Last night Bookman and I went with a friend to see Amy Tan at the public library in downtown Minneapolis. It was quite a large crowd. We filled the auditorium and two overflow conference rooms. Whether there were more people than could fit I don’t know since I was squeezed into a seat in the auditorium. I am not a huge fan. I read and enjoyed The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife. I have also read A Hundred Secret Senses and felt it was just meh, felt like her books were all about the same thing, so then lost interest. She now has a new book out, The Valley of Amazement. It is her first book in eight years.
After all the introductions were made, Tan stepped on stage. She is a small woman but she has a big presence. Instead of launching immediately into reading parts of her book she started talking. She explained that she has done a lot of things in the last eight years in order to avoid writing a book. On the long list is writing a libretto for an opera (she is a classically trained pianist) and, with her husband of 44 years, designing and building a completely accessible home in Sausalito, California. The house sounded gorgeous. Tan does not have children and she said she and her husband planned the house so they could live there for the rest of their lives. It has elevators, bathrooms large enough to get a wheelchair into, showers with grab bars and no edges, and all sorts of other features to accommodate every possible mobility issue.
And then she began talking about her grandmother and her mother. She has a photo of each of them on her desk. Her grandmother married the richest man in Shanghai at the time. They lived on an island just out from the city. There are two versions of the story of how she came to marry her husband. Tan’s grandmother and her half sister were staying at his house and at some point during the night the sister got up and left the room and the man came in. In one version of the story he held a knife to Tan’s grandmother’s throat and said if she didn’t marry him he would kill her. In the second version he held the knife to his own throat and said he would kill himself.
Tan’s grandmother was wife number four in the house, the youngest and the favorite. She had already had Tan’s mother and was pregnant again. She asked her husband if she had a boy would he please give her a house of her own in Shanghai. He said yes. She had a boy but her husband did not keep his side of the deal. Grandmother was 36 at the time and Tan’s mother was nine. She watched as her mother committed suicide by taking an overdose of opium. It took her three days to die. Tan’s mother was left with a father who was not kind and whom she did not love.
Tan said her mother always blamed Grandmother for all the hardship and unhappiness in her life. If she had not killed herself, Tan’s mother was convinced her own life would have been happier. Nonetheless, Tan’s mother thought she had done something to anger her mother and when Tan was a child and misbehaving, her mother was convinced that Tan was her mother come back to torment her for whatever it was she had done to anger her.
So it is no wonder Tan writes so much about mother-daughter relationships with such a family history and dynamic!
During Tan’s eight years between novels she had actually begun writing one but it wasn’t going all that well. She went to Shanghai to do some research and while there came across a photo of a group of courtesans. She was surprised to see that several of the women in the photograph were wearing the exact same outfit her grandmother was wearing in the photo Tan had of her on her desk. Curious, she began doing some research about courtesans and while she didn’t find any direct evidence, all the circumstantial evidence suggests that her grandmother was a courtesan. This discovery took her away from the book she had been writing and sent her off in a new direction leading to the writing of The Valley of Amazement.
Tan told the audience some of the really interesting things she learned about courtesans in Shanghai during the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Then after 40 minutes of talking, she read a short piece from her book.
This was followed by questions from the audience. Someone asked for advice for aspiring writers and Tan talked about keeping internet distractions away. Someone else asked if she thought being bi-racial and bilingual helped her be more creative and she replied that she thought it did. Not that it made her smarter or better than anyone else, but that it gives her a bigger playing field. Another person asked about Tan’s father and what he was like since she never talks about him. Tan said she was a daddy’s girl, that she loved her father dearly. Tan was in her early teens when her father died and she felt like he had abandoned her to the crazy woman who was her mother. To Tan her father was perfect and perfect characters aren’t interesting to write about.
I have no plans to read Tan’s new book, but I found her really interesting and her stories fascinating. I enjoyed the evening very much. I even got to test out taking notes on my iPad. I had downloaded an Evernote app called Penultimate that lets you take written notes with a stylus and save them to Evernote. Bookman found me a stylus that looks like a number 2 pencil, it even has a fake eraser. I usually take a small notebook and a couple of pencils (in case the lead breaks) to events like this but the stylus on my iPad worked so well it is my new go-to. Plus having the iPad also let me tweet, look something up on the internet, and keep Bookman occupied playing Plants versus Zombies during the hour we waited for the event to start while the friend we went with and I chatted. It was all good.
booksaremyfavouriteandbest said:
Wow! You’re so lucky to have had the opportunity to hear Tan talk. I love her books and her latest is on my summer (it’s summer in Australia) reading list. The story about her grandmother and mother is fascinating.
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Stefanie said:
Booksaremyfacourite, I was lucky. Tan is a really interesting person and she tells all these stories about her grandmother and mother and I wonder how many years of therapy she had to have in order to come to terms with it all and be so normal. I suspect being able to write about the relationships has helped her tremendously too. I hope you enjoy the book for your summer reading!
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Nish said:
I am not a big fan of her books either but her talk sounds so interesting. So nice that she did something different instead of just reading out from the book.
Also, I love that app idea. Curious, when you write down notes and put them in Evernote, does it save as a scanned image?
Sometimes, I write stuff in a book and then have to type it in manually later. It’s so tedious 😦
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Stefanie said:
Nish, Tan is a really fascinating woman and she comes across as really nice too. Though I get the impression that if you cross her she has a temper. Evernote doesn’t translate the handwriting into text so it saves it as you wrote it which would mean if you want neat and tidy test you would have to type it up.
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whisperinggums said:
I’m with you re Tan. I read The Joy Luck Club and loved it. read The Kitchen God’s Wife and liked it. Read The Hundred Secret Senses and thought it was interesting enough, and similarly for The Bonesetter’s Daughter. And there I stopped feeling there was too much sameness. However, I heard her interviewed on the radio the other day about this one and, while it seems to be going over similar ground, it also sounds as though it may have enough difference to interest me BUT only if it comes my way, such as a reading group pick. I do think though that she’s an interesting person and would have been at the talk in a flash. I went to a talk with Alexander McCall Smith a couple of years ago – it was also packed with more people in other theatres. He’s a very entertaining speaker with an appealing philosophy but his books aren’t really my style (except for the family tradition of reading Mma Ramotswe!)
Intrigued by your note taking. I too have Penultimate and a stylus – which brand is yours? – but when I finally decided this year to take notes on the iPad rather than on pen and paper, I did it using the keyboard and the Notes app that comes with the iPad. It worked pretty well – though my typing on the iPad touchscreen could be a lot better – and meant that the notes were in a form i could cut and paste and manipulate without having to retype. I still wonder thought whether it would be faster, and I’d miss less, with the pen and Penultimate!
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Stefanie said:
whisperinggums, I am glad I am not the only one who feels that way about Tan’s work. The new book does sound different enough and I would read it too if it came into my way but I won’t pick up on my own. I think some authors are so interesting even if their books aren’t favorites that it is definitely worth going to see them. I bet Alexander McCall Smith was fascinating. I’ve not read any of his books, not my thing, but I bet he had some good stories to tell!
The stylus I have is a Griffin capacitive stylus, no. 2 pencil. The rubber tip is round and broad so I couldn’t write small with it, had to write big across the page which slows me down a little but I kept up pretty well. I can’t type very fast on the touch screen because there are no keys to feel under my fingers so I have to look at what I am doing all the time. The stylus was much faster for me. Having to retype is not an issue for me because my notes are never in a form that I could copy and paste without having to rewrite anyway.
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whisperinggums said:
I’ll check that one out … There was another I was keen on that had a good reputation but that’s not it. I think it was Alupen. You can vary the thickness of the pen in Penultimate – but you probably know that. My Targus stylus is pretty thick too …. The Alupen and the Bamboo are ones I’ve been thinking about …
I know what you mean re the touch keypad. I’m getting better at it but it’s not comfortable yet.
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Alex said:
I’m afraid I didn’t even get as far as enjoying ‘The Joy Luck Club’ so I probably wouldn’t have made it as far as the event in the first place – which would have been a shame as she is clearly a very interesting person. Coincidentally there was someone sitting next to me in a lecture yesterday using their iPad in the same way. I have a stylus that I could use but I’ve always assumed I wouldn’t be able to get enough down. I must give it a go.
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Stefanie said:
Alex, she is a very interesting person. Most people who were there were big fans, giddy to be in her presence. It was kind of funny. Made me wonder if I was like that when I was in the audience of a favorite author of mine. How funny you saw someone using their iPad and stylus for notes just the other day. It’s slower than using pen/cil and paper but faster than typing on the touchscreen and I managed to keep up pretty well.
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helcha8 said:
The whole Amy Tan evening sounded interesting. I love hearing authors speak & learning about their backgrounds.
I wan to check out that Evernote App. I can use that for work. Where does one find a stylus that looks like a pencil (with fake eraser)?
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Stefanie said:
Helen, yes and Tan has an especially interesting background. The stylus is a Griffin Capacitive stylus, no 2 pencil. Bookman found mine at Target.
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Jeanne said:
It’s such a crapshoot, going to hear authors. Sometimes they tell stories, which is great. Sometimes they just read from their book, and I think I know how to read and regret I went out in public for that.
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Stefanie said:
Jeanne, it is a crapshoot, isn’t it? I’ve been lucky in that most of them I’ve seen have been pretty good. If you ever get the chance to see Jasper Fforde, he is hilarious. I’ve only been to a couple that were really dull or disappointing that made me wonder if paying $5 to park downtown or at the university was actually worth it.
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Linda Dorf said:
Loved hearing all about going to the Amy Tan reading. I too have mixed feelings about her novels, but love to hear about how people write and the process. Thanks for sharing.
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Stefanie said:
Linda, glad you enjoyed hearing about the event. I too like to hear about the process of creating a novel even if it isn’t one I plan on reading!
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litlove said:
Heh, you and I have both been hanging out with the authors this week – aren’t we the lucky ones? Amy Tan sounds very interesting, and very brave to talk straight to the audience for 40 minutes. I confess I’ve never read her at all! But I am intrigued by the mother-daughter relationships. That is one screwy family dynamic she was on the end of there. That really ought to play out in interesting ways in fiction.
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Stefanie said:
Litlove, very lucky! It is unusual for authors to talk so much but she was very good at it. You may like Tan for the mother-daughter relationship aspect. It seems that’s pretty much all she writes about in one way or another and after hearing her talk I can understand why!
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Rebecca H. said:
Wow, Tan has some amazing stories! I think I would like to hear her talk, even though I’m not a huge fan of her writing. I much prefer it when authors talk instead of reading the entire time; it’s usually more interesting that way. Although perhaps those authors who just talk instead of reading do it precisely because they are interesting talkers, and those who aren’t interesting talkers just read. Anyway, it sounds like a fun time!
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Stefanie said:
Rebecca, she told some really interesting stories. I even left out one about her mom being married with children before running away from her husband to the US where she married someone else and had a family. Tan didn’t find out about her sisters in China until she was about 15. I suspect you are right, authors that aren’t good at talking read more during these things than ones who are good at it.
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Danielle said:
This sounds like fun and I am envious you got to hear her speak! Her newest is waiting for me right now at the library–and I do hope I get to read it (I have lots of library books right now….). I really liked her first two books, but then didn’t get around to her later ones. As strange as it sounds–sometimes I sort of like when an author sticks with a similar theme in their writing–there is something sort of comforting in that. But then I can be weird in my reading sometimes! 🙂
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Stefanie said:
Danielle, I suspect you will like her new book. It did sound interesting. I hope you get to read it before you need to return it.
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Arti said:
Stefanie,
Amy Tan sure is a born storyteller, not only in writing, but orally. This much I can say… as a Chinese Canadian, I’ve to admit her tales, and what you’ve relayed here, are not typical of what I’ve known. As a matter of fact, when I watched the movie Joy Luck Club, I found the older generation’s background stories so strange and foreign. I could relate to the newer generation, like that kid who said if you wanted to be a chess champion, you play. Don’t get me to play for you… etc. those kinds of dialogues I could relate to, but nothing of the sort about mothers seeing/hearing ghosts and committing suicide and all the rest. Maybe that’s why I haven’t gone into her books… tried but couldn’t. Having said all that, I admire you that you have so many top-notch writers passing by your home that almost every week you can meet a famous author. 😉
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Stefanie said:
Arti, Tan’s mother’s family is from Shanghai and Tan gave me the impression that Shanghai is very different from the rest of China. I don’t know if that is true or not but maybe that sheds light on why the older generation in your experience doesn’t match up with hers? Tan is definitely a born storyteller. And yes, we’ve had some good literary events here lately. There is one more I will be going to in early December, poet Nikki Giovanni.
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Arti said:
You’re right, Stefanie. I was born and raised in the then British colony of Hong Kong, and fed on American TV during my childhood, it was definitely a world away from the Shanghai of Amy Tan’s mother. Just shows how huge the umbrella is for the term ‘Chinese’. 😉
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Stefanie said:
I bet you have some interesting stories of you own! And I bet your experience is different not only from Shanghai but from most of the rest of China too. I have a coworker who is from China but I don’t know where and he never talks about it, avoids talking about it actually so we’ve all learned to not ask. So yes, “Chinese” is a big umbrella term!
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wherethereisjoy said:
I can’t help it, I love Amy Tan. She also has Lyme disease and I’ve been interested in her story about that as well. I will probably check out her new book! And we just got an iPad Mini, so I might have to check out that note-taking app as well!!
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Stefanie said:
wherethereisjoy, I didn’t know she has Lyme disease. She didn’t talk about herself except for her house which may be why she and her husband were so thorough in making it accessible. I hope you enjoy her new book. And enjoy your iPad mini!
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