A Scottish-Canadian Blethering On About Books

This is a novel which provides a double cultural distance for most readers, arising from both place (most of it is set in China) and time (there is a long, intergenerational span of time covered, but the major events of the plot take place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century). Nonetheless, I found it easy right from the beginning to relate to the principal protagonist, Violet. She’s of mixed race (her father is Chinese, her mother American), so she is relieved of any burden of representation, and can be entirely herself – once she discovers who that is, of course. And, since she’s a spunky and adaptable lass, capable of surviving concubinage, motherhood, the loss of her daughter, an abusive quasi-marriage, and all the pains of growing up besides, Violet makes herself worth following. Most of the tale is in her voice, after all.

I didn’t get nearly as attached to the secondary first person narrator, Violet’s mother Lulu Minturn, whose tale is told in the latter pages of the novel, throwing considerable light on Violet’s childhood. I liked the deferral of Lulu’s story till the end; it worked for me, and it allowed for the emotional satisfaction of two mother/daughter reunions (Lulu/Violet; Violet/Flora) happening together.

The “instructions for concubines” section, in a third voice, although very interesting and sometimes very amusing, stuck out from the rest. This is not necessarily a bad thing – it is this section which makes the book most memorable – but it was, I thought, an odd stylistic choice.

My first Amy Tan, and I liked it quite a bit.