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Book Reviewed by:From the book
jacket: On an ill-fated art expedition
into the southern Shan state of Burma,
eleven Americans leave their Floating Island
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 façade 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.
Comment: Drawing comparisons to A
Midsummer's Night Dream and The Canterbury
Tales, reviewer opinion of Saving Fish From
Drowning is mixed. Publishers Weekly
('highly entertaining') and Booklist
('vitally realistic') gave it starred
reviews, and Library Journal recommended it
'for all libraries'. However, the reviewers for The Washington
Post and Kirkus were less enamored.
Craig Nova, writing in The Washington Post,
couldn't find one good thing to say about
it. However, while reading through the
litany of things he didn't
like I did start to wonder whether, perhaps,
he'd lost sight of the fact that the
characters in a book are the author's
creations, and don't necessarily represent the
author or her point of view, and need not be likeable or sympathetic.
The reviewer for Kirkus found many things to
like but concluded that the "author's
research ultimately smothers her story and
characters", providing too much "historical
and ethnographic detail about Burma".
That is, of course, a matter of opinion - if you, like most BookBrowse
members, enjoy books that inform while they
entertain, I think you will find much
to appreciate in Saving Fish From
Drowning.
As always, you can judge for yourself by
reading a very extensive excerpt at
BookBrowse.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in November 2005, and has been updated for the
October 2006 edition.
Click here to go to this issue.
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