The Hundred Secret Senses is truly one of my all-time favorite novels by Amy Tan, surpassed only by The Bonesetter's Daughter. Indeed, I have a deep affection for The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, and Saving Fish From Drowning. In fact, I love any story penned by Tan that comes my way. However, The Hundred Secret Senses, along with The Bonesetter's Daughter, truly stands out.

Olivia, the narrator, is the American-born daughter of a Chinese man and an American woman. As her father lies on his deathbed, he discloses to his wife that he left a daughter behind in China and requests her to bring the daughter back. Enter Kwan, Olivia's older half-sister, who firmly believes that she has "yin eyes" and can see and communicate with ghosts.

Olivia spends her entire life striving to ignore and dismiss Kwan's superstitions. But when her marriage begins to crumble, she, her estranged husband, and her sister find themselves on a trip to China together. The ending is incredibly poignant, without being overly sentimental or unrealistic. Tan delves deep into profound issues such as life and death, reincarnation, history, soul ties, relationships, and culture in this story, and I was completely enthralled.

The ending of this novel really leaves you heartbroken

I have recently explored some of Amy Tan's works. The Joy Luck Club truly deserves 4 stars. It beautifully depicts the complex relationships between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters. The story is filled with emotions, cultural conflicts, and the search for identity. The Kitchen God's Wife also earns 4 stars. It delves into the past and present of a Chinese woman, revealing her secrets and the impact on her family. The Hundred Secret Senses is on my TBR list. I'm looking forward to uncovering its mysteries and the unique perspective it might offer. Similarly, The Bonesetter's Daughter is also TBR. I believe these two books will further enrich my understanding of Amy Tan's writing and the themes she explores.

Let me begin by expressing that I have an intense love for Kwan! Her voice and self-confidence make her truly cool.

"Oh Libby-ah! I tell you a secret. Promise not to tell?" And as the story progresses, she becomes even cooler! A fifty-year-old lady crawling through caves. I can vividly picture her saying, "We Hakka are strong! Don't worry about me, Libby-ah. I'll be right back!" :) I firmly believe that a movie adaptation of this story would be outstanding! It contains elements of suspense, mystery, romance, death, and ghosts! Not to mention the amazing visuals that are so intricately detailed in the narrative.

However, my only criticism is that Olivia's character annoyed me on several occasions. This was especially true when she was in China. "They don't have electricity?!? They don't have a bathroom inside the house?!? I have to eat that?!? They don't have something normal prepared for me to eat?!?" It was as if she was saying, "This stuff might be sufficient for you Chinese people, but you guys are crazy!" I understand that she learns from her trip to China and grows out of her shell, but I feel that she should have known better anyway. After all, she has been listening to Kwan's stories about China for almost her entire life. One would think that by now she would have learned that things there don't always meet American standards. Also, her way of thinking is always centered around herself. I don't think she stops even once to think beyond herself, about what it must have been like for Kwan when she lived there, or what it must be like for her family who still reside there.

But despite that fact, the story is truly quite remarkable. :)

“… the senses that are related to primitive instincts, what humans had before their brains developed language and the higher functions--the ability to equivocate, make excuses, and lie. Spine chills and musky scents, goose bumps and blushing cheeks--those are the vocabulary of the secret senses. I think.”

You know a story is well crafted when you sit down to summarize it and it seems impossible. This story is about Olivia, who grows up in San Francisco. After her father dies, her half-sister Kwan comes from China to live with the family. But it's really about Kwan, who has yin eyes and can see ghosts. She tells Olivia endless stories about her past lives and what the people from those lives are saying to her now.

So is it about sisters? No. Families? Not really. China? Yes, to some extent. The spirit world? Sort of. It's about connections. All kinds of connections that reach into a possibly limitless shared past. Olivia is the narrator, and she has her issues. Her father's early death and a less-than-ideal relationship with her mother have made her hold grudges, find fault, and be selfish, nervous, and frankly, annoying at times.

Kwan, on the other hand, is a dream for the reader but not always for Olivia. Growing up, she embarrasses Olivia constantly. But all she wants is to be a big sister, share her knowledge, and warn Olivia about things. It's Kwan's voice that carries this novel, with her stories from the past woven into every conversation and the wisdom she has gained from the ghosts she sees. And always with humor.

“…in Yin World, no need save time. Everything already too late!” While reading this, during a challenging time in my life, I thought of my mother and grandmother. I felt them around me, bolstering me. Our past has that power, I think, in many ways. I really enjoyed this story that explores how the connections we make and the stories we live can stay with us, support us, and help us through.

Tuan Amy - "The Hidden Senses"

Author of literature, 327

Olivia was six when Quan, her older Chinese sister, came into her life.

Quan came from a Chinese province to the US at the age of 18, in order to fulfill the little sister's life with dreams, fantasies and love. But Olivia doesn't easily give in to the love that Quan showers on her and she even reaches a state of disgust and hatred. Olivia is not satisfied with Quan. She wants the love of her mother, and the mother is looking for the love of a man. So they all end up looking for love, sometimes finding it and sometimes not.

The worst thing for Olivia is Quan's ability to see spirits and talk to them, but the peak (in fact the peak) is when Olivia herself sees spirits and hears them. Quan is sharp-tongued, but what about herself?

Quan, on her part, wants her little sister to be happy and to love her. She is willing to do everything for Olivia. She teaches her slowly through stories and parables with the Chinese the secret of dealing with life, acceptance and completion with others and above all what love is.

This is a semi-fantasy, semi-real story about a cultural encounter between the East and the West. Between the American mother who is kind of like a cookie cutter shaping her children for the sake of finding personal happiness, and the Chinese Quan, who is not shaped and does not conform. Sometimes she doesn't even understand.

This is a story about the entry of foreigners into China, about missionaries and about love from the 19th century, parallel to the story of their concealment of foreigners in the US and the story of love from the 20th century.

This is mainly a story of the hidden senses that lay our lives for the sake of gold to the hidden goal.

In the hands of Ami Tuan, the reader is led to passages of joy and sorrow. Every character and her story, the problems that accompany them, the inner thoughts and her psychology.

Slowly the reader gets a panoramic picture. The criticism of Western culture that blocks people's ability to connect with themselves, with their desires and with other cultures.

The book is not easy, especially the transitions between the stories (the one from the 19th century at first seems inappropriate, but later it blends beautifully). The jumps that the reader makes between story to story, for me they made me shed tears at least twice.

And at the same time, the rewritten and broken writing with a cry for the flaws that characterize us as human beings.

I really loved it and I highly recommend it.

There is no doubt that I will continue to the next book by Tuan.

Pablo Picasso had his distinct periods such as African, Blue, Cubism, Modern, Rose, and Analytic cubism. Similarly, I too have had my own periods: Russian, Jewish, American, Middle-East, African, and more. One of my favorite authors is Amy Tan. The Amy Tan period has lasted for a few years now. Most of her books center around the theme of mothers and daughters. Amy Tan didn't have a great relationship with her mother or grandmother. Maybe it would have been different if she had children of her own to truly understand how mothers think and find some closure for herself. With this in mind, I immerse myself in her books. And I always find what I expect: rich, informative, and compassionate tales about Chinese culture, family relationships, cultural ways of operating, and endearing characters filling the spaces in the stories. Of course, there are always those subtle cat-scratching and kitty yowling moments, like alley cats on garbage night, raging throughout her tales, tearing apart any notion of womanly bonding. The women seldom love or even like each other, but there's always something strong keeping them connected, which becomes the mainstay of all her books.

Five-year-old American-born Olivia Lee suddenly meets her Chinese half-sister, Kwan Li, from the Chanmian village in the Thistle mountains of China. Kwan brings her dreams, ghosts, myths, and messages, bombarding Olivia in her sleep. A love-hate relationship develops over thirty years. Kwan, who calls a spade a spade in any situation, including Olivia's separation from her husband Simon, becomes larger than life and interferes in everything Olivia does. Love and bonding are mainly one-sided, with Olivia always trying to keep a physical and emotional distance from Kwan. She gets used to Kwan not minding her own business and keeping on top of practically every move Olivia makes.
However, Kwan sees what Olivia doesn't and is patient with her little sister. During a visit to China, Kwan opens up about her personal feelings for the first time. "Before I left for America, I raised three birds, not just one, so I could make three wishes at the top of the peak (of the mountain where their village is located). I told myself, If these three wishes come true, my life is complete, I can die happy. My first wish: to have a sister I could love with all my heart, only that, and I would ask nothing more from her. My second wish: to return to China with my sister. My third wish' Kwan's voice now quavers - 'for Big Ma to see this and say she was sorry she sent me away." This is the first time Kwan shows how deeply she can resent someone who treated her wrong. "I opened the cage," she continues, "and let my three birds go free. 'She flings out her hand in demonstration. 'But one of them beat its wings uselessly, drifting in half-circles, before it fell like a stone all the way to the bottom. Now you see, two of my wishes have already happened. I have you, and together we are in China. Last night I realized my third wish would never come true. Big Ma will never tell me she is sorry." She holds up the cage with the owl. "But now I have a beautiful cat-eagle that can carry with him my new wish. When he flies away, all my sadness will go with him. Then both of us will be free."
The story is told with subtle wit, humor, endearment, and compassion, especially the relationship between the two bubbly, sprightly sisters and their shared history of thousands of years. Two family secrets are included. The prose alone always inspires me to stick to Amy Tan's books. The stories are always both heart-wrenching and gripping, both lugubrious and buoyant. I've never read a book of Amy Tan's in which I didn't feel like family in the end.
In this book, love is a central theme and presented with pride. "A suitable Hakka bride from our mountains had thick calluses on her feet and a fine, high-boned face. There were other Hakka families living near the big cities of Yongan, in the mountains, and Jintian, by the river. And the mothers from poorer families liked to match their sons to hardworking pretty girls from Thistle Mountain. During the marriage-matching festivals, these boys would climb up to our high villages and our girls would sing the old mountain songs that we had brought from the north a thousand years before. A boy had to sing back to the girl he wanted to marry, finding words to match his song. If his voice was soft, or his words were clumsy, too bad, no marriage. That's why Hakka people are not only fiercely strong, they have good voices, and clever minds for winning whatever they want." "We had a saying. When you married a Thistle mountain girl, you get three oxen for a wife: one that breeds, one that plows, one to carry your old mother around. That's how tough a Hakka girl was. She never complained, even if a rock tumbled down the side of the mountain and smashed out her eye." Love, not romance, snakes through the narrative from beginning to end. "Too much happiness always overflows into tears of sorrow". But distant, emotionally-challenged Olivia will finally understand her own history, with a few unexpected surprises in store, the role of her sister, and the real meaning of hope and love when she gets to know the Chinese connection in her own life and her bond with some of the characters in Kwan Li's dreams and visions.
My Amy Tan period comes to an end with this book. It's almost as if a blueprint was used for all of them, ensuring predictability in the pattern. I did find this book a faster read, with lighter and more humorous moments than the others. There are similarities: the main character is the same as in the other books, with similar issues; the mothers are as bad as all the rest of the mothers in her books, with antagonism ruling the relationship from the daughter's side; there is always a broken relationship in America that needs to be patched up, etc. So, it gets a bit déjà vu. The suspense is created in the reincarnation and paranormal aspects. She never loses control over the characters. It's still an enjoyable, entertaining read and definitely worth the time to venture into the mystical world of Chinese culture, folklore, and village life. I just love that aspect of her books. This book didn't disappoint. However, I've had enough of ghosts and reincarnation for a while, though, and in any book for that matter. But yes, I enjoyed it.

I absolutely loved it!!! And I devoured it... I couldn't stop reading!

The story follows Olivia and Kwan, two half-sisters. Olivia, born in North America but with a Chinese father, meets Kwan when she is 6 years old and her sister is 18. Kwan acts in a certain way as a mother and nanny. She tells Olivia about all the ghosts she sees thanks to her Yin eyes and shares her stories. Thus, Olivia ends up learning Chinese and Kwan learns English, and at the same time, they establish a strange and complex relationship that will accompany them throughout their lives.

Amy Tan's style fascinates me, that amalgamation between reality and fiction, that tone of magical realism full of Chinese legends and customs, the cultural mix of East/West... In short, I had read this book before but it was so long ago that I remembered absolutely nothing, and I have enjoyed it immensely.

Kwan is a character that I don't think I will forget. She has sneaked into my heart, made me laugh and smile too many times. She is so endearing, sweet and wonderful... A fan.

It is true that Olivia sometimes drove me crazy, but it is understandable given the situation she was going through...

Highly recommended reading that although it has left me very melancholy, I have enjoyed infinitely.

I'm an avid fan of Amy Tan, having read all of her works except her most recent novel. Tan's third novel, "The Hundred Secret Senses," delves into the relationship between two sisters as they strive to bridge the cultural divide and form a connection.

The narrator, Olivia, a photographer, weaves the story through flashbacks to her childhood. On her father's deathbed, he reveals that he has a child living in a remote Chinese village and wishes for her to be brought to America. When Olivia is six, her adult half-sister, Kwan, arrives to live with the family in San Francisco.

Kwan is a rather eccentric character. She claims to have the ability to see and communicate with the dead. Eager to please her new American family, especially Olivia, she often comes across as invasive with her customs. Initially, most of Kwan's visions are dismissed as crazy, but as she proves to be a talented storyteller, Olivia gradually becomes drawn into her world of ghosts and past lives.

However, "The Hundred Secret Senses" failed to hold my attention. The story feels disjointed, with half of it consisting of Kwan's ghost stories and the other half focusing on Olivia's troubled relationship with her husband, Simon. The two storylines intersect in a convoluted manner, taking an agonizingly long time to unfold. Approximately 95% of the novel builds up to a reveal that doesn't justify the time invested.

Strangely, the story seems more suited to be a collection of short stories. The inconsistent tone between the various sections is jarring. I simply didn't care for Kwan's ghost stories, which slowed down the pacing and made it take weeks for me to finish the book due to lack of interest.

The section involving the trip to China did manage to revive my interest to some extent. I enjoyed Olivia and Simon's adventure in a foreign culture. But soon enough, Kwan's stories resurfaced, and I struggled through the last twenty pages. Kwan is an interesting character when she is grounded in the real world rather than lost in her fantasy life.

I truly appreciate Tan's writing style, and her stories are usually captivating. However, this novel is not the best showcase of her talents.

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If the people we love pass away, then they are only lost to our ordinary senses. However, if we remember them, we can find them at any time with our hundred secret senses.

I wasn't expecting this book to touch me so deeply. But books that deal with the relationships between sisters will always move me, as I have a younger sister and have always felt the need to protect her from the obstacles to her happiness.

Although I don't always understand all of Olivia's attitudes, I understand why she tries to push Kawan away from her life and I can connect with some of her insecurities. Kawan appears suddenly, at a time when Olivia is still discovering herself and comes with all these "strange" ideas about the Chinese spiritual world that she can't understand. After all, Olivia is only half-Chinese, her home is in America and she has never met her Chinese relatives. It would be difficult to understand a girl who claims to communicate with ghosts!

But Kawan doesn't give up on creating a friendship with this extremely rational sister and starts telling her stories about China and her past. She tries to show the importance of ancestors and how certain superstitions are important for our lives. And when her marriage is about to fall apart, she decides to take her and Simon to visit her village. It will be on this trip that Olivia will finally truly get to know Kawan and will understand her power in the spiritual world.

Amy Tan had already surprised me with her famous "The Joy Luck Club", yet "The Hundred Secret Senses" was the book that truly grabbed me with her writing. I knew little about the themes she dealt with, perhaps that's why it has actually become special. Kawan, with her eternal optimism, will stay with me for a long time.

Hope is an essential part of our lives. No one can stop hoping. It is like a guiding light that leads us forward in the darkest of times. Dreams, too, are an integral part of our existence. No one can give up on their dreams as long as they look up at the sky. The sky represents the limitless possibilities that lie ahead of us. It gives us the courage to pursue our goals and reach for the stars. When we look up at the sky, we are reminded of the vastness of the universe and our place in it. We realize that our dreams may seem small in comparison, but they are no less important. So, let us keep hoping and keep dreaming, for as long as we look up at the sky, there is always a chance for us to make our dreams come true.

The touching, yet believable story of two sisters who meet in the United States and ultimately travel to China, their homeland.

It seems to me a very sisterly story, but at the same time realistic, full of the acidic touches of this writer that make the plot believable.

The story likely unfolds with the sisters' initial encounter in the US, perhaps after a long separation. Their journey to China could be filled with anticipation, nostalgia, and a sense of discovery as they reconnect with their roots.

The writer's acidic touches might add depth and complexity to the characters and their relationships, revealing their flaws and insecurities. This could make the story more relatable and engaging for readers.

Overall, it sounds like a fascinating tale that explores themes of family, identity, and the power of connection.