About book The Opposite Of Fate: Memories Of A Writing Life (2004)
Despite the subtitle, I bought this book expecting it to be more of a memoir than it actually is. I think Amy Tan's main purpose in writing it was to set the record straight on a variety of topics, beginning with an inaccurate summary of her life that turned up in an edition of CliffsNotes. She does so in essays that directly address the points that need to be made, and also tosses in other writings that range from a college commencement address to an item she wrote for the newspaper when eight years old. As such, it's somewhat disjointed and uneven. Some parts appealed to me much more than others.Early on, she provides some personal and family history, which includes plenty of elements readers will recognize from her fiction (a character who goes one day each year without speaking, for example, and most certainly the memorable voice of her mother). This is followed by a section in which she argues that readers ought not assume that her stories are autobiographical. (Maybe they aren't, but reading between the lines in yet another section one can conclude that she sees a self-portrait in The Kitchen God's Wife.) There's also an eloquent rebuttal to the people in publishing and educational circles who insist on pidgeon-holing her as a representative of her ethnic group, gender, color, etc. and looking to her for politically correct lessons. That kind of writing, she feels (and I agree) amounts to propaganda, not literature. She says, "I write stories about life as I have misunderstood it. To be sure, it's a Chinese-American life, but that's the only one I've had so far."There are points at which it seems the lady protests too much. She mentions a journalist friend who says, "Any attention is valuable ... If you receive any, you should be grateful." I rather agree with that as well, because Tan's path to literary success appears to have been unusually smooth. Better to be misunderstood by some harebrained people than completely ignored. This is not to suggest that she doesn't deserve success; she emphatically does. But she too acknowledges that she has been lucky.Her luck has not been only literary, since apparently she's had more than her share of close brushes with death. For me, the final section is devastating. It describes a mysterious illness that overtook her and the frustratingly slow process of getting a diagnosis. Because of the story described in my own book, I recognized her discovery that most doctors and even professional medical societies are clueless when presented with something out of the ordinary. I recognized the cynical but helpful voices she found on Internet discussion boards, and her conclusion that, rare or not, this thing afflicts a heck of a lot of other people.I found most of this book utterly fascinating. It sparked an interest in going back and rereading her novels. It reaffirmed an earlier impression that Amy Tan is someone I'd be glad to know (an impression that faded when I later visited her Facebook page). Most importantly, in discussing her life and what has been important to her, she shows how much of the joys and fears of this existence are common experiences.
Los libros de Amy Tan me suelen gustar bastante. Supongo que tiene que ver con su forma de escribir las cosas, por ese toque íntimo, por las relaciones entre diferentes generaciones en una familia, por tocar el tema de la China antigua y la moderna, por el contraste entre culturas y por el día a día, y los años, que pasan por sus personajes. Además hay reflexiones interesantes entre sus páginas que te hacen meditar sobre tu punto de vista y tus opiniones. Siempre me ha dejado un buen sabor de boca. Amy Tan no oculta que sus historias beben de sus propias vivencias personales, de su familia y de su legado.Este libro en particular no es un libro de ficción. En esta obra la escritora habla de sí misma: de aspectos de su vida, de su madre y de su relación con ella, de cómo ve algunas cosas y de sus reflexiones al respecto. Creo que es un libro ideal para entender un poquito más a la persona que hay detrás de la autora y lo que le ha llevado a escribir lo que ha escrito, de primera mano. Además, siempre me ha gustado saber detalles de lo que hay detrás de una o de varias obras, del proceso creativo, de lo que lleva a alguien a empezar a publicar, por ejemplo, y sus primeros pasos.Y, encima, me ha gustado leer muchas de sus opiniones sobre determinados temas, sobre todo cuando me doy cuenta de que coincido en algunas y que otras me hacen fijarme en cosas en las que no se me había ocurrido pensar o no sabía gran cosa. Me gusta su visión del mundo y leer cómo ha ido superando sus adversidades, culminando con ese último mensaje esperanzador: “como narradora, sé que si no me gusta un final, puedo escribir uno mejor.”
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Writing about mothers, grandmothers, women, and family is a common theme in Amy Tan’s work. Though she’s probably best known as the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, and The Valley of Amazement, the book I identified with most is her nonfiction musings, The Opposite of Fate. Part short reflections and part previously published essays, Tan takes readers on a journey that begins with her childhood and ends with her fight against Lyme disease in 2001. Tan’s musings cover a variety of topics, but each are built around the relationship a mother has with her daughter. In the introduction, she writes, “while I never intended for the pieces in this current nonfiction book to explain my fiction, they do.”
—Karna Converse
I have read all of Tan's books, usually within days of release, and this was a great way to "get to know her better". You can guess at a lot of her personal life just by reading her books, with the exception of Saving Fish from Drowning: A Novel, but it was still interesting to see just what was real and what was fiction.There was a lot of repetetiveness, but that was to be expected. It says right on the description that these are mostly personal essays and speeches written over a period of years. Things that are very important to you personally will keep coming up. Especially since those essays and speeches were originally meant as stand alones. It didn't bother me at all. Again, it just made it more clear which events had the biggest impact on Tan as a person, and in some cases, a writer.As much as I enjoyed each entry, with the exception of Required Reading and Other Dangerous Subjects which I found a little too "instructive", my favorite parts were her stories about the band she belongs to, The Rock Bottom Remainders. Stephen King is a member of that band and my favorite writer, so all the little things she said about him and his wife Tabby were like bonuses for me. I was thrilled to find those references where I had not expected them.The best entry, in my opinion, was The Opposite of Fate which chronicled her illness which went undiagnosed for years. She made it clear that doctors can make mistakes, and that we, as patients, have a responsibility and a right to do our own research. With the internet, information is available to us that our forefathers would have killed for. Actually, that some died without, to tell the truth. Had Tan not done her own research, after being told repeatedly, she had no known illness, she would not have been treated for a late stage case of Lyme disease that came very close to robbing us of her talent. I, for one, am very thankful for her stubborness and tenactiy. I would hate to lose her and can't wait to read whatever she writes next.
—Kandice
I would have preferred to give this book a 3.5 rating, but it didn't seem fair to give it four when it didn't resonate with me as much as the other 4-star books I've read. (Some of which would have been 4.5s if half stars were possible here.)Back to the task at hand:I loved Joy Luck Club – both the book and the movie – so I gladly picked this memoir up when I came across it. There’s a lot to love here – Ms. Tan’s stories of her mother were often moving and hilarious, but what I enjoyed most was watching how the author navigated between two cultures, both while growing up in America and while filming JLC in China.The Opposite of Fate provided thoughtful insight into the lives behind Joy Luck Club, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Amy Tan’s novels.
—Kathleen Cremonesi
