Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

48 used & new from CDN$ 0.88
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Saving Fish From Drowning
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Saving Fish From Drowning (Hardcover)

by Amy Tan (Author) "It was not my fault ..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


9 new from CDN$ 6.33 38 used from CDN$ 0.88 1 collectible from CDN$ 5.10

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Bonesetter's Daughter

The Bonesetter's Daughter

by Amy Tan
4.0 out of 5 stars (266)  CDN$ 9.89
Opposite Of Fate

Opposite Of Fate

by Amy Tan
4.5 out of 5 stars (22)  CDN$ 12.78
Sweetness in the Belly

Sweetness in the Belly

by Camilla Gibb
4.3 out of 5 stars (10)  CDN$ 15.33
The Hundred Secret Senses

The Hundred Secret Senses

by Amy Tan
4.3 out of 5 stars (162)  CDN$ 9.89
Kitchen Gods Wife

Kitchen Gods Wife

by Amy Tan
4.1 out of 5 stars (116)  CDN$ 11.32
› Explore similar items

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Tan (The Bonesetter's Daughter) delivers another highly entertaining novel, this one narrated from beyond the grave. San Francisco socialite and art-world doyenne Bibi Chen has planned the vacation of a lifetime along the notorious Burma Road for 12 of her dearest friends. Violently murdered days before takeoff, she's reduced to watching her friends bumble through their travels from the remove of the spirit world. Making the best of it, the 11 friends who aren't hung over depart their Myanmar resort on Christmas morning to boat across a misty lake—and vanish. The tourists find themselves trapped in jungle-covered mountains, held by a refugee tribe that believes Rupert, the group's surly teenager, is the reincarnation of their god Younger White Brother, come to save them from the unstable, militaristic Myanmar government. Tan's travelers, who range from a neurotic hypochondriac to the debonair, self-involved host of a show called The Fido Files, fight and flirt among themselves. While ensemble casting precludes the intimacy that characterizes Tan's mother-daughter stories, the book branches out with a broad plot and dynamic digressions. It's based on a true story, and Tan seems to be having fun with it, indulging in the wry, witty voice of Bibi while still exploring her signature questions of fate, connection, identity and family. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Fish is based on the real-life disappearance of 12 American tourists in Myanmar. The narrator is Bibi Chen, dealer in Chinese antiquities, who had arranged an art-oriented tour for her friends. When she dies under mysterious circumstances, the others decide to proceed, saying that Bibi will join them in spirit–an invitation she accepts. Mostly well-meaning, but ignorant and naive, the group lands in one hilarious situation after another due to cultural misunderstandings. On a lake outing, they are kidnapped and taken to a hidden village where a rebel tribe waits for the Younger White Brother, who will make them invisible and bullet-proof and enable them to recover their land. They believe that theyve found him in 15-year-old Rupert, an amateur magician. The tour group consists of 10 adults and 2 adolescents, some pillars of the community and some decidedly not, but all rich, intelligent, and spoiled. Bibi, feisty and opinionated, uncovers their fears, desires, and motives, and the shades of truth in their words. As the novel progresses, they become more human and less stereotypical, changing as a result of their experiences. Although Tan also satirizes the tourist industry, American Buddhism, and reality TV, her focus is on the American belief that everyone everywhere plays by the same rules. An extremely funny novel with serious undercurrents.–Sandy Freund, Richard Byrd Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
It was not my fault. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

Saving Fish From Drowning
73% buy the item featured on this page:
Saving Fish From Drowning 4.0 out of 5 stars (3)
Three Day Road
9% buy
Three Day Road 4.9 out of 5 stars (26)
CDN$ 14.60
The Bonesetter's Daughter
8% buy
The Bonesetter's Daughter 4.0 out of 5 stars (266)
CDN$ 9.89
Joy Luck Club
5% buy
Joy Luck Club 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
CDN$ 12.05
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
2.0 out of 5 stars Not that good, Mar 7 2008
By H. ALI "Love to Read Smart Books" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Saving Fish from Drowning: A Novel (Paperback)
After reading Amy Tan's Book "Kitchens God's Wife" I decided that I will read all her other books. Unfortunately this was my second book. I was very disappointed. It will be my last.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars Amy Tan's Best Book Yet, Oct 17 2007
By N. Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This book is a departure for Tan from the mother/daughter relationships explored in her previous novels. In Saving Fish from Drowning we are swept away into the jungles of Burma with a group of 12 American tourists whose characteristics range from the eccentric to the timid and everything in between. This novel has everything: travel, mystery, adventure and humour. To cap it all off there is a sense of the supernatural that is explored as the narrator of the story is in the mystifying position of having found herself recently killed at the beginning of our story. This book is definitely in my top five reads of the year.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars Rich Karmic Ironies Abound, Jul 15 2006
If you are looking for a "typical" Amy Tan novel about a Chinese mother and daughter, please be aware that this book doesn't follow Ms. Tan's marvelous prior novels into that rich story-telling vein. If you like satirical novels, you will wonder why Ms. Tan takes so long to lay waste to her targets.

But if you like novels rich in cultural and psychological irony, you've found a gem. I emphasize that point because irony is something that many readers avoid or don't enjoy very much. I find that there are too few well-written ironic novels, and I treasure all those that I find.

Like most stories about ironies, this one takes on such a broad theme that it can be easy to miss the message: Unintended consequences cause your purest impulses to backfire on you and on those you want to help. Ms. Tan's choice of a title gives a broad clue, in referring to an anonymous tale about a pious man who "saves" the lives of fish from drowning by catching them. When the fish die, he's disappointed but realizing that one must never waste anything, he sells the dead fishes to buy more nets . . . so he can save more fish from drowning.

Like a good symphony composer, Ms. Tan then endows her major characters with story lines that let them each play out that theme in their own variations. To make sure we get the point, each personal story is imbued with ironies that are both richly developed and humorous.

To be sure we understand that there are other forces at work, Ms. Tan sets as her initial narrator a wealthy patron of the arts who has just died . . . but is still lingering around to observe her own funeral . . . and the actions of the tour group she had organized. Although other such "friendly" spirits do not narrate, we can enjoy their visitations to the living throughout the novel.

One of the beauties of the book is that Ms. Tan takes us into the cultural realities of those from many different nations and backgrounds. Those contrasts make it more obvious how much of what we do is the result of our histories, family circumstances and education.

Enjoy a great read!
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject













i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.