A fascinating story, based on truth, supposedly told by the ghost of a well known SF Chinese-American woman who died under mysterious circumstances, as transmitted to a medium. I usually am highly skeptical of anything smacking of the supernatural, but how interesting when I suspend my disbelief!

This one was quite different from her other books, but I enjoyed it. She is tops!

Read again six years later. Enjoyable and different, with the omniscient narrator actually a dead woman. Some very humorous anachronisms -- the TV with CNN, powered by bicycle-owered batteries out in the remote jungle was especially weird.

Reread because a friend is going to visit that part of the world and it was on her reading list

This book is all about miscommunications. The narrator, a Chinese immigrant and art dealer, dies before a trip she had planned for her American art friends to China and Burma (Myanmar). The crew must learn to communicate with each other and the locals they meet to find their way back to "civilization." However, even when they speak the same language, they still don't seem to understand.

almost gave up on this book a few times because it DID take well over half of these almost 500 pages to just set up the mystery/drama and cut to the chase which is a few hundred too many in my opinion. but thank god for the sunk cost fallacy! (for i am easily deceived.)

the setting is pretty unique and the motley crew of characters was fun but i never got too attached to any of them, perhaps because 11 is too many to keep track of? though i suppose by the end i did feel some affinity for some of these silly people. the women at least. the men were all annoying (typical).

once it did escalate it did so to a suitable level and i was quite pleased! second half was quite interesting and a solid 5/5 to outweigh the first half's dismal 2 ish /5. i do enjoy a manufactured international crisis and an imperfect denouement.

blurbs led me to believe i would learn some deep lessons in human nature which i guess i did find? but not till the last fifty pages or so. patience was certainly one lesson learned. some other themes included but were not limited to: fortune, humanitarianism, americans mucking stuff up abroad, cosmic karma, spirituality, love affairs (realistic and satisfying and unsatisfying), the supernatural, etc.

also this has one of the best readers' guides at the end i've ever seen and also was superbly researched. maybe amy tan's style is just not for me though im not totally sure

this is the first book i read the intro, and i am glad i did. the author was wandering in nyc when rain forced her to seek refuge in the American Psychical Institute. there she found a volume on "automatic writing," in which there was a factual decription of a woman who was experiencing auto writing from a woman Bibi Chen. Bibi Chen was not an imagined person - she was an actual person that Amy Tan knew. The writings are further authenticated because the subject matter was the recent disappearance of 11 american tourists in Burma. The book is Amy Tan's embellished, fictional account of Bibi's ghost writings. The 11 characters are a varied, interesting, imperfect bunch, and Tan's elaborate description of their humorous, often frightening encounters is engaging. The 12th equally interesting character is Tan's description of their surroundings in China and Myanmar (Burma) - the landscape, the people, the superstitions, and the traditions.
I am currently at the turning point in the book and can't wait to finish...

Such a disappointment... too many voices, too many characters! This novel feels like a chaos and nothing like others that I've read by this author. Although the story might be interesting, all the side-stories are making it difficult to follow and appreciate. Too many misplaced details for my taste.

Okay so that was a disappointing ending. No spoilers in my review but I do allude to things mentioned in the start and middle.

The start of the book was really great. I loved reading each of the character’s clearly satirical backgrounds, how it shaped them to be the person they are in the present, and seeing how their blatant ignorance affects the natives around them as they go on their Burma trip. I loved learning about Bibi’s life especially, and how periods of crises brings out the best or worst in people. But near the middle to end of the book, all of that… goes away?

The characters never really get less ignorant, and when they do eventually realize the nature of their circumstances, it doesn’t seem to affect their character too much. Like: Wendy continues being a performative white saviour. Vera starts rational and ends rational. I guess Harry’s… insecurities, which were very entertaining, don’t really stop him from hooking up with women or really become relevant in any way to how he relates to Marlena—not much bumbling or awkwardness that you’d expect. The only story I could almost appreciate was Bennie’s since you can kind of see how his people pleasing is eventually overcome. I suppose that’s the point Tan was trying to make: ignorant people trying to be good but causing a mess don’t really suffer the consequences of their actions or even learn much from it. But the end felt sloppy, like Tan didn’t know what to do with the ending so she quickly resolved it and threw in some Buddhist mysticism for good measure.

I do appreciate how she integrates Chinese and Burmese history into the story. I do want to read more on the Burmese revolution now.

I don't get why this has such a low rating. I loved this and listened to it in a few days. 5 stars for the book, 4.5 for narration. This is not like any other Amy Tan book I've read

I really enjoyed this book. The story was entertaining, the (extensive) cast of characters was amusing, and I loved the voice/perspective of the narrator. This particular edition includes an interview with Amy Tan at the end and I liked the book even better after reading about her inspirations and the process of writing the book.

Looking at the reviews this book seems to be one of those that you either really like or absolutely dislike. I'm in the former group. This story is one that is not to be taken seriously though, it's quirky, laugh out loud funny in places and yet quite captivating and even thought provoking. This one doesn't really fit anto any one genre but it is an adventure, a travelogue and somewhat of an historical novel. I was almost put off when I realized that the narrator is a dead person, or spirit voice.....not something I would normally read but I'm so glad I did because it only added to the charm of the story. I only have one slightly negative comment and that is that I found the author's tying up of all the loose ends felt a bit unnecessary.

While I agree, I think much criticism of this book is too harsh. The characters have unique and engaging personalities; and the book has a creative narrative with just the right amount of comedy. The critiques are valid since the ending unravels, but I think their reasoning is incorrect. The story was good, but there needed to be a deeper arc in the characters themselves. Since they never truly had personal stories the book fell flat. There was meat but no bones unfortunately, since I really wanted to love this book.

I really wasn't expecting much from this one, considering how many Amy Tan fans were disappointed in it. I finished reading it this morning, though, and even though I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it yet, I think that it's going to be one of those ones that sticks with me.

I've been a huge fan of Amy Tan for years, and I've read everything she's ever written. I feel uncomfortable comparing this book to her other ones, because it's such a huge departure. As much as I love Amy, her books did sort of always follow a formula. I think a lot of what I loved about this book wasn't necessarily its own merits, but the fact that Amy is noticeably trying something completely different than what she did before, and trying to grow as a writer. There are times in the book where this is really effective, but also many moments where she seems uncomfortable and even awkward, which is a first for her.

But I don't think that's necessarily bad. I had a few moments while reading this where I felt really EXCITED by some of the missteps, because I felt her taking risks and stepping outside of her comfort zones. I feel like this is probably a transitional book for her, and I'm really excited about what she's going to write next. I think it's going to be something brilliant and unlike anything else she's done before.

So, three stars from me -- bonus points for being brave and taking a chance. If I could I'd go up to 3 1/2.