Review of The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan

The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After a summer of highly disappointing new books, I felt that I should read something that I knew would be well-written. The Bonesetter's Daughter certainly didn't disappoint. I have long been a fan of Amy Tan's short stories, but have somehow never found the time to read any of her novels. (I know, I should read The Joy Luck Club).

The characters were very real and relatable. Tan is a master dialoguestician (it's a word now, deal with it). I found the depiction of Ruth, the primary narrator, very true to life-- a woman with a complicated relationship with her mother, LuLing, who immigrated from China. Growing up, Ruth has constantly been under her mom's overbearing thumb. In most of Ruth's early depiction of her mother, I felt, as a reader, no sympathy or positive emotions toward LuLing, though the narrator does keep going back to and helping her mother.

However, after LuLing narrates (through memoir) the middle of the book, the reader can see why LuLing is hardened and strict with her daughter growing up because of the hardships that have befallen her. What I found so fantastic is the two diverse voices in the narration between LuLing (who has been translated) and Ruth. The skill it takes to write in two such different voices is a skill I would love to add to my writing palette.

The prose in this book is beautiful and thought-provoking, but sometimes that is the easy part. The book is chocked full of complex thematic elements. One element I gravitated to is the complex relationship between memory and the past, and how they aren't analogous. LuLing is amidst the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, it is discovered, and she begins to reveal much about her past which Ruth has never heard or has heard alternate versions of, and Ruth begins to attribute these "misrememberings" as further evidence of her mother's lapsing memory. Ruth discovers writings her mother has scratched down, and has them translated by someone who reads Mandarin better than Ruth, who has neglected her mother-given duty to learn the characters of the language. What comes back from the translator affirms many of the memories referred to by LuLing. The irony of a woman with memory loss who is now speaking in more truths than she had before is a revealing commentary about memories and the past not being at all synonymous. As a matter of fact, the past and memory almost become opposites.

One other element I found intriguing was the topic of voicelessness. As the novel begins, Ruth talks much of the past: of a period of time each year when she loses the ability to speak, as well as a traumatic event in her childhood that causes her to go mute for a time, though part of this is put on because LuLing begins treating Ruth in a much kinder way. It is during this time that Ruth begins to channel the spirit of LuLing's deceased nursemaid (view spoiler)[(who it is later revealed is LuLing's mother and Ruth's grandmother) (hide spoiler)], who LuLing refers to as Precious Auntie. In fact, Precious Auntie is the eponymous bonesetter's daughter. I did find it a nice touch that this "channeling" in a way, also made Ruth a bonesetter's daughter. Precious Auntie loses her own voice after a series of truly tragic events. The voicelessness gives a desperation to the story telling. The lack of voice reveals itself as the novel unfolds and this story, Precious Auntie's and LuLing's stories, struggle to find their way from the past into Ruth's present. Voicelessness reflects our emotional inabilities for honesty and speaks to the complexity of our own mind's repression and reluctance for giving us the truth (the truth itself being as complicated and clouded as much as memory).

I consider the novel a superbly-conceived and remarkably-written modern classic and look forward to my next Amy Tan novel.

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