her belief system about such things as the existence of an afterlife and especially about fate vs. random luck vs. action and choice - hence the title of the book.
The Opposite of Fate even meshed well with our July Fairy Tales tag, in that Tan talks about fairy tales and how they were her favorite reading as a child and the eventual inspiration for her to get back into reading and begin writing.
I enjoyed her comments about symbolism in literature. She says that students and professors of literature, critics, reviewers, and other experts often see symbolism where none was intended. She gives many - sometimes hilarious - examples of misinterpretations from her work. Apparently these people are trying too hard - after all, they have to earn their living! This was reassuring to me, as I often feel that I don't get the symbolism in the books I read. Now I know that maybe there wasn't any, it was just an interesting story.
There are also several great - and very revealing, of character, not skin! - photos from her life and family. On page 71 (of the hardcover edition) is a photo of her grandmother which appears (cropped) on the cover of some editions of The Bonesetter's daughter. In this book, you can view the entire photo. There is another person, identity unknown, in it.
I went to a reading/talk/booksigning given by Amy Tan when the Bonesetter's Daughter was published. During the talk, she told us that the Chinese woman on the cover photo is her grandmother, and she told us about the photo. I noticed that Amy Tan's photo on the author bio looked strikingly like her grandmother's photo on the cover, even down to the pose, facial expression, and some similarity of clothing. So while Amy was signing my copy of the book, I asked her if the similarity was deliberate or coincidental. She said that it was deliberate, and told me a little about the photo shoot. She also said that as far as she knew, I was the only reader who had ever noticed this. Of course, I never would have noticed it except for what she'd told us about the cover photo. That got me looking for physical similarity, and that's how I noticed the other things. (This is a bit off-topic for this particular book, but I'm posting it here because I want other people to know about this! It is such an interesting and wonderful aspect of The Bonesetter's Daughter.)
Following are some quotes that I especially liked from The Opposite of Fate:
"It's lonely to go through life with your heartaches."
"I realized that memories were elusive, that you could not will them to stay, and that some you could not will to go away. I was old enough to understand that some things were in my memory like waking morning dreams. No matter how much I tried to hang on to them, they slipped away. And when I tried to find a way to remember them, by, say, writing about them, or drawing a picture of them, the result was not even close. And the result then became the memory that replaced the real thing."
"And I remembered also how I didn't want to hope too much, knowing that those hopes might turn into almost unendurable pain. In spite of what I didn't hope, the pain was still unbearable, a void so empty, so completely without meaning that it made me hope our existence did not end with the last breath and heartbeat. That same hope now made me remember all that had happened during the writing of The Hundred Secret Senses . . . how the ironies and coincidences accumulated, played off one another, forced me to wonder and consider that everything that happens is neither grand plan nor random coincidence. It is a crazy quilt of love, pieced together, torn apart, repaired again and again, and strong enough to protect us all."
"Did the ghosts of friends and family come and serve as my muses? Aren't ghosts merely delusions in grief? I know now that these questions are meaningless and the answer is absolute. What are ghosts if not the hope that love continues beyond our ordinary senses? If ghosts are a delusion, then let me be deluded. Let me believe in the limitlessness of love, the beauty of the contradictions, the miracle that is an ordinary part of life."
"The truth is, I write for more self-serving reasons - that is, I write for myself. I write because I enjoy stories and make-believe. I write because if I didn't, I'd probably go crazy. Thus I write about questions that disturb me, images that mystify me, or memories that cause me anguish and pain. I write about secrets, lies, and contradictions, because within them are many kinds of truth. In other words, I write about life as I have misunderstood it."
"The best stories do change us. They help us live interesting lives."
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