The Hundred Secret Senses (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
Pablo Picasso also had his periods: African, Blue, Cubism, Modern, Rose and Analytic cubism.And so have I. Have periods: Russian, Jewish, American, Middle-East, African, you name it.One of my favorites is Amy Tan. Amy Tan-Period. This one is lasting a few years now and most of her books have a central theme: mothers and daughters. Amy Tan did not have a good relationship with her mother, or grandmother, for that matter. It could have been different if she had children of her own to really understood how mothers' minds worked( and find some closure for herself). So with this opinion in mind, I indulge in her books. And I always find what I am expecting: rich, informative, compassionate tales on Chinese culture, the family relationships, the cultural modus operandi, and the endearing characters filling up the spaces in the stories. Of course, there are always subtle cat-scratching and kitty yowling like alley cats on garbage night, raging throughout her tale, ripping any notion of womanly bonding apart. The women seldom love or even like each other, but there is always something strong keeping them connected. It becomes the mainstay of all her books.Five-year-old American-born, Olivia Lee suddenly meets her Chinese half sister, K wan Li, from the Chanmian village in the Thistle mountains, China. She brings her dreams, ghosts, myths and messages with her, bombarding Olivia in her sleep. A love-hate relationship develops over a period of thirty years, with K wan, who calls a spade a spade in any situation, including Olivia's separation from her husband, Simon. Kwan becomes larger than life, interfering in everything Olivia does. Love and bonding is mainly one-sided with Olivia always trying to keep a physical, as well as emotional distance between herself and K wan. She becomes used to K wan not minding her own business, keeping on top of practically every move Olivia makes. However, K wan sees what Olivia doesn't and she's patient with her little sister. During a visit to China, K wan opens up about her personal feelings for the first time (feelings that Olivia never cared much about). (view spoiler)[" Before I left for America, I raised three birds, not just one, so I could make three wishes at the top of the peak (of the mountain where their village is located). I told myself, If these three wishes come true, my life is complete, I can die happy. My first wish: to have a sister I could love with all my heart, only that, and I would ask nothing more from her. My second wish: to return to China with my sister. My third wish' Kwan's voice now quavers - 'for Big Ma to see this and say she was sorry she sent me away.'This is the first time Kwan's ever shown me how deeply she can resent someone who's treated her wrong. 'I opened the cage,' she continues, 'and let my three birds go free. 'She flings out her hand in demonstration. 'But one of them beat its wings uselessly, drifting in half-circles, before it fell like a stone all the way to the bottom. Now you see, two of my wishes have already happened. I have you, and together we are in China. Last night I realized my third wish would never come true. Big Ma will never tell me she is sorry.' She holds up the cage with the owl. 'But now I have a beautiful cat-eagle that can carry with him my new wish. When he flies away, all my sadness will go with him. Then both of us will be free.' (hide spoiler)]
I'm a huge fan of Amy Tan and I have read all, but her most recent novel. Tan's third novel, The Hundred Secret Senses, follows two sisters as they try to overcome culture gaps to form a bond. The narrator is Olivia, a photographer who sets up the story through flashbacks to her childhood. On Olivia's father's death bed, he tells his family that he has fathered a child who is living in a remote village in China and he wishes for his daughter to be brought to America. When Olivia is six, her adult half-sister, Kwan, is brought to live with her family in San Francisco.Kwan is a bit quirky. She claims to be able to see and communicate with the dead. She is eager to please her new American family, especially Olivia, who finds her customs and invasive nature to be off putting. Most of Kwan's visions of the dead are dismissed as crazy, until Kwan's stories begin to captivate Olivia. Kwan, a very capable storyteller, draws Olivia into her world and she begins to give into the tales of ghosts and past lives.The Hundred Secret Senses failed to grab my attention. It's a messy story. Half of the novel is comprised of Kwan's ghost stories and the other half is Olivia's rocky relationship with her husband Simon. The story is muddled and between the two story lines, it takes a painfully long time to play out and intersect. Approximately 95% of the novel is leading up to a reveal that just doesn't merit the time invested in the build. What's strange is that the story feels more like it should have been broken down into a series of short stories. The tone doesn't match between the various sections and it's jarring. I really didn't care about Kwan's ghost stories. They bogged down the pacing and it took me weeks to finish the book due to a lack of interest. The section involving the trip to China began to renew my interest in the novel. I enjoyed Olivia and Simon's adventure in a foreign culture. However, it wasn't too long before Kwan's stories came back into play and I struggled through the last twenty pages. Kwan is an interesting character, but only when she is rooted in the real world and not in her fantasy life.I love Tan's writing style and her stories are usually captivating, but this isn't the best example of her talents. Please visit my blog for more reviews and musings.
What do You think about The Hundred Secret Senses (1996)?
The Hundred Secret Senses is now one of my favorite Amy Tan novels, rivaled only by The Bonesetter's Daughter. Yes, I love The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and Saving Fish From Drowning - I love any Tan story I come across - but The Hundred Secret Senses (along with TBD) really stand out. Olivia, the narrator, is the American-born daughter of a Chinese man and an American woman. When her father is on his deathbed, he reveals to his wife that he left behind a daughter in China, and asks her to retrieve the daughter. Enter Kwan, Olivia's older half-sister who believes that she has "yin eyes" and can see and speak to ghosts.Olivia struggles her whole life to ignore and dismiss Kwan's superstitions until her marriage is crumbling and she, her estranged husband and her sister find themselves on a trip to China together. The ending is extremely poignant without being cheesy or unrealistic. Tan plumbs the depths of issues like life and death, reincarnation, history, soul ties, relationships and culture in this story, and I ate it up.
—April
Lovely story :) Not as mindblowing as The Bonesetter's Daughter, but good enough for me to stay up into the wee hours just to finish devouring this book. The story started out slow and took longer than I liked to reach the climax and there are still a few unanswered questions that I would have preferred answered, like what was Olivia's father's real name. But I guess in the big scheme of things, these little questions are inconsequential and would have distracted from the main plot. What won me over was Olivia finally accepting her sister and her loyalty and Kwan never coming back, was tragic for me. This book has enough heartwarming tragedies to truly touch the reader. And of course what was magical for me especially, was Amy Tan's unique ability to weave together many loose threads of plot by the end of the book to create a seamless fabric, an infallible truth.
—Yun Zhen
This heartwarming story is told through the eyes of Olivia, a typical American who talks about the Chinese culture and the uniqueness of her family. Olivia tells the story of her life, from when she was a young girl with her Chinese half-sister, Kwan, who has "yin-eyes" and can see the dead to the present, with the troubles of her marriage, stemming from her inability to hold back her anger. Her jealousy to Simon's late ex-girlfriend is apparent after she finds out that Simon is in love with her - as well as still in love with the late Elsa. Olivia's character is one that many can understand, for all the unfortunate events in one's life are always "someone else's fault but mine". Her tendency to push the blame onto someone else and sometimes act cruelly shows the insecurities that many face, as Tan appeals to the reader's emotions and feelings. In a last effort to repair their relationship together Olivia, Simon, and Kwan journey to China, where together they experience the power of laughter and the strength of anger. Readers experience joy and laughter and the pain and struggles and learn to cherish what is often taken for granted and learn to appreciate family.
—Gina
