Description: San Francisco art patron Bibi Chen has planned a journey of the senses along the farmed Burma Road for eleven lucky friends. But after her mysterious death, Bibi watches aghast from her ghostly perch as the travelers veer off her itinerary and embark on a trail paved with cultural gaffes and tribal curses, Buddhist illusions and romantic desires. On Christmas morning, the tourists cruise across a misty lake and disappear.

With picaresque characters and mesmerizing imagery, Saving Fish from Drowning gives us a voice as idiosyncratic, sharp, and affectionate as the mothers of the Joy Luck Club, Bibi is the observant eye of human nature- the witness of good intentions and bad outcomes, of desperate souls and those who wish to save themselves. In the end, Tan takes her readers to that place in their own heart where hope is found.

meh

For readers who can accept a ghost narrator, this is a great mix of travelogue, drama and social commentary. Arguably, there's a murder mystery as well, but that is the weakest link.

It's clear that readers have been polarised, most likely by the ghost narrator or what they expected based on other Amy Tan books. For me, this was the first one of hers that I read, and ghosts are quite all right.

On the other hand, it's probably true that there's a lot packed into this story -- there's stuff about relationships, the art world, Chinese history and present society, and most of all quite a bit about Myanmar. It might even be too much, but I tought Ms. Tan mixed it all pretty well.

The book is set before the opening up of Myanmar which led to it being labelled at "the new frontier" for economic investment in around 2015. Sadly, the country took a turn for the worse with the Rohingya genocide, and then another one with the abandonment of democratic pretences.

Saving Fish From Drowning does justice to the moral complexity of whether it was right for "the West" to engage with Myanmar before its opening up and it's "re-positioning" (which has now, of course, gone down the drain).

What I found outstanding was Bibi Chen's voice, which gives the book a entertaiment "coating" even as it touches on topics that could be depressing, including some horrific human rights abuses.

I also liked the interactions between the twelve travellers, and a dog, but I have to say that if ever there was a book that needs a cast of characters and doesn't have one, this is it.

Highly recommended, or not at all -- depending on your tastes.

Saving Fish From Drowning - Penyelematan Yang Sia-Sia, begitulah judul novel terbaru karya Amy Tan yang gw baca. Saving Fish From Drowning? Bagaimana mungkin ikan bisa tenggelam didalam air? Itu pertanyaan bodoh gw sewaktu melihat buku ini bertengger di Gramed (hmm harusnya nanya dulu sama om samurai dengan koleksi ikannya, iyo to mba'yu...). Ternyata ikan memang bisa mati tenggelam, ketika dia tidak bisa bergerak karena misalnya terjebak di karang makan dia tidak bisa memompa oksigen untuk insangnya. Dan mengapa dalam penyelamatannya sia-sia? Karena yang menyelamatkan orang-orang yang menangkap ikan dan membiarkannya berada diatas meja tanpa media air menunggu pembeli.

Rangkaian kalimatnya masih tetap indah, walaupun awalnya gw menuduh tokoh utama dalam karya Amy Tan selalu tidak bisa lepas dari seorang anak perempuan yang dalam perkembangannya punya masalah dengan ibunya dan ketika dewasa memilih tidak punya anak (seperti Amy Tan sendiri) namun setelah gw baca kelanjutannya sangat menarik mengamati karakter masing-masing tokoh yang dalam perjalanan wisatanya ke Myanmar.

I wish this novel lived up to it's name. Instead of Saving Fish from Drowning as it claimed, this story slowly suffocated. Amy Tan let it flip flop all over the place in front of you, and then, when you thought it couldn't possibly still be alive, it would spring up and kinda flop over again.

The story is apparently about a woman called Bibi (which is a ridiculous name... no offence to any one reading called Bibi, you can't help your parents). She's dead. That's not a spoiler, it happens on page one. She's self obsessed, incredibly learned and cultured. And she's haunting her friends who are going on a holiday she organised. She sucks at haunting though as she just kinda follows them around like annoying small animal. But one you don't notice.

So you follow her friends around, after you get through 50 pages about her funeral. Which you don't care about as you don't like her. And her friends are awful, stereotypical travelling Americans. They are the people that walk into your hotel breakfast and you shudder with embarrassment as you feel terrible for being white as people may think you're from the same country, or worse, family.

I'm sorry. It's true. American's have the stereotype of being obnoxious, loud and ignorant while travelling. With the Brit's, they look down their nose at *everything*. Australians have the stereotype of being constantly drunk and obnoxious. You learn to work with it, and prove you are the exception.

Anyways. These are people you do not want to be around. All of them. Dead fish people or alive people. So after 100 pages, they got abandoned. And I hate myself a little for it. But after 100 pages, you had a good shot, and I couldn't see it getting better.

Also, I should have been warned when I found out that Amy Tan made up some stupid story about the book coming out of automatic writings she stumbled across in some Psychic Museum. So this was a "real story" told to a "real psychic". While my personal bullshit meter was going into overdrive, I then learnt that she made up this story to get more interest in the book. If you have to make up some story about automatic writings and psychics to sell your book, that should scream that it's not worth reading. Next time, I listen to that meter.

The problem is now, I don't know what to do with my journey. I think I have to find another South East Asian story, as I already felt my SE Asian pickings were rather slim. And for that, I am, just frankly, annoyed. Ruining my list *mumble mumble mumble*.

For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/

It took me awhile to read this novel. Each paragraph holds thoughtful meanings and insight that aren't quickly digested but gradually enjoyed. Human nature, what we are about, what I do and why I do what I do, are some things stirred up. I love all of Amy Tan's writing. Her history of China is right there with Buck's The Good Earth. I would ask one thing of her. To keep writing novels.

This was an interesting read. At times in the middle of the book I felt it dragged a bit, but the premise was so intriguing, I stuck with it. I had to find the resolution, and that was satisfying and worth the wait. This was a mysterious book for me, as I was confused from the preface about whether the story was based on actual events (but embellished, of course, into fiction) or not. The author's notes at the end clarified that while certain events were historically accurate (the junta in Burma, the renaming to Myanmar, the Karen tribe), the majority of the novel, including the Preface, was fiction. The factual bits were educational, though; I learned about Burma/Myanmar, a country of which I knew nothing of before. There were a few laugh out loud moments scattered within plus much subtle, dry humor throughout. Amy Tan is a unarguably a talented writer, and while many reviewers panned this novel, especially in comparison to her other works, I found it engaging and unique, if long-winded.

"The only thing certain in times of great uncertainty is that people will behave with great strength or weakness, and with very little else in between."

I think I have read all of Amy Tan's books, but this one was completely different. To really understand it you have to believe that dead people can be channeled, and second you have to know a lot more about the history of Burma/ Myanmar than I do. I could never figure out if this was based on a real case, or whether it was based on a psychic's remembrances, or was just Amy sort of putting her readers on. However quirky and odd it is, and however she came up with the idea for the novel, I enjoyed it!

On some levels it is a travelogue, and in some ways it is a column in Conde Nast Traveller telling about how a trip can go wrong. In some ways it is a mystery, and in some ways it reminds you of Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible". It just doesn't fit smoothly into any one category, not even the category of Amy Tan novels. I would love to get other readers' "take" on it. This is a novel for someone who wants to read something very different than what he or she usually reads.

i listened to this on audio, read by the author. i love amy tan, but they really should have found a professional reader. ms. tan has several different characters with british or australian accents and her accents are all over the place and very distracting. that being said, the book was enjoyable. i felt like the ending dragged on a bit long (you know how most of the time, when you’re done reading a book , you sit back and wonder, “and then what? what happens next? well, you don’t have to wonder in this book. she spends the last disc and a half explaining what happens to each character for pretty much the remainder of their lives. it was much less satisfying than i’d ever thought it might be.) but during the book itself, i thought she did a marvelous job of portraying very real characters traveling in a very foreign country. these were not your stereotypical tourists–they were prepared for eventualities, they felt that they were open-minded and conscientious, but every time that a character would do something or react in a way that i recognized as what i would have done myself in that situation, the author points out how misguided or mistaken the character was. she also did an excellent job of portraying how easily serious miscommunication can happen when the language barrier exists (especially when there are basic differences in the ways societies operate). not only was it an entertaining read, i also felt like i might have gained insights into an unfamiliar culture and become more aware of pitfalls that can happen when you assume that everyone comes from a similar background to you. even parts of your “background” that you take for granted or maybe don’t even realize that exist.

This was a book club selection that I was NOT going to read. I read The Joy Luck Club a few years back & didn't care for it at all, so reading another Amy Tan book was not on the top of my list. But the back of Saving Fish had a review by Isabelle Allende, whom I adore. I decided to read 30 pages because I couldn't imagine Isabelle steering me wrong. If I hated it (which I figured would be the case) I would quit the book. Well, I enjoyed Saving Fish immensely. My favorite books transport me to places I will likely never see & this book did just that. At the beginning I had issue with remembering all the characters, but I didn't care because the story was so compelling. My only complaint is that the last chapter was a little choppy & didn't flow as well as the rest of the book. It seemed like a VH1 Where Are They Now episode. Other than that, I'm an Amy Tan convert, thanks to Isabelle Allende.

"We should be aware of the consequences. You can’t have intentions without consequences. The question is, who pays for the consequences? Saving fish from drowning. Same thing. Who’s saved? Who’s not?

Everyone on GoodReads who has written a review of Saving Fish From Drowning seems to hate it.

I, on the other hand, who have read (tried) The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen Goddess, find this is the first Amy Tan novel I like. I think it depends on what you like. I found her other writings devoid of a light touch, but Saving Fish is, on the whole, humourous even as it deals with dark themes, and the effect on the reader is quite impactful. I like that a lot. Saving Fish From Drowning has one of the most powerful epigraph pairings I can recall reading in a while that sets up the theme of the novel about the unpredictability of good intentions. Good intentions can lead to disastrous results, perhaps even more so than bad intentions to start with. Good intentions can also be a public mask hiding something much more nefarious.

Bibi Chen, a pretentious and colourful patron of the arts in San Francisco, dies right before she and a group of friends set forth on a trip to Burma over the winter holiday season. The group decides to travel onwards and Bibi, now in ghost form and gifted with omniscient point-of-view, tags along, so we know what everybody is really thinking.

The group is full of liberal stereotypes where everyone is funny because they don't know how funny they are. The reader is mostly laughing at their expense. Their foibles can be charming. Bennie, the new Bibi Chen of the group, is a nervous wreck, hoping he doesn't ruin the trip for his friends. At one point, his expression of desperate salvation is likened to that of an obsequious dog. Harry, a famous British dog trainer, is lusting after the single mom in the group, a buffoon plotting his seduction, misinterpreting many a look such as when Harry at one point thinks Marlena is rebuffing him when Marlena is actually succumbing to a stomach virus. Wendy is an activist who quickly becomes clingy with lust to Wyatt, a slacker bum. The Stone Bell Temple scene is one of the shining moments of Saving Fish From Drowning that shows whether we are keeping up with the Jones or are proud average Joes, travel is the great equalizer. We are all bumbling tourists whether our fanny pack is Louis Vuitton or no name, all with the intelligence of a goldfish when it comes to what we're doing in another country - just completely unimpressive, disoriented messes lacking any clue what's going on :)

And Tan reveals each of their characters' less evolved thoughts. Harry is a complete womanizer and schmoozer and it may seem on the surface-level, harmless but it really isn't. From deciding Heidi gets two demerits for what he thinks are plastic implants and setting his sights on Marlena at the start of the trip, to reflecting women who liked to exercise are frigid to giving himself cold feet at the thought - god forbid - of a woman asking him to change to better himself, Harry is an accurate portrayal of that forever bachelor type. He also goes on local TV, a puppet to boost the tourism industry for the military government, in the hope of finding his friends after "leads" point him from one tourist destination where they were last seen to another, to making flash judgements and dismissals of the badly dressed tourists in his hotel for being "lower class." Bibi herself is also an interesting character, a fountain of knowledge about China, Buddhism, but who can also go on the most random tirades. For two pages, she muses about the cleanliness habits of each race: "The Burmese are among the cleanest people of the world...Contrast this to the Tibetans... and just so you don't think I am being prejudiced, let me be the first to say the Chinese are also less than fastidious...And while I'm on the topic, I can't say that cleanliness is renown among the British I have known..." and on it goes to remark on that of the French, German and American people!

Everyone is a clownish caricature and it is brilliant characterization. What I thought was equally impressive is how Tan told the story of Burma and Myanmar, being a bit on the nose: "Poor Miss Burma... Naturally we all have great sympathy, but who wants to read stories like that?… Don’t tut-tut me. I know it’s an utterly ugly sentiment, and I would never have admitted it in public while I was alive." Tan effectively weaves in political history and real-life atrocities in Saving Fish. The fate of the Karen people in particular, as well as that of Walter, are tragic endings. I don't think Saving Fish argues for a Shangri-La state of mind, that of "sublime indifference" for the masses but it does pose interesting questions about intention, action and consequence, risk and benefit.

Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan is a great read.

Lame, lame, lame. There is a reason this book of Amy Tan's did not make the bestseller list. Characters cliche, story uninteresting, dialog both unrealistic and boring. The book was set up to be interesting; the narrator has been murdered and is going to lead you on an adventure that will solve her murder. The real adventure did not happen until the last 100 pages of a 400 page book... that is a LOT of build up... only to find yourself caught in a disappointing dilema. Half of the time Tan forgot about her "ghost" narrator and then the narrator would start talking and I would think, "Oh yeah, I forgot about her"... the main character of the story should never be forgotten. There was also WAY too much backstory; every few pages a new character was introduced with their backstory, making the pace of the plot extremely tedious. I struggled to finish the book and towards the end, I skimmed. A complete waste of time.