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Antigone's Reviews > The Hundred Secret Senses
The Hundred Secret Senses
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Amy Tan takes a hard right in The Hundred Secret Senses, departing her examination of the mother/daughter dynamic to explore the slip-stream of sisterhood.
Olivia is six years old when we meet, a resident of Northern California and the only daughter of a bi-racial couple from whom she yearns for more attention. In what certainly qualifies as her youthful worst-case scenario, her immigrant father is discovered to have sired another, older daughter the family agrees to transport from China and raise. Kwan is an eccentric being, filled with unaccountable love, and claims to possess "yin eyes" - soon understood as the ability to see and converse with the spirits of the dead. Olivia's resentment of this usurper turns swiftly to disdain and, eventually, juvenile cruelty - committing, upon one unfortunate occasion, a serious lapse in judgment that sends Kwan into a facility where she receives enough electroshock therapy to alter the composition of her hair.
Decades pass, and while Olivia ages, matriculates, marries, for some unknown reason she never quite matures - leaving me, as the reader she is narrating to, completely uninterested in most of what she thinks or has to say. Tan, as she is accustomed to do, finds the means to return to China and Kwan's (now reincarnational) past, seeking the same sort of historical resolution to the conflict of her characters' present day.
I liked Kwan very much. When Olivia allowed it. Which was annoying.
Olivia is six years old when we meet, a resident of Northern California and the only daughter of a bi-racial couple from whom she yearns for more attention. In what certainly qualifies as her youthful worst-case scenario, her immigrant father is discovered to have sired another, older daughter the family agrees to transport from China and raise. Kwan is an eccentric being, filled with unaccountable love, and claims to possess "yin eyes" - soon understood as the ability to see and converse with the spirits of the dead. Olivia's resentment of this usurper turns swiftly to disdain and, eventually, juvenile cruelty - committing, upon one unfortunate occasion, a serious lapse in judgment that sends Kwan into a facility where she receives enough electroshock therapy to alter the composition of her hair.
Decades pass, and while Olivia ages, matriculates, marries, for some unknown reason she never quite matures - leaving me, as the reader she is narrating to, completely uninterested in most of what she thinks or has to say. Tan, as she is accustomed to do, finds the means to return to China and Kwan's (now reincarnational) past, seeking the same sort of historical resolution to the conflict of her characters' present day.
I liked Kwan very much. When Olivia allowed it. Which was annoying.
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Reading Progress
March 7, 2024
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Started Reading
March 7, 2024
– Shelved
March 12, 2024
– Shelved as:
fiction
March 12, 2024
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Finished Reading
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Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂
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Mar 12, 2024 10:30AM
Your review does make me think this book won't be for me, so thanks Antigone!
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Carol She's So Novel ꧁꧂ wrote: "Your review does make me think this book won't be for me, so thanks Antigone!"It was a bit "off" but then here is the service of reviews! Thanks, Carol.
Yes Amy Tan is a great writer, but I feel she's fallen behind a little in her examination of women's lives - as if she hasn't kept up with current ideas. That's a big hole in the plot isn't it that Olivia hasn't matured - and returning to China is clearly not the answer. The story's focus is not Kwan, but Olivia - it's Olivia who has had to adjust and grapple and grow up through a dynamically disordered and dysfunctional family. Although I suppose Kwan's must have been so much worse etc - the forgotten child - maybe too much for one story - or a very careful balancing is required. Tan does past and present quite well - she's quite a proficient structural writer. What's your favourite Tan novel?
Amazing how little I remembered of the book until I read your review, Antigone. Not her best work, judging from your words and the faint mark it left behind.
Carol She's So Novel ꧁꧂ wrote: "I didn't like The Kitchen God's Wife much either. Sometimes an author just isn't for you!"That, too! I find the more I read the more discriminating I become.
A literary evolution of sorts.
Laura wrote: "Yes Amy Tan is a great writer, but I feel she's fallen behind a little in her examination of women's lives - as if she hasn't kept up with current ideas. That's a big hole in the plot isn't it that..."You point out, so astutely, the conflicting forces Tan was up against...in this story particularly. Perhaps it was the focus on the bond of sisters that did her in. Which sister had she been? It's possible she did not know and, thus, could not cleave to a narrative path with the aspects of growth that are essential to it. I suspect my favorite Tan novel is still ahead of me - and that this might turn out to be The Joy Luck Club. I say this because I've seen the film and was moved by it. We shall see!
Violeta wrote: "Amazing how little I remembered of the book until I read your review, Antigone. Not her best work, judging from your words and the faint mark it left behind."I would have to agree. Judging from this work, she doesn't have the same fundamental grasp on sisterhood that she does with the mother/daughter dynamic. She did try, though. Points for that!
Sounds lovely, apart from Olivia :). Wonderful review Antigone 💖
Hi Antigone - just seen your comment now - notifications - up the creek! I've not read - The Joy Luck Club - I would like to - at some point.
Margaret M - months of wrote: "Sounds lovely, apart from Olivia :). Wonderful review Antigone 💖"Yes. Thanks, Margaret!
Laura wrote: "Hi Antigone - just seen your comment now - notifications - up the creek! I've not read - The Joy Luck Club - I would like to - at some point."At some point is becoming my motto!
Antigone, you were generous with your stars. Thanks!
Doris wrote: "Antigone, you were generous with your stars. Thanks!"The writing was good, but I suspect you may be right! Thanks, Doris.
