A touch of
Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan. Putnam, New York, 2005. P472 |
Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter’s Daughter) has written a seemingly light comic novel with real political weight. Saving Fish from Drowning (a title that comes from a Buddhist self-justification for eating fish) might not be to everyone’s taste, but those who stick with it will find the author’s good intentions shining through.
The tour group has been a narrative inspiration dating back to Canterbury Tales and Journey to the West. Tan uses the misadventures of a fictional group of travelers as her framework for revealing
The travelers are a m?lange of well-off “been there, done that” types from
The tourists’ glossy obliviousness to their surroundings and each other is a major theme throughout Saving Fish. “People can be so mean and not even know it,” observes the tour’s youngest member, a sulky teenager named Esme, and that is pretty much how these solipsistic pilgrims act, even the inexperienced, undercover human rights activist among them. They are vaguely aware of a tourism boycott of
Bibi Chen explains. “In
1 | 2 next page »