The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
I have absolutely loved the author Amy Tan since I was in high school back in the mid to late 1990s. (OMGGGGGGG…typing that just made me feel OLLLLLDDDDD, yall 😨)
The first book I ever read of hers was “The Joy Luck Club” and immediately I was captivated by the way she wrote with such honesty, gracefulness, emotion, and humor. Even when writing about extremely difficult things, she finds a way to bring light into dark and find healing in hurt.
Over the years, I have read more of her novels and every single time I read one, I am amazed all over again at her storytelling abilities. Her words whisk you away into her fictional yet very realistic world from the second you read page 1.
Her characters feel SO real to me that in my mind I hear their voices as I read their dialogue….her settings feel so ALIVE that I can almost smell the various scents of the different aspects of lives the characters lead, cooking in their kitchens, bustling down their city streets, tending to their gardens.
Her Chinese cultural heritage and history is always an important piece of every novel she writes, but it fascinates me HOW she does incorporate it. It is of vital importance for the understanding of the plot and the characters, but it is never the main focus.
While her stories may INVOLVE her culture, that never REVOLVE around it….which may sound strange…it is valued and sacred and a huge part of ever single element of each story and every character, but her books are written for entertainment as works of fiction, not as books to be used to teach cultural information.
This quote from an interview with her back in 1995 sums up how she feels about this:
“Placing on writers the responsibility to represent a culture is an onerous burden. Someone who writes fiction is not necessarily writing a depiction of any generalized group, they’re writing a specific story. There’s also a danger in balkanizing literature, as if it should be read as sociology, or politics, or that it should answer questions like ‘What does The Hundred Secret Senses’ have to teach us about Chinese culture?’ as opposed to treating it as literature–as a story, language, memory.”
Of course, even though the author does not INTEND to teach her readers about Chinese culture, one can not help but absorb various bits of information presented throughout each story.
(And yall know how I do….I started researching on Google as soon as I was done reading to learn more about things I read because I am always always always trying to learn more about cultures that are not my own)
This book’s literary worth is WAY MORE than the measly 15 cents I spent for it a few years ago.
Yall see that price tag in the picture?????
Yes…I TOTALLY got this hardback—which is in GREAT condition BTW—for FIFTEEN FRIGGIN’ CENTS 😮
Let me do a side convo real quick about my most favorite used book store I have EVER been to in my life (and I have been to MANY across this country!!!) where I purchased this treasure.
Forgive me if I sang it’s praises before in other reviews….but I’m bout to just do it again because I LOVE IT AND MISS IT SO VERY MUCH.
A few years ago when we lived in Northern Virginia, a friend told me about this tremendous used book store called McKay Books in the town of Manassas. She tried to tell me of the amazingness of it but couldn’t quite but it into proper adjectives.
She just said to me “You’ve just gotta GO to see for yourself to see the awesome-ness. TRUST ME. And prepare to leave with several armfuls every time you enter those doors.”
OMGGGGGGGG…..yall, she was NOT WRONG IN THE SLIGHTEST.
When I tell you me and my boys spent HOURS there each and every time we went, I am not even lying. And when I went by myself or with a girlfriend?? Shooootttttt……I think me and my friend Sara may have spent half of an entire day digging thru the bargains on the shelves.
I could walk in there with 10 bucks and legit leave with a bag FULL of delicious reads. (althought let’s be real….I ALWAAAYSSSS spent more than 10 bucks 😄 and left with WAY more than one bag!)
The most fun part was digging thru the Bargain Bin outside the entrance where you could find their overstock or older books they were clearing out of their inventory.
Talk about the collection of literary TREASURES you could find!
Which is where I picked up this lovely book. And many others. That are still waiting on my shelf to be read….
(If yall are wondering how big my TBR pile actually is….welllllll…..I don’t even have an estimate for you if that tells you enough 😄)
So…to my fellow bookworms who live in the NOVA area, if you have not been to McKay Books, YOU ARE TOTES MISSING OUT! GO NOW!
You can thank me later.
Now…back to the review….
Here is the official summary of this read:
“Set in San Francisco and in a remote village of Southwestern China, Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses is a tale of American assumptions shaken by Chinese ghosts and broadened with hope.
In 1962, five-year-old Olivia meets the half-sister she never knew existed, eighteen-year-old Kwan from China, who sees ghosts with her “yin eyes.”
Decades later, Olivia describes her complicated relationship with her sister and her failing marriage, as Kwan reveals her story, sweeping the reader into the splendor and violence of mid-nineteenth century China.
With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, Tan conjures up a story of the inheritance of love, its secrets and senses, its illusions and truths.”
An aspect of Ms Tan’s writing that is prevalent in all of her novels that I have read is the indescribable bond between women in a family.
Whether it is a loving and meaningful connection, a troubled and difficult one or somewhere in between….. whether it between mother and daughter, grandmother to granddaughter, or sister to sister….the complexities and layers of female familial bonds are ALWAYS a huge piece of the narrative.
This book was so intriguing as it examined the unique sisterhood of younger sister Olivia and older sister Kwan.
The reader hears mostly from Olivia’s point of view thru the book, except when Kwan is telling her one of her stories of her lifetimes in China. There are so many layers of spirituality, sense of self, ancient wisdom and supernatural mystery tied into the story of how the sisters come to truly know and love each other, their pasts, and themselves.
I found myself loving Kwan’s spirit almost immediately while holding contempt and irritation with Olivia just as fast.
But I think that is what the author intends…it is vital to the unfolding of each woman’s story and witnessing the many levels of growth that occur as the pages progress.
Stories about sisters always hit me right up in the heartstrings…because I myself have a sister who is 7 years older than me.
Even though our connection to each other has ebbed and flowed thru the years–from bitter disconnection to a beloved one many times over and back again–the love and admiration I have for my big sister has always remained a throbbing pulse deep within my heart.
Reading stories such as this where sibling relationships are complicated but yet the love remains true and strong (even if one is unaware or reluctant) gets me right in the far down emotional depths.
This novel holds so many impactful realizations for the characters within it’s pages–mostly for Olivia and Kwan but for others as well—and there were so many beautifully worded moments.
“I think Kwan intended to show me the world is not a place but the vastness of the soul. And the soul is nothing more than love, limitless, endless, all that moves us toward knowing what it is true. I once thought love was supposed to be nothing but bliss. I now know it is also worry and grief, hope and trust. And believing in ghosts–that’s believing that love never dies.”
“We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming–well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.”
“If you want to take pictures of Chinese food, you have to taste real Chinese food. The flavors soak into your tongue, go into your stomach. The stomach is where your true feelings are. And if you take photos, these true feelings from your stomach can come out, so that everyone can taste the food just by looking at your pictures.”
Coming to the end of this book was like finishing a fantastic, emotional and wonder filled journey.
Even though this book was written in the early 1990s, it is a timeless treasure of a book about family, hope, mystery, tragedy, healing, redemption, wonder, the past and the future.