| Title | : | The Hundred Secret Senses |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 080411109X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780804111096 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 406 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1995 |
| Awards | : | Orange Prize Fiction Shortlist (1996), International Dublin Literary Award (1997) |
Even as Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge against her sister (who, among other things, is a source of infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one that sweeps us into the splendor, squalor, and violence of Manchu China. And out of the friction between her narrators, Amy Tan creates a work that illuminates both the present and the past sweetly, sadly, hilariously, with searing and vivid prose.
The Hundred Secret Senses Reviews
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رواية مئة حاسّة سريّة
الكاتبة آمي تان.
رواية مشوقة، خفيفة، ساخرة، مضحكة، دافئة ذكرتني بالقصص الخيالية التي كانت ترويها لنا جدتي كل مساء.
كاتبة بارعة استطاعت أن تستحوذ على كلِّ ذرّة من كياني بأسلوبها الجميل في السرد والحوار.
تعتبر من أجمل الروايات التي قرأتها مؤخرًا، تستحق الرواية أن تطرح في فيلم سينمائي.
الترجمة ممتازة. ما عدا الأخطاء المطبعية الكثيرة في الرواية الصادرة من “الأهلية للنشر والتوزيع” .
اقتباسات من الرواية
“ان السعادة العظيمة، تأتي بعد طوفان من دموع الحزن”.
“للحب مذاق البلسم كما أن له مذاق السم في ذات الوقت”.
“يجب على كل إنسان أن يحلم، حتى يحصل على الأمل. أن نتوقف عن الأحلام، هذا يشبه أن نقول أننا لا نستطيع تغيير أقدارنا”.
“العالم ليس مكانًا، بل هو المساحة الشاسعة للروح، والروح لا تساوي شيئًا دون الحبّ الذي هو وحده الأبدي، وحده اللامحدود، وهذا هو فقط ما يجعلنا نقترب من الحقيقة”.
“لا يمكن أن توقف أحداً عن الأمل. لا يمكن لأحد أن يتوقف عن الأحلام طالما ينظر للسماء. يريد الإنسان دائماً أن يحلق عالياً، بقدر ما يستطيع”.
“الحقيقة لا تكمن في المنطق، ولكنها تكمن في الأمل. وسواء في الماضي أو المستقبل، فإن الأمل يفاجئك دوماً”.
“يستطيع الأمل قهر كل ما يعترضه، كل أنواع الشكوك، ويستطيع مقاومة كل محاولة أو شك يطلب دليلاً ليقودنا إلى الحقيقة”. -
¡¡Me ha encantado!!! Y lo he devorado... ¡NO podía parar de leer!
La historia sigue a Olivia y Kwan, dos medio hermanas. Olivia, nacida en Norteamerica pero de padre Chino conoce a Kwan cuando tiene 6 años y su hermana 18. Ésta ejerce en cierta manera de madre y niñera, Kwan le habla de todos los fantasmas que ve gracias a sus ojos Yin, y le cuenta sus historias, así Olivia acaba aprendiendo chino y Kwan inglés, y al mismo tiempo establecen una relación extraña y compleja que las acompañará toda su vida.
El estilo de Amy Tan me fascina, esa amalgama entre realidad y ficción, ese tono de realismo mágico cargado de leyendas y costumbres Chinas, la mezcla cultural Oriente/Occidente... En fin, este libro ya lo había leído pero hace tanto que no recordaba absolutamente nada, y lo he disfrutado enormemente.
Kwan es un personaje que creo que no voy a olvidar, se ha colado en mi corazón, me ha hecho reír y sonreír demasiadas veces, es tan entrañable, dulce y maravillosa... FAN.
Cierto es que Olivia a veces me sacaba de quicio, pero es comprensible por la situación que estaba pasando...
Lectura super recomendable que aunque me ha dejado muy melancólica, he disfrutado infinitamente. -
The Hundred Secret Senses is now one of my favorite Amy Tan novels, rivaled only by The Bonesetter's Daughter. Yes, I love The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and Saving Fish From Drowning - I love any Tan story I come across - but The Hundred Secret Senses (along with TBD) really stand out.
Olivia, the narrator, is the American-born daughter of a Chinese man and an American woman. When her father is on his deathbed, he reveals to his wife that he left behind a daughter in China, and asks her to retrieve the daughter. Enter Kwan, Olivia's older half-sister who believes that she has "yin eyes" and can see and speak to ghosts.
Olivia struggles her whole life to ignore and dismiss Kwan's superstitions until her marriage is crumbling and she, her estranged husband and her sister find themselves on a trip to China together. The ending is extremely poignant without being cheesy or unrealistic. Tan plumbs the depths of issues like life and death, reincarnation, history, soul ties, relationships and culture in this story, and I ate it up. -
Let me start off by saying that I LOVE Kwan! Her voice and self-assurance makes her cool, "Oh Libby-ah! I tell you secret. Promise not tell?" And then later in the book she becomes even cooler! A fifty year old lady crawling through caves. I can picture her saying, "We hakka strong! Don't worry me Libby-ah. I be right back!" :) I think a movie would be great! It has suspense, mystery, romance, death, ghosts! Not to mention the amazing visuals detailed in the story.
My only criticism is that Olivia's character annoyed me several times. Especially when she is in China. "They don't have electricity?!? They don't have a bathroom inside the house?!? I have to eat that?!? They don't have something normal prepared for me I can eat?!?" That kind of thing. It's like she's saying, "This stuff might be good enough for you Chinese people, but you guys are crazy!" I understand that she learns from her China trip, and she grows out of her shell, but I feel like she should have known anyway. After all, she's been hearing Kwan's stories of China almost all her life. You think she would have learned by now that they don't have much to American standards. Also, her way of thinking is always about her, her, her. I don't think she stops once to think outside herself, what it must have been like for Kwan when she lived there, or what it must be like for her family that still lived there.
But getting over that fact, the story really is quite marvelous. :) -
Pablo Picasso also had his periods: African, Blue, Cubism, Modern, Rose and Analytic cubism.
And so have I. Have periods: Russian, Jewish, American, Middle-East, African, you name it.
One of my favorites is Amy Tan. Amy Tan-Period. This one is lasting a few years now and most of her books have a central theme: mothers and daughters. Amy Tan did not have a good relationship with her mother, or grandmother, for that matter. It could have been different if she had children of her own to really understood how mothers' minds worked( and find some closure for herself). So with this opinion in mind, I indulge in her books. And I always find what I am expecting: rich, informative, compassionate tales on Chinese culture, the family relationships, the cultural modus operandi, and the endearing characters filling up the spaces in the stories. Of course, there are always subtle cat-scratching and kitty yowling like alley cats on garbage night, raging throughout her tale, ripping any notion of womanly bonding apart. The women seldom love or even like each other, but there is always something strong keeping them connected. It becomes the mainstay of all her books.
Five-year-old American-born, Olivia Lee suddenly meets her Chinese half sister, K wan Li, from the Chanmian village in the Thistle mountains, China. She brings her dreams, ghosts, myths and messages with her, bombarding Olivia in her sleep. A love-hate relationship develops over a period of thirty years, with K wan, who calls a spade a spade in any situation, including Olivia's separation from her husband, Simon. Kwan becomes larger than life, interfering in everything Olivia does. Love and bonding is mainly one-sided with Olivia always trying to keep a physical, as well as emotional distance between herself and K wan. She becomes used to K wan not minding her own business, keeping on top of practically every move Olivia makes.
However, K wan sees what Olivia doesn't and she's patient with her little sister. During a visit to China, K wan opens up about her personal feelings for the first time (feelings that Olivia never cared much about).
The story is told with subtle wit, humor, endearment, and compassion, particularly the relationship between the two bubbly, sprightly sisters and their shared history of thousands of years. Two family secret are included. The prose, always, and alone, inspires me to stick to Amy Tan's books. The stories are always both heart wrenching and gripping. Both lugubriousness and buoyant. I have never read a book of Amy Tan in which I did not feel like family in the end.
In this book, love is a central theme and presented in prose of pride.
Love, not romance, snakes through the narrative from beginning to end. "Too much happiness always overflows into tears of sorrow". But distant, emotionally-challenged Olivia will finally understand her own history, with a few unexpected surprises in the works, the role of her sister, and the real meaning of hope and love, when she gets to know the Chinese connection in her own life and her bond with some of the characters in K wan Li's dreams and visions.
My Amy Tan-period comes to an end with this book. It is almost as though a blueprint was used for all of them and ensured predictability in the pattern it followed. I did find this book a faster read, with lighter, and more humorous moments than the others.
Similarities:
The main character is the same than in the other books, with similar issues;
The mothers are as bad as all the rest of the mothers in her books, with antagonism ruling the relationship from the daughter's side;
There is always a broken relationship in America that needs to be patched up, etc.
So, it gets a bit déjà vue.
The suspense is created in the reincarnation and paranormal aspects of it. She never loses control over the characters. It is still an enjoyable, entertaining read and certainly worth the time to venture of into the mystical world of Chinese culture, folklore and village life. I just love that aspect of her books. This book did not disappoint. However, I had enough of ghosts and reincarnation for a while, though, and in any book for that matter. But yes, I enjoyed it. -
انا بس عايز اقول ان الروايات اللي بتدمج بين الثقافات وبتكشف لنا السحر المخفي بينهم بتكون حلوة جدا، وفي الرواية دي بتقع بين عبق المجتمع الصيني بقدمه وطقوسه، وبين المجتمع الأمريكي بحداثته وانفتاحه لتنتج لنا رواية جميلة بتكشف لنا حياة ثرية خصبة.
الرواية جميلة، عميقة، ممتعة، تبعث شجون عديدة في النفس. -
I would have given this five stars but for a few things that annoyed me. Simon's sterility didn't ring true and Kwan's constant good humor was a bit grating.
Otherwise very, very entertaining! -
I read The Joy Luck Club years ago (after watching the movie), and now I’m kicking myself that I’ve let years and years pass before picking up her other novels. I could’ve been treasuring these books all along, but maybe this is a blessing in disguise, because Amy Tan’s novels require a certain type of womanly maturity to fully appreciate her stories that can only come with age and experience. In fact, I think I should re-read TJLC because there are probably lots of subtle things that went right over my head. Ahh, the joys of being a naïve teenager.
Anyhoo, The Hundred Secret Senses is told from the POV of a half-Chinese American woman named Olivia, who lives in CA, is estranged from her husband, has very little appreciation for her older half sister from China, and goes on a trip with the two of them back to her sister’s hometown of Changmian.
I overly simplified the book, but basically it’s a story about a woman at a crossroads in her life who is teeming on the edge of bitterness and ingratitude, but is also in self denial about this. She’s actively pretending that she has no problem with divorcing her husband after 17 years of marriage, and is choosing not to open up to her loving and nurturing sister Kwan, despite the fact that Kwan has been more like a warm and affectionate mother to her than her own biological mother has ever been.
I gave Amy Tan an extra star just for writing the character Kwan the way she did. Kwan’s warmth and positivity, her never ending love and forgiveness toward her family, coupled with her firm belief in herself and humble confidence is awe inspiring. My heart ached as I stayed up late last night, flipping through page after page of Kwan’s story, past life and present. I would give almost anything to have a sister like her, or just a relative like her. She’s the symbol of what has been missing in my life since I was born, so it was a little difficult to overlook Olivia’s ingratitude and immaturity.
Speaking of immaturity, it was interesting to me that Olivia reminded me more of a woman who would have been a teenager/college student in the 80’s, rather than during the Vietnam era. I honestly have no idea why, maybe she just comes across as a younger soul for some reason, or maybe it’s because she’s 12 years younger than Kwan, so the years apart put a spotlight on Olivia’s tendency to act like a stereotypical bratty sibling.
That’s not to say I didn’t like Olivia. In fact, a lot of the choked back tears I held came from reading about her deep insecurity and fears of losing her husband to a woman she can’t even compete with. That’s so unfair, but it’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. It’s just sad that almost two decades passed before Olivia was able to begin dealing with her feelings, and the ending summed that up in a realistic way, rather than giving it the typical Hollywood ending that cheapens otherwise good stories.
And that’s one of the reasons I know how much Amy Tan loves the stories she creates, because she gives not only her characters respect, but her readers as well. She gives her characters the space they need to sort through grief, sadness, love, etc., rather than just wrapping everything up in a neat little bow and handing it to readers/viewers like so many other books and movies do.
It always gives me a crazy case of the angries when they do that.
Speaking of wrapping up, I think I’ll do just that with a toast to Amy Tan, one of my new favorite authors.
Cheers!
Here's my blog:
https://rebbiereads.wordpress.com/ -
It's become a tradition for me to read Amy Tan's books when flying. My recent trip to Las Vegas was no exception, since at the last minute, I pulled down Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses - the Kindle version - and dived into it as soon as I could turn my electronic devices back on.
The book starts, "My sister Kwan believes she has yin eyes. She sees those who have died and now dwell in the World of Yin, ghosts who leave the mists just to visit her kitchen on Balboa Street in San Francisco."
There are ghosts a-plenty in this book. Two or three in particular are fundamental to the story line, and the stories of their lives, deaths, and in some cases reincarnations are woven seamlessly into the narrative, as Kwan shifts from her accented English into Chinese to tell her sister Olivia the stories. Kwan spends time in a mental institution for her troubles.
To Kwan, the ghosts are real. Olivia, born and raised in America, and not part of the culture Kwan is speaking from, is skeptical. And yet, against her will, over decades of listening to her sister, Olivia has learned the stories, internalized them, and become haunted by some of them herself, as well as taking on a few new ones.
The ghosts are the reason Kwan is so desperate to patch Olivia's failed marriage back together. The ghosts and their story are the reason Olivia, Simon (Olivia's ex-husband) and Kwan go to China. But a ghost can't change anything about its life. Ghosts are dead. It's for the living, the dying, and the newly born who ultimately bring the story to resolution.
Tan evokes both these women - Olivia and Kwan - so thoroughly you feel as though you know them, that you have known them since you were a child. Through the longstanding argument and story telling between them, she evokes the ghosts as well, and their stories, and their passions, their very lives that were, to the point that they too are characters in the present story.
If it sounds disjoint - like I'm still wrapping my head around this book, digesting it, trying to figure out how Tan did what she did, and why - that's because I am. There's a lot of story there. Tan's books are thick, dense with plot and rich with characters, and The Hundred Secret Senses is no exception. Totally immersive, and I found myself wishing my flight had lasted longer than the two hours or so it actually did, so I could get through more of it. As it was, I was up until 2:00am reading it in the middle of my vacation. It's that good. Read it. Enjoy it. -
It's the same basic Amy Tan plot. The details have changed, but the essence of the story is exactly the same as every other Tan book I've read. In this case, though, not only does the narrator have mommy issues, she also has older-sister-from-China issues.
Basically, I got bored. I've read most of Tan's novels and have realized that she has a template. She found a formula that worked in The Joy Luck Club and hasn't really changed it since then.
1. Female main character.
2. She's caught between two worlds (China and America) and two or more generations. As a result, she doesn't communicate well with others. She's aloof, she comes across as cold, and she's constricted by guilt.
3. This inability to communicate affects all of her relationships. Various aspects of her life fall apart around her (e.g., loses her job, gets divorced, becomes alienated from her family).
4. She finds some level of understanding and compassion.
5. Hug. We're done.
This method of novel-writing is lazy and unfulfilling. Tan found what worked for her readers and hasn't grown as a writer or storyteller. -
I'm a huge fan of Amy Tan and I have read all, but her most recent novel. Tan's third novel, The Hundred Secret Senses, follows two sisters as they try to overcome culture gaps to form a bond.
The narrator is Olivia, a photographer who sets up the story through flashbacks to her childhood. On Olivia's father's death bed, he tells his family that he has fathered a child who is living in a remote village in China and he wishes for his daughter to be brought to America. When Olivia is six, her adult half-sister, Kwan, is brought to live with her family in San Francisco.
Kwan is a bit quirky. She claims to be able to see and communicate with the dead. She is eager to please her new American family, especially Olivia, who finds her customs and invasive nature to be off putting. Most of Kwan's visions of the dead are dismissed as crazy, until Kwan's stories begin to captivate Olivia. Kwan, a very capable storyteller, draws Olivia into her world and she begins to give into the tales of ghosts and past lives.
The Hundred Secret Senses failed to grab my attention. It's a messy story. Half of the novel is comprised of Kwan's ghost stories and the other half is Olivia's rocky relationship with her husband Simon. The story is muddled and between the two story lines, it takes a painfully long time to play out and intersect. Approximately 95% of the novel is leading up to a reveal that just doesn't merit the time invested in the build.
What's strange is that the story feels more like it should have been broken down into a series of short stories. The tone doesn't match between the various sections and it's jarring. I really didn't care about Kwan's ghost stories. They bogged down the pacing and it took me weeks to finish the book due to a lack of interest.
The section involving the trip to China began to renew my interest in the novel. I enjoyed Olivia and Simon's adventure in a foreign culture. However, it wasn't too long before Kwan's stories came back into play and I struggled through the last twenty pages. Kwan is an interesting character, but only when she is rooted in the real world and not in her fantasy life.
I love Tan's writing style and her stories are usually captivating, but this isn't the best example of her talents.
Please visit my blog for more reviews and musings. -
We all hear of Amy Tan with great respect but I was unsure "The Joy Luck Club" was for me. A fan of mystique, "The Hundred Secret Senses" was a title that drew me. I expected Amy’s work to be very good ~ she plays keyboard in a band with other big league authors like Stephen King, for Pete’s sake. The journey I discovered is so epic and multifaceted, I doubt a blockbuster film could do it justice but I would love to see it. The numerous storylines are dynamic and all unforgettable.
Olivia’s Dad has a grown daughter. They locate the 18 year-old and sponsor Kwan. Gregarious, not shy, she is thrilled with a sister in particular, upon whom she lavishes love. Olivia finds this awkward from a stranger, whose shaky English embarrasses her around friends. There are two young brothers, mentioned less than their Mom. Olivia’s treatment of Kwan is poor. I understand being bombarded with a nearly-grown sibling in the family but many of us have relatives who are outright jerks. Kwan was affectionate and loyal all, even in the face of rudeness, thus that element bothered me.
One story centers on Olivia’s ex-husband, Simon; bizarre circumstances about a past university girlfriend. The fierce memory affected his & Olivia’s marriage. Kwan convinces them to accompany her to China, her first return in three decades. Events there reach a whole other magnitude. The novel had not been very metaphysical until that point. There, we get into ghosts, body-switching, and a great deal of reincarnation. Growing up, Olivia shared her room with Kwan. Kwan chatted nightly about sharply remembered past lives and Olivia inadvertently found herself learning Chinese. On the trip back to Kwan’s home town, those story snippets come together with an impact that is impossible to doubt! -
Lovely story :) Not as mindblowing as The Bonesetter's Daughter, but good enough for me to stay up into the wee hours just to finish devouring this book.
The story started out slow and took longer than I liked to reach the climax and there are still a few unanswered questions that I would have preferred answered, like what was Olivia's father's real name. But I guess in the big scheme of things, these little questions are inconsequential and would have distracted from the main plot.
What won me over was Olivia finally accepting her sister and her loyalty and Kwan never coming back, was tragic for me. This book has enough heartwarming tragedies to truly touch the reader.
And of course what was magical for me especially, was Amy Tan's unique ability to weave together many loose threads of plot by the end of the book to create a seamless fabric, an infallible truth. -
In high school I had a friend with exquisite indie musical taste who was a closeted Cheryl Crow fan. Another friend confronted him and he had to come clean. Amy Tan is kind of my Cheryl Crow. Her accessibility might blind some highbrow readers to the great wit and wisdom in her writing. And I love how she moves narratively between the physical and spiritual worlds as if the line between the two is irrelevant.
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When I bought this at a used book sale, there was a note inserted, "Her best book." That said, I'm still surprised to see the general rating for this book is higher than The Joy Luck Club and Bonesetter's Daughter, the 2 other Amy Tan books I have read. I didn't like this one quite as much, but still gave it a 4 for it's ability to keep me interested. The main character, Olivia, has an older half sister, Kwan, come live with the family after spending her formative years in China. It takes Olivia some getting used to having this very talkative (to put it mildly) foreigner move into her American home. Kwan keeps Olivia up at night relating stories of ghosts and China. (Spoiler here:) All the stories that Kwan relates to Olivia turn out to be revelations of one of Kwan's past lives, and not dreams as you might first assume. Do you believe in ghosts? In reincarnation? Not something I really think about, but what I never would have imagined is someone having such total recall of a former life, such as Kwan did. It really bored me with details at first, but then Tan upped the pace considerably once the 2 of them go to China together along with Olivia's estranged husband. Kwan is truly a sweetie and loveable, whereas Olivia often acts like a spoiled brat when dealing with her husband and within the sister relationship. Then she is made to question who Kwan really is, why she has shown up in her life, will she ever get back with her husband, as well as what is real and what isn't. Great ending.
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So I like this book. What I like about it is how sweet Kwan is, but in just about All the Books there is a straight as in serious character who refuses to believe in ghosty things.
Which is a bit irritating when you have proof such things exist.
Best thing about this book is the concept that these people cared for each other so much they kept being born again just to be with these folks. it's a nice way to look at death, really. Friendly. You loved this guy in this life so he's going to be reborn just to be with you all over again.
It was nice how Olivia learned to be more open minded. It was frustrating having the story be in mostly her perspective because I wanted to shake her and tell her to stop being so insecure, dang it. And that love isn't perfect or without problems. Just because you're not happy all the time with the person you love, doesn't mean it's not love.
Also, reading this book again made me get a bit teary in places. It really is a sweet book. -
I am sad to say that I did not enjoy this book. I had great difficulty following Kwan's ghost stories, they felt like the babbling of an insane person. This is the sixth Amy Tan novel that I've read but the only one that I didn't love. I kept waiting for Olivia to have Kwan committed to a mental hospital!
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20 years later, I finally re-read this gem. I honestly remembered nothing, but I found the story deep and enchanting. The characters, Olivia and Kwan, are interested and flawed and wonderful. This is not plot driven by any means, but it is beautifully done.
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The book constantly went from the present to the past. Because of a complicated plot, it was difficult for me to keep track of the characters.
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Amy Tan's novels are really special in many ways. For me reading "Joy luck club" was a comfortable means of sinking in Chinese culture, bound with familiar American environment, something to hold to, like bungee jumping, you sunk into unknown depth but still know that the rope will return you back in proper time.
"The Hundred Secret Senses" seemed to me less americanized than the first Tan's novel. Every single step of characters here seems to be linked to Chinese legends, beliefs and traditions. If the "Club" tells about two separate national words, comparing them, in this novel one cannot exist without the other.
Olive, one of the two protagonists, notwithstanding her origins, is totally American, both by looks and in her heart. She is organized, practical, prudent and always knowing what she wants.
For Kwan, the other main character, the world is not such a simple system. She has "Ying eyes" which allow her to see spirits but apart from this she sees relations between the things and people which are much more complicated than Olive could ever imagine.
For Olive her elder sister us a grotesque character, mumbling some nonsense about ghosts and secret senses, telling some strange unbelievable stories and always ready to intrude into her life when she less wants it.The idiolect granted by the author to Kwan (the absence of endings, frequent usage of Chinese words and wrong pronunciation of English ones) also add to the comic effect.
As a child Olive feels awkward from Kwan's presence and ashamed of her, later this transforms into a mixed feeling of pity and boredom, one you would feel towards an insane relative whom you have to take care for.
The stories narrated by Kwan really seem mad at first but then as you read on you begin to understand the inner sense of them and what is more important, the connection to the main characters of the novel.
The world of Kwan is dark, often violent and scary, but still fascinating, you like it even more because it's absolutely different from your own understandable reality. So if you break through the fantasmagonic narration of Kwan in the beginning you will totally enjoy the novel by the end.
I like it because Tan isn't afraid to show China as it is, not a picture from travel magazine, not stories adapted for western readers but just like she sees it, with poverty, superstitious beliefs and dark past. It could scary you off but instead it arises the feeling of uttermost affection towards this country with thousand years of tradition and it's people who live in what sometimes seems entirely another planet.
The problems Amy Tan touches upon are nevertheless not nationally coloured, they are universal and eternal: she describes all the sides of family relations - daughters who not always understand their eccentric mother keen on affairs with foreigners; the distance between sisters who have twelve years of age between them and elder performing the role of the mother to the younger one; wife and husband whose relations cooled with time; and of course returning to your roots and getting to know the culture and ways of your ancestors.
All in all novel will be fascinating to those who would like to sink into the world of China and will remind you that family ties are the strongest and most important of all. -
Takie 3,5
Książka ma momenty przepiękne, autorka wspaniale opisuje podróż do Chin, w sposób tak plastyczny, że mam ochotę w tym momencie spakować się i jechać. Jej postaci żyją, są bardzo prawdziwe.
Niestety nie polubiłam głównej bohaterki, co utrudniało czytanie mocno. Drugi zarzut to historia opowiadana przez Kwan, w którą totalnie nie potrafiłam się wczuć i z westchnieniem witałam każdy akapit, w którym następował powrót do opowiadanej historii. Nie wiem, po przeczytaniu całość podoba mi się bardzo, ale czytanie nie było łatwe i dopiero po dobrej połowie książki tak naprawdę się wciągnęłam.
Wdaje mi się też, że polskie tłumaczenie mocno niestety kuleje, bo czasem oczy bolały ;-) -
How shall I say this? The main protagonist/narrator of this book is a jerk. A giant one. I don't understand for a moment why it takes almost losing her husband and actually losing her sister for her to stop being a jerk for more than 10 minutes, but it does. This is probably also why I don't generally like romantic comedies. I expect everyone to have figured out how to be compassionate or at least somewhat emotionally intelligent by the time they've reached their mid-30s...which doesn't seem like too much to ask, does it?
The secondary protagonist, the main character's sister, was delightful. Overbearing, sometimes, yes. It's a simple narrative trick of the author, but very illustrative that when she switches from narrating in somewhat broken english to chinese, her language becomes deeper, richer, occasionally even rather poetic. Actually, I wish the entire novel had been about her and her life (lives?) in China.
With the exception of the (horribly cliche) ending, Amy Tan manages to keep this book interesting throughout, and to circumvent predictability with little twists and turns that kept me reading late into the night and early into the morning. -
of course i remember reading it long time ago in my late twenties. Refreshing plot and interesting way of depicting cross culture of China and the new generation. The sister with Yin eyes is very convincingly written.
Amy's style in all of her books i strongly believed has injected inspirations to many when writing about anything with Chinese in mind. Those dos and don;ts...worth reading!!! -
"If people we love die, then they are lost only to our ordinary senses. If we remember, we can find them anytime with our hundred secret senses"
Não estava a espera que este livro me tocasse tanto. Mas livros que abordem relações entre irmãs sempre irão me emocionar, por ter uma irmã mais nova e ter sentido sempre a necessidade de protege-la dos impedimentos á sua felicidade.
Apesar de nem sempre compreender todas as atitudes de Olivia, percebo porque tenta afastar Kawan da sua vida e consigo conectar-me com algumas das suas seguranças. Kawan aparece de repente, num momento em que ela ainda se está a descobrir e chega cheia de ideias "estranhas" sobre o mundo da espiritualidade chinesa que ela não consegue compreender. Afinal Olivia é apenas metade chinesa, a sua casa é na América e nunca conheceu os seus familiares chineses. Seria difícil entender uma rapariga que afirma comunicar-se com fantasmas!
Mas Kawan não desiste de criar uma amizade com esta irmã extremamente racional, e começa a contar-lhe histórias da China e do seu passado. Tenta demonstrar a importância dos antepassados, como certas superstições são importantes para a nossa vida. E quando o seu casamento está prestes a ruir ela decide levá-la juntamente com Simon a conhecer a sua aldeia. Será nessa viagem que Olivia finalmente conhecerá verdadeiramente Kawan, e irá perceber o poder dela com o mundo espiritual.
Amy Tan já havia-me surpreendido com o seu afamado "O clube da sorte e da alegria", contudo "The hundred secret senses" foi o livro que verdadeiramente me agarrou a sua escrita. Pouco sabia sobre as temáticas que tratavam, talvez por isso tenho de facto se tornando especial. Kawan com o seu eterno otimismo permanecerão em mim durante muito tempo. -
It was a beautiful surprize for me this book. I think it's the first book of the author I've ever read. The thread following the story in the past with twists in the present, the karma (even though the word didn't come in the story), the way of how our souls could remember things from our past lives, the wonder of these ideas make from this one a very interesting reading.
I recommend with all my heart this amaizing book. -
As I'm reading all of Amy Tan's works again, I realized, upon reading all their summaries, that "The Hundred Secret Senses" was the only book I couldn't remember anything about. (I read all the books around the same time before, so it wasn't like a loooon time ago.) Probably because Senses is not about Amy's classic mother/daughter dynamic, but a sister/sister relationship.
The story is about a 40ish woman named Olivia, who has put up with her elder half-sister Kwan's nosiness and...her incredible ability to talk to spirits. Like a medium. Actually, that's exactly what Kwan is. A very well-meaning medium who can't stay out of anybody's business, and doesn't even care when people call her names and shun her for being weird.
Olivia finds herself with a failing marriage, her 17yo relationship with Simon always meddled with the ghost of his first love. Kwan decides the only way to fix their marriage is to take them all on an excursion to her tiny village in China, where Olivia discovers that all of Kwan's stories about past lives and ghosts are true...and what they have to do with herself.
The first thing to note about this book is its voice. I'm a firm believer that Tan is one of the only authors who can pull off first person present and not make me want to run for the hills screaming. That said, there are two POVs in this book - one for Olivia, and one for Kwan. Olivia is a snooty, bratty woman (and child) with a fantastic "woe is me and my messed up family" complex that makes you want to slap her more than once. (And so of course I loved Olivia, because she reminds me of the type of person we hate because she says what we all are thinking but don't have the balls to say.) On the other extreme, we have Kwan, who speaks in broken English. They both love going off on tangents that make you forget what they were originally talking about. But if you're not new to Tan's books, this shouldn't bother you at all.
I found myself gobbling this book up and wondering why the hell I never remembered it. I mean, there's no "reveals" because all the "omg what a twists!" are so damn obvious that even M. Night wouldn't touch them, but the actual writing itself keeps you along for the ride. "Why don't I remember this? This could easily become one of my favorite books!" I thought to myself.
Then I got to the ending.
Which is where a star off comes from.
The ending is trite and contrived, and overall a huge disappointment that makes you go, really? I think I rolled my eyes so hard they're still trying to go back into place. And in that process, the ending asked way more questions than it answered. The pure "whatever" I felt at the end reminded me why I never remembered anything about this book later. Still, you'll notice I gave it four stars - because until the end, I really did love this book, from Olivia's epic cynicism to Kwan's witty stories. As long as I pretend the last two chapters didn't happen, I'm good! -
Her father dropped the bomb before he died. He admitted that he had another daughter from China and requested to bring her to America. Olivia was dumbfounded when she met learned that her half sister, Kwan, was kind of weird. Kwan was older than her but Olivia felt like she was going to be the bigger sister in the family. Sharing a room with her proved to be quite an ordeal. How would you feel when your sister told you that she'd been seeing ghosts and had the ability to talk with the spirits. She's got Yin Eyes, she said. And she often talked about her past life. Creepy, right? At the end of the day, one couldn't help but accept Kwan's differences and fall for her eccentricities.
When Olivia's own marriage was on the rocks, Kwan made a move to help her sister out. She brought them to China and soon Olivia and Simon realized what they'd been missing in their relationship. And how they were interconnected to each other's life.
I got this book 4 years ago from work. A colleague gifted this to me during Christmas, along with another book (Pearl Moon by Katherine Stone). I've always loved Amy Tan's books, one of my favorites from her is the Joy Luck Club. With The Hundred Secret Senses, my admiration for Tan increased. She encapsulated stories of reincarnation, marriage beliefs, past lives and even Chinese cultures. This is a story inside a story, just like Inception, and you can't help but put yourself inside their story and get involved and drawn to the characters. I have yet to read The Bonesetter's Daughter which had been highly praised by a lot of readers. But for now, The Hundred Secret Senses is my favorite Amy Tan novel. -
Heartbreaking and so so good. The story is about two sisters – Kwan, a Chinese-born superstitious lady and Libby, a half-Chinese, half-white modern woman. It reveals the sad reality of sisterhood – abundance of love and misunderstandings. Magic and surreal as well, with Kwan bringing in beliefs of the supernatural and rebirths.
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When she was six, Libby gained a new older sister – her mother brought Kwan, her husband’s child abandoned in China, over to US. Kwan loved Libby wholeheartedly and practically raised her. What is special about her is that she had yin eyes – she could see the dead, their yearnings and longing. Kwan influenced Libby’s perceptions on love, relationship and destiny. Nearing the end of the novel, Libby realized there is a huge price to pay to get what she wanted. Kwan reminded Libby that there were debts they carried forward from their past lives that needed to be settled.
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It has been so hectic for me lately and Amy Tan’s writing was just the right thing to make me feel better. Her words devastate you, that’s for sure. She knows how to write emotions repressed in the name of outward stability. I guess that describes us thriving for perfection while ignoring our inner turmoil. A lovely, lovely book and highly recommended! -
I love Amy Tan's work, and this book was no exception. The magical realism aspect to this book was unexpected, but I enjoyed how Kwan's story of her past life played into the events happening to Olivia in the modern day. I didn't like Kwan in the beginning, but the chapters from her perspective were always interesting and I totally came around to liking her in the middle of the book. But OMG, Olivia had me so frustrated. She kept saying how calm and collected she was compared to her sister, but in reality she acted very hysterical. I respected all that she had been through, but she treated Kwan terribly, flipped out on Simon for no reason, and always spoke about her mother with way too much judgement. I still liked her as a character, especially because her anxiety was well-written, but the contrast between her perception of herself and reality drove me up a wall. Joy Luck Club still stands out to me as one of Tan's best, but this book is definitely worth a read.
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أحب كوان، أشباحها وأصدقاءها الميتين، ذكرياتها وحيواتها السابقة، إيمانها العميق بذاكرتها وإحساسها، وحبها اللا محدود. أحب قراءة الأساطير، الخرافات الشعبية، الثقافات القديمة وكل ما حولها، وآمي تان هنا صاغتهم بذكاء في روايتها. الحب في الرواية بين سيمون وأوليفيا كان الشيء العاديّ والمبتذل نوعًا ما -الوحيد- مقابل سحر باقي حكايات الرواية. استمتعت بها كثيرا.
فيه شيء مفقود مع الترجمة، أسلوب كوان في الكلام، ركاكة انجليزيتها مقابل طلاقتها بلغتها، أظنه كان ساحر أكثر باللغة الأصل اللي انكتب بها العمل. ولكنه لا يزال ممتع، ولا تزال شخصيتها الأفضل في الرواية.
