The Hundred Secret Senses

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: This book was written amazingly well- almost like poetry... AND it had an excellent story. I just finished it and I can't find a book I like as much.

Rating:
Summary: Magical and Funny
Review: Olivia is a girl, that many who loved and felt less appeciated or unworthy, will understand. Her sister's love is touching and her behavior and innocence give this book plenty of high voiced laughter.

Rating:
Summary: Something Chinese Americans should be proud of
Review: I can't say how good I feel inside when I read Amy Tan's books. As a Chinese immigrant, I have always felt extremely proud when I read something I can relate to. The old lores and stories that Kwan told in this book, made me cry, not simply because I miss home, but because Amy Tan told them with a sense of pride. I shall look up to Amy Tan, all Chinese Americans should.

Rating:
Summary: the hundred secret senses:worth a hundred compliments
Review: the hundred secret senses talks about Olivia's being accompanied by her sister Kwan from China together with her stories of ghosts and old chinese tales throughout her childhood.Even Olivia's marriage came under the influence of Kwan's ghosts and Chinese tales. From America to China,Kwan has been with Olivia,being a nice sister and guide to her but something happened in China that Olivia will never forget and will forever thank Kwan for doing...it is something to find out using Olivia's hundred secret senses

Rating:
Summary: Her best book (yet)!
Review: Amazing! I rarely reread books, but this one is the exception that proves the rule....

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting!
Review: I have no experience with Chinese or Chinese-American culture except what I have gotten from reading Amy Tan. It must be difficult for her to bear the burden of educating all us WASP females. I found this book to be very interesting and enjoyable although I'm sure I didn't fully grasp all of the nuances. Having already read Tan's autobiography helped. I can see so many of her experiences now in all of her novels. I couldn't put myself into this plot or these characters since Tan's spirit world is so utterly unbelievable to me, but the relationships between the family members are such that any reader can relate.

Rating:
Summary: Sly reincarnation story
Review: First of all, Amy Tan's writing style is wonderful. Her characterizations are spot-on, and her dialog is very believable.

This time we have an unusual mystical story involving half-Chinese Olivia and her fully-Chinese older half-sister Kwan. Kwan arrives from China after their father dies, and assumes the role of Olivia's mother because her real mother is neglectful and preoccupied. Kwan is the one who tends to Olivia's scraped knees and who fusses over her as she's growing up.

Olivia thinks Kwan is crazy and irritating, embarrassing and over-bearing with her affection. She makes every effort to give Kwan only the least amount of time and attention she can get away with, and still Kwan gets effusive and grateful over the slightest crumb Olivia deigns to throw her way.

Kwan sees "ghosts". From the time she comes to live with Olivia, she's told her stories describing the dead who come and speak to her, telling Olivia what they have to say and what kinds of observations they have about the living.

Kwan also tells stories about her last lifetime. She was born into the same small Chinese village twice, she tells Olivia, and her stories of "home" are frequently stories of the events she experienced and people she knew in 1864. She describes a small band of European missionaries who came to China to convert the heathens, and in particular her good and loyal friend, "Miss Banner", an English lady who learned Chinese from Kwan (in that life) and translated for the missionaries.

Olivia thinks Kwan is nuts, and recoils.

At the same time, Olivia has just separated from her husband Simon, and resents Kwan's intrusive attempts to get the two of them back together.

Two stories work together simultaneously. One involves the present day with Kwan and her ghosts and Oliva and her estranged husband. The other is the story of the 19th century European missionaries. Both stories come together when Olivia, Simon and Kwan take a trip to China and visit the village where Kwan lived twice.

The reincarnation aspect of the story is presented as fantasy, with Olivia being far too practical to place any weight on Kwan's delusions. However, when they get to China, Kwan produces proof of the other lifetime and shakes Olivia into realizing she's always known the stories were true, and that she was there as well.

In The Hundred Secret Senses, you have a story of endless love and loyalty, wonderfully told.