Years ago I saw the movie based on Amy Tan's book The Joy Luck Club. I don't remember being amazed. But I just finished The Hundred Secret Senses. This is the second book of hers I've read and I am eager to read more of Tan's stories. Love them!
Amy Tan does a beautiful job showing a balance of real and possible, extra perception, deeper memory, in her character Kwan. We see Kwan from the point of view of her half sister Olivia, who doesn't quite understand or believe everything Kwan says but doesn't try to argue her out of it. So we are taken on an incredible journey just because Olivia stays open to the possibility. I adore this story! Yes, I highly recommend it.
Page 38: Our three different fates had flowed together in that river, and become as tangled and twisted as a drowned woman's hair.
Page 49: In time, however, I taught Miss Banner to see the world almost exactly like a Chinese person. Of cicadas, she would say they looked like dead leaves fluttering, felt like paper crackling, sounded like fire roaring, smelled like dust rising, and tasted like the devil frying in oil. She hated them, decided they had no purpose in this world. You see, in five ways she could sense the world like a Chinese person. But it was always the sixth way, her American sense of importance, that later caused trouble between us. Because her senses led to opinions, and her opinions led to conclusions, and sometimes they were different from mine.
Page 118: We listened patiently to Lester, words skittering out of his mouth like cartoon dogs on fresh-waxed linoleum, frantically going nowhere.
