BIBLIOTECA TECLA SALA April 21, 2016 The Bonesetter’s Daughter Amy Tan (Sources: Official website, Litlovers, and Random House) Summary In memories that rise like While tending to her ailing wisps of ghosts, LuLing Young mother, Ruth discovers the searches for the name of her pages LuLing wrote in Chi- mother, the daughter of the nese, the story of her tu- Famous Bonesetter from the multuous and star-crossed Mouth of the Mountain. life, and is transported to a Trying to hold on to the eva- backwoods village known as porating past, she begins to Immortal Heart. There she write all that she can remem- learns of secrets passed ber of her life as a girl in Chi- along by a mute nursemaid, na. Precious Auntie; of a cave where "dragon bones" are Meanwhile, her daughter mined, some of which may Ruth, a ghostwriter for prove to be the teeth of authors of self-help books, is Peking Man; of the crum- Contents: losing the ability to speak up bling ravine known as the for herself in front of the man End of the World, where Summary 1 she lives with and his two Precious Auntie's scattered teenage daughters. None of bones lie, and of the curse Biography 2 her professional sound bites that LuLing believes she and pat homilies works for released through betrayal. A conversation 3 her personal life: she knows only how to translate what Like layers of sediment with Amy Tan others want to say. being removed, each page reveals secrets of a larger Ruth starts suspecting that mystery: What became of something is terribly wrong Peking Man? What was the with her mother. As a child, name of the Bonesetter's Ruth had been constantly Daughter? And who was subjected to her mother's Precious Auntie, whose disturbing notions about cur- suicide changed the path of ses and ghosts, and to her LuLing's life? Within LuLing's repeated threats that she calligraphed pages awaits the would kill herself, and was truth about a mother's even forced by her to try to heart, what she cannot tell communicate with ghosts. But her daughter yet hopes she now LuLing seems less argu- will never forget. mentative, even happy, far from her usual disagreeable (From the publisher.) and dissatisfied self. Page 2 Biography As a child Amy Tan believed her with a warning. me. She attended a fiction life was duller than most. She workshop at the Squaw Valley read to escape. Her parents She went from arrest to winning Community of Writers. There wanted her to be a doctor and a an American Baptist Scholarship she met writer Molly Giles, who concert pianist. She secretly to attend Linfield College in gave her advice on a flawed short dreamed of becoming an artist. McMinnville, Oregon. There, in story with too many inconsistent She began writing fiction when 1970, she met Lou DeMattei on voices and too many beginnings she was 33. Her first short story a blind date. They have been of stories. “Pick one and start was published when she was 34, together ever since. Amy then over.” Giles' suggestions guided and three years later, she publis- went to San Jose City College, Amy to write the multiple sto- hed her first book, a collection of then to San Jose State University, ries that would become The Joy short stories called The Joy Luck where she earned her B.A., as a Luck Club, published in 1989. Club, which the critics reviewed President’s Scholar, with a dou- Today Amy serves on the board as a novel. ble major in English and Linguis- of the Squaw Valley Community Author Bio tics. She attended both the Uni- of Writers. Amy was born in the United versity of California at Santa States in 1952, a few years after Cruz and San Jose State Universi- Amy's other novels are The Kit- • Also named—En-Mai her parents immigrated from ty for her Master’s Degree in chen God's Wife, The Hundred Tan China. Her father, John, was an Linguistics in 1974. She went on Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's • Birth—February 15, electrical engineer and also a to study linguistics in a doctoral Daughter, and Saving Fish from 1952 Baptist minister. Her mother, program at UC Berkeley. At the Drowning, all New York Times • Where—Oakland, Daisy, left behind a secret past, end of her education, she owed bestsellers, as well as the reci- California, USA including three daughters in Chi- $250. pient of many awards. She is also • Education—B.A., na and the ghost of her mother, the author of a memoir, The M.A., San Jose State who had killed herself when Following the murder of a room- Opposite of Fate, two children's Univeristy Daisy was nine. The Tan family mate in 1976, she left the docto- books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, • Currently—San belonged to a small social group ral program and was inspired by The Chinese Siamese Cat, as well Francisco, California called The Joy Luck Club, whose his intended career to work in as numerous articles for magazi- and New York, NY families enacted the immigrant the field of disabilities. She beca- nes, such as The New Yorker, version of the American Dream me a Language Development Harper's Bazaar, and National by playing the stock market. Specialist for programs serving Geographic. Her work has been Nearly every year, the Tan family children with developmental translated into thirty-five langua- moved, from one mixed disabilities, and later, she became ges, from Spanish, French, and neighborhood in Oakland after the Director of a demonstration Finnish to Chinese, Arabic, and another and eventually to a se- project on mainstreaming multi- Hebrew. ries of nearly all-white suburbs in cultural children with disabilities the Bay Area. into the public school system. Amy served as co-producer and co-screenwriter with Ron Bass When Amy was fifteen, her fat- Starting in 1981, she worked as a for the film adaptation of The Joy her and older brother died of freelance business writer for Luck Club, directed by Wayne brain tumors six months apart. telecommunications companies Wang. The screenplay was nomi- Her mother took Amy and her such as AT&T, IBM, and Nort- nated for best adaptation by the younger brother, John, to Euro- hern Telecom, as well as Wells British Film Academy and the pe, to see the world before a Fargo Bank, Big Eight manage- Writers Guild. She was the curse killed them all. They ment consulting firms, and the Creative Consultant for Sagwa, settled in Switzerland. Angry and America’s Cup Challenge--all the Emmy-nominated television confused, Amy found comfort in fields and endeavors, she can series for children, which has a counter-culture boyfriend-- now confess, hold no real inter- aired worldwide, including in the unemployed and psychiatrically est for her. UK, Latin America, Hong Kong, suicidal, who hung with hip- China, Taiwan, and Singapore. In 1985, in an attempt to find pies. At age sixteen, Amy was Her story in The New Yorker, meaning in life, she started to arrested for drugs and let off "Immortal Heart,"was performed write fiction in her spare ti- Page 3 A conversation... on stages throughout the United cancer. Amy has a younger brot- [Molly Giles is a longtime friend, States and in France. Her essays her, John Tan, and two half- mentor, and editor of Amy Tan’s. and stories are found in hun- sisters, Lijun Wang and Tina Her latest book is the novel Iron dreds of anthologies and text- “Jindo” Eng, who grew up in Shoes. She directs the Programs in books, and they are assigned as China. Creative Writing at the University of "required reading" in many high Arkansas in Fayetteville.] schools and universities. The In 1999, Amy was infected with National Endowment for the Lyme Disease, but was not diag- Molly Giles: Some writers say Arts chose The Joy Luck Club for nosed until 2003. Her disease their novels are inspired by a its"Big Read" program. She has had advanced by then and left scrap of overheard conversation lectured internationally at univer- her with epilepsy. Today, while or by a single incident they have sities, including Stanford, Oxford, not cured, her disease is medi- never been able to forget. You Jagellonium, Beijing, Georgetown cally managed, and her health, by seem to work from things you’ve both in Washington, D.C., and her own new definition, is exce- seen. You visualize and then Doha, Qatar. llent. She now has a valid excuse often imaginatively inhabit scenes why she cannot drive and must for your books before you write Amy's fifteen years of classical have her husband play chauffeur. them. Can you talk about the piano came in handy when she image or images that inspired The wrote the libretto for the ope- Since 1974, Amy has been ma- Bonesetter’s Daughter? ra The Bonesetter's Daughter, rried to Lou DeMattei, now a composed by Stewart Wallace, retired tax attorney. Over the Amy Tan: I was drawn by two which had its world premiere years, they have been devoted images. One is the photograph of with sold-out performances in parents to four Yorkies Bubba, my grandmother, which always September 2008 with the San Lilli, Bombo, and Bobo. Our sat on my desk. My grandmother Francisco Opera. Ms Tan's other newest member is Tux, is around seventeen in the photo musical work for the stage is a Pomeranian Poodle rescue, and in winter garb, to judge by limited to serving as lead rhythm who is a perfect gentleman the fur-lined high-neck collar.