It is the fourth novel by Chinese-American writer Amy Tan. Her first novel was an instant success when it was published in 1989, and it was on the New York Times bestseller list for eight consecutive months that year.Her next two works, "The Kitchen God Empress" and "A Hundred Secret Perceptions" continued the success.Published in 2001, this book is still widely acclaimed by critics and readers.Now Amy Tan has become a representative of minority writers in the American literary world.Under the background of advocating multiculturalism in today's American society, her status has gradually surpassed that of a minority or a popular novelist, and she has become one of the most famous first-class writers in the entire United States and even in the West.

The theme of the book is still the same as Amy Tan's first three novels, which revolve around the conflict and reconciliation between the two generations of Chinese immigrant mothers and daughters.Researchers may be more interested in the experience and mentality of Chinese immigrants in the United States in her writings, but contemporary urban readers, no matter where they are or of any race, will definitely find her description of the relationship between mother and daughter meticulously detailed and moving. As a child, as a parent, you can have a deep sense of identity with her role.

The novel is divided into three parts.The first part is about the life of Ruth Young, a female writer in San Francisco.The relationship between her and her cohabiting boyfriend Art, who has maintained for nearly ten years, has reached a trough at this time, and Ruth is confused and puzzled.At the same time, her mother Ru Ling began to show symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.Ruth realized that her mother's gradually lost memories, her early growth history in China, her understanding of her mother's life, revealing the root of love-hate entanglement and mutual harm between mother and daughter, and even a deeper explanation of the problems she faced in life , have great influence and significance.

The second part becomes the first person, and Ru Ling narrates her early life.This is a memoir written by the mother before she lost her memory, hoping that her daughter will know the truth about her mother's life experience.This part revolves around the rise and fall of an ink-making family in the suburbs of Beijing, the excavation of human bones in Beijing, and the tragic encounter with a bone doctor's daughter, Ru Ling's biological mother. How to live in the orphanage run by others, how to leave behind all the pains of the past, and finally come to the rough experience of the United States.As a Chinese reader, you may find fault with the author's inaccurate understanding of Chinese history, but the stories of the characters shown in this passage are still delicate and vivid, with rich twists and turns.

The third part returns to Ruth's perspective.After learning the secrets that her mother is most afraid of forgetting and never dared to mention, how will she deal with them?After understanding her mother's past, she was able to understand all kinds of awkwardness and embarrassment in her mother's character, so she forgave her mother's harm to her in the early years, reflected on the various mistakes she made when she was young, and thus digs deeper into her own character Among the problems, the relationship with my mother and boyfriend was finally reconciled.With the guidance of her ancestors, Ruth also got the motivation to put down the work of "catch the knife" for generations, and began to write for herself and her relatives, telling their stories.

During the writing of this novel, Amy Tan's mother and editor died successively.It is said that after the death of these two close relatives and friends, Amy Tan asked for the novel that had already been submitted and rewrote it again.Like many writers, these works of Amy Tan have a strong personal touch, and they are the most prominent ones.As the writer herself said in an interview with Bookreporter, the novel is like a mirror, reflecting her own life. As described in the novel, Amy Tan has not known her mother's real name for many years.She didn't know the names of her mother and grandmother until the day before her mother's death.The identity represented by the name itself has a special meaning for the author.Behind this may also be the author's own identification with his Chinese identity.It should be noted that Amy Tan's first novel was written after she accompanied her mother back to the old China that she had always dreamed of.Previously, Amy Tan was a "professional writer" like her protagonist, who once wrote a pamphlet about communication in the electronic age under a non-Chinese pen name IBM.At that time, Amy Tan thought she was a workaholic, and she found a psychologist for consultation. Unexpectedly, the doctor fell asleep three times during the consultation for her. Amy Tan therefore gave up treatment and decided to start writing novels.

Amy Tan's mother was also a dementia patient, and she has many similarities with the character of the mother Ru Ling in the novel.Amy Tan once mentioned in an interview the trip to China that greatly improved the relationship between their mother and daughter: I saw that my mother was often misunderstood and argued with others in China, just like in the United States, and found that it was not because of her poor English that she got into these troubles.I saw her communicate with my sisters and found that she was as motherly to them as she was to me, but also oppressive and irritating.When I saw my mother in a new environment, I found that she was still so familiar, and her temperament did not change. I also found that I also had these things in my temperament.When I arrived in China, I realized that I was so Americanized that I felt like a foreigner in China, but at the same time I found that I also had a very Chinese side... I think my mother was created by a specific historical period and place A very wonderful person, and I wanted to know more about that period, that place, and my mother.I wanted to know her history, so I came to where it started.

In addition, at the beginning of the book, it is described that Ruth automatically loses her voice at a certain time every year, which is also the author's own personal experience.A good friend of Amy Tan and his wife was killed by robbers on her birthday. At the request of the police, the couple came to the house to identify what the robbers had stolen and to identify the body.For about ten years thereafter, every birthday, Amy Tan would always be speechless for a few days.So far, when her birthday is approaching, she still feels depressed and nervous. "It's not because I'm afraid of growing old and getting old, but because the human body will remember the misfortune of the past."

Amy Tan was born in California in 1952. She may have suffered more misfortunes in half her life than ordinary people.When she was a teenager, her father and elder brother died of brain tumors successively, and later relatives and friends often died early.Sometimes the writer himself can't help asking himself, "Am I not born to be a disaster?" Friends also joked with her, saying "Maybe I shouldn't be friends with you."And Amy Tan herself believes that she does have psychic abilities, has occasionally seen ghosts, and can experience the feelings of others.After the deaths of her mother and editor friend, she believes their spirits still guided her through the creation of the book.In fact, the American version of the book uses an old photo of Amy Tan herself on the cover, echoing the story and photo of Aunt Bao in the novel.

Stephen King mentioned in his autobiography that Tan once told him that as authors of popular books, people usually don’t ask them questions related to the language of creation when they are interviewed. She thinks this is unfair to writers like them .In fact, Amy Tan's language is concise and clear, full of humor.This makes the process of reading and translating very enjoyable.Moreover, she often finds some vivid images in her language and dialogues, which make the writing very vivid. I don't know whether it is because the writer is a woman, or because she has inherited the concrete thinking that Chinese people are good at. Nancy Willard, a book reviewer of the "New York Times", praised the structure, comparing the book to a finely carved ivory ball, with one layer hollowed out and another layer inside, so layers are endless, and the structure is very delicate.

In addition to the four novels mentioned above, Amy Tan is also the author of two children's books, "Moon Fairy" and "Chinese Siamese Cat", as well as an autobiography "The Opposite of Destiny-Meditations". In 2005, she published a new work called "Saving Fish from Drowning".The new work abandons the mother-daughter relationship, which she is best at, and explores the moral concepts of contemporary people and the phenomenon that good intentions can also have negative results. translator December 2005