Saving Fish from Drowning
Ratings10
Average rating3.6
A provocative new novel from the bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's DaughterOn an ill-fated art expedition into the southern Shan state of Burma, eleven Americans leave their FloatingIsland Resort for a Christmas-morning tour-and disappear. Through twists of fate, curses, and just plain human error, they find themselves deep in the jungle, where they encounter a tribe awaiting the return of the leader and the mythical book of wisdom that will protect them from the ravages and destruction of the Myanmar military regime.Filled with Amy Tan's signature "idiosyncratic, sympathetic characters, haunting images, historical complexity, significant contemporary themes, and suspenseful mystery" (Los Angeles Times), Saving Fish from Drowning seduces the reader with a facade of Buddhist illusions, magician's tricks, and light comedy, even as the absurd and picaresque spiral into a gripping morality tale about the consequences of intentions-both good and bad-and about the shared responsibility that individuals must accept for the actions of others.A pious man explained to his followers: "It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scoop out a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank, where they flop and twirl. 'Don't be scared,' I tell those fishes. 'I am saving you from drowning.' Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything,I take those dead fishes to market and I sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes."
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I bought this book in Zion last year at a quirky antiques & books shop, and it's been sitting on my nightstand at my parents' house since. I decided to bring it with me this weekend to a family lake house trip, and I'm glad I did – this is a great book in which to get swept up. The cast of characters has an Agathie Christie feel, a diverse crew of different ethnicities, ages, personalities, and backgrounds that both fulfill and evade common archetypes so as to create interesting group dynamics. The setting is stunning; the book is clearly well-researched and replete with full descriptions of East Asian traditions, religious beliefs, history, and political turmoil – all of which catch the somewhat ignorant American tourists in a terrible situation. I'm not sure I'd qualify this as a thriller, but Tan did an excellent job of building suspense; it was hard to put down, and easy to just keep reading and reading.
The overall message is clear: tourism is not a solution to developing nations' problems, and throwing money at causes is not enough to make demonstrable change. It's hard to tell if the things tourists/distant activists do to help are actually helpful, or more harmful in the long run. It's different when you don't have a real stake in the situation, and especially when you don't understand an incredibly nuanced and brutal history. So long story short: try not to visit anywhere in political turmoil, but if you do, have a VERY good understanding of that turmoil, and the people whose lives you're stepping through.
I wasn't sure I understood the decision to have the book narrated by a ghost, except maybe to play better with the Burmese beliefs in the supernatural, and to lend a more sympathetic light to the rather unsympathetic tourists, who she refers to as her friends. There were a few detours into pieces of history that weren't especially relevant to the main plot, and the main plot wrapped up in a rather strange, too-neat, and unbelievable way. Otherwise, this was a perfectly pleasant book.
