Saving Fish from Drowning (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

A strange entertaining story, interesting characters, but not my favorite read.

I wanted to finish this, but i put it down and couldn't bring myself to pick it back up again. Too many "Laverne and Shirley moments" of knowing something awful is going to happen to ignorant people, and then watching it happen. I hope it got better near the end. I just wimped out and couldn't get there.

This is such a great book! I traveled to Burma through this book, looked over my maps, googled Burma and IDP's, Checked out THE LADY and so much more!! I got really involved and I guess this at one point was Tan's purpose. My favorite book by TAN is The Bone Setter's Daughter...but Saving Fish From Drowning is right next to it! I LOVED...more

This is such a great book! I traveled to Burma through this book, looked over my maps, googled Burma and IDP's, Checked out THE LADY and so much more!! I got really involved and I guess this at one point was Tan's purpose. My favorite book by TAN is The Bone Setter's Daughter...but Saving Fish From Drowning is right next to it! I LOVED IT! see:http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.prayforburma.org/IDX/Images/Burma_Map_Sepia.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.prayforburma.org/&h=600&w=397&sz=261&hl=en&start=12&sig2=SZoNBdQSE_QmUzAPLWZ9gg&um=1&tbnid=HCLXNWJgsiQYUM:&t   hide

I've enjoyed other works by this author, so when it started out slow I kept thinking "be patient." By the time I had given up on the book I was almost finished so I went on out of obligation. It's not a bad book, but I didn't enjoy it. I found it difficult to keep track of the characters throughout the first half of the book. Despite being on a tour of Burma, there isn't much character...more

I've enjoyed other works by this author, so when it started out slow I kept thinking "be patient." By the time I had given up on the book I was almost finished so I went on out of obligation. It's not a bad book, but I didn't enjoy it. I found it difficult to keep track of the characters throughout the first half of the book. Despite being on a tour of Burma, there isn't much character development before the action begins. As a result, I didn't feel a lot of attachment to the charactrs which may have resulted in my nonchalance about their fates. Overall, an average book that I recommend you skip.   hide

After reading the jacket flap, I had low expectations for this book. The flap summary made it sound like a traditional mystery novel - not at all Amy Tan's style. In fact, the entire book is written from the first person omniscient perspective of the narrator, a chinese art dealer in san francisco who dies mysteriously before the story begins. Throughout the book the reader is given...more

After reading the jacket flap, I had low expectations for this book. The flap summary made it sound like a traditional mystery novel - not at all Amy Tan's style. In fact, the entire book is written from the first person omniscient perspective of the narrator, a chinese art dealer in san francisco who dies mysteriously before the story begins. Throughout the book the reader is given terrific insight into the minds of her 12 friends who embark upon a trip to China and Burma (Myanmar) that she had intended to lead. The story is so much more than simply what happens, it's no wonder the flap was so off target. Woven into the work is a history lesson of sorts into victorian British colonial Burma, China at the end of WWII, and the more recent horrors inflicted by the Myanmar government on its people. As a whole, I was quite pleased with the story and marvel at Tan's ability to allow the reader such intimacy with more than a dozen people at once.   hide

If this had been Amy Tan's first novel, she certainly wouldn't be around very long afterwards. This is a bloated, horrendous mound of storytelling that belongs in a relegated position on Lifetime at three AM on Tuesday morning. The characters are either stereotyped or boring, and the plot is stuck in a rut after the first chapter. By the time the characters are rescued, I had very much stopped...more

If this had been Amy Tan's first novel, she certainly wouldn't be around very long afterwards. This is a bloated, horrendous mound of storytelling that belongs in a relegated position on Lifetime at three AM on Tuesday morning. The characters are either stereotyped or boring, and the plot is stuck in a rut after the first chapter. By the time the characters are rescued, I had very much stopped caring about them. And, to top it all off, Tan ends her 500-page monstrosity of garbage with a Disney-sports-movie-style ending, donating one paragraph each to every character, summarizing, without dialogue, how the rest of each of their lives played out -- always, of course, from the narrator's chair in the heavens. Truly, I can't imagine a bigger dissapointment in literature.   hide

Not for a long time has a book made me laugh like this one. What a great idea that Amy Tan decided to have an omniscient narrator narrating her book. Too bad like with many books, I did not like the ending. It seemed a bit sophomoric and did not do the characters she had created credit. I did not expect the characters to end up the way they did in the end. It was almost like Tan was trying to...more

Not for a long time has a book made me laugh like this one. What a great idea that Amy Tan decided to have an omniscient narrator narrating her book. Too bad like with many books, I did not like the ending. It seemed a bit sophomoric and did not do the characters she had created credit. I did not expect the characters to end up the way they did in the end. It was almost like Tan was trying to distant herself from her characters and be done with them as she was done with her book.   hide

Bibi Chen, a purveyor of Asian art in San Francisco, dies right before leaving to take a group of people on a tour of China and Myanmar (Burma). As a recently deceased person, she becomes the omniscient narrator of this wonderful novel, and she watches as the group decides to do the trip without her and nominates someone else as leader. The ghost of Bibi goes along on the trip and chats to the...more

Bibi Chen, a purveyor of Asian art in San Francisco, dies right before leaving to take a group of people on a tour of China and Myanmar (Burma). As a recently deceased person, she becomes the omniscient narrator of this wonderful novel, and she watches as the group decides to do the trip without her and nominates someone else as leader. The ghost of Bibi goes along on the trip and chats to the reader about the members of the group and how they fall into the hands of an isolated tribe who believe that one of the members is the "Little White Brother" who has come to save them from persecution by the government. Amy Chen's knowledge of art and insight into the quirks of human nature make Saving Fish from Drowning a great read.   hide

I love Amy Tan books. I thought I was really going to like this book. But I just couldn't get through it. Too many people to keep straight. I got about halfway through and I just couldn't pick it up again. It just bored me. And the people had not even gone missing yet.