Another novel of Mothers, Daughters and Memory!
Tan's Amy Tan's book, The Bonesetter's Daughter, is full of mystery, suspense, superstition and magic. It is a novel as layered as the bone-filled caves outside Peking, and the clues are as shrouded in dust and history as any ancient archaeological dig. Ruth Liu is a writer sandwiched between the man she lives with, his daughters and her aging mother. She is also in a race to discover the true story of her mother, LuLing Liu Young, before Alzheimer's disease masks her mother's memories completely.
Maybe we could consider these questions while we read:
1. Bones constitute an important motif in The Bonesetter's Daughter.
What is the significance of the book's title? How does breaking
a bone change Ruth's life and her relationship with her
mother? What importance do bones hold for LuLing and Precious
Auntie?
2. Each year, Ruth makes a conscious decision not to speak for one
week. Why does she elect to go silent? In which ways does this
self-imposed muteness mirror the challenges faced by both her
mother and by Precious Auntie? How does Ruth find her voice as the novel goes on?
In an interview some years ago, Tan said of her mother: ''She wanted someone to go back and relive her life with her. It was a way for her to exorcise her demons, and for me to finally listen and empathize and learn what memory means, and what you can change about the past.’'
Just a side question.
How much do we know of our own mothers lives, and the experiences that shaped them?
I’m guessing like me, you both only know what they were willing to tell us.
Hello Ladies!
ReplyDeleteHope your Christmases found you well. We had a nice holiday with family. The weather wasn’t too cold which spoiled Benjamin’s dreams of a white Christmas. He’s ready for snow but I’m not! This was the second book of Amy Tan’s that I’ve read. It seems that I enjoy her work and am now considering picking up “The Joy Luck Club”. Have either of you ladies read that? If you have, did you enjoy it more, less, or equal to this month’s book?
The importance of bones in this novel is their connection to family. Since LuLing’s family worked with bones, she has a connection to her lost family through them. It starts with the Oracle bone that her grandfather passed to her mother and then continues with Ruth’s broken arm. While LuLing does not realize that her daughter is just drawing answers she thinks LuLing wants, LuLing sees the writings as a link to her lost mother. In her eyes, Ruth’s broken arm and silence reconnects her to her family legacy.
On a simple level, Ruth’s silence mimics the muteness her grandmother suffers from her first attempt at suicide. On a more complex level, Ruth’s self-imposed silence mirrors LuLing’s silence regarding her past. Ruth finds her voice when she finds her mother’s past. Both women gain back the voice they lost from their family secrets. Ruth becomes more assertive in what she wants in both her professional and personal life. Initially Ruth loses her voice involuntarily each year. If we are asked to picture Ruth sitting with her grandmother writing their family’s story at the end of the novel, maybe we can believe that Ruth’s involuntary silence was her grandmother’s spirit trying to reach out to Ruth.
It’s terribly sad to me that LuLing could not share her stories until it was almost too late. I feel that I know so much regarding the lives of both my mother and maternal grandmother. They both tell many of the same old stories over and over, and I still love hearing them every time! Now that I am older, my mother is one of my dearest friends. As she did with her mother, we have transitioned from the mother-daughter relationship to a mother-daughter-friends relationship. I don’t always love it when she complains about my father to me, but it says we are close enough that we can share everything. I want to be open about my life with my daughter too. (Not that it has been as dramatic as LuLing’s!) I hope that I am able to be to her one day as my mom is to me now.
Looking forward to your thoughts ladies!
ReplyDeleteHello Ladies,
Well 2017 has began here with a flurry. We seem to have a constant stream of visitors coming and going. We are also in the midst of relocating Gracie to Melbourne so as usual chaos reins at Camp Katuzans. I am hoping you both enjoyed your Christmas - New Year celebrations, ours were pretty low key and a loving family time. Our weather has been really hot and humid so the pool is getting well used, we are in desperate need of rain though, every thing is tinder dry.
I enjoyed our story this month and found it quite easy reading. I am finding answering the questions I posed a little trickier.
The human bones and the pivotal roles they played in Precious Aunties, Luling and Ruth’s lives linked the three generations of women together very well.
Precious Auntie was allowed a measure of independence when working with her famous Bonesetter father, and his knowledge of the location of the ‘dragon bones’ and it’s cures made him a sought after Doctor.
Luling connections with bones seems to be the strongest. Her first husband’s passion was for the same ancient bones her mother knew of and it was the Oracle bone that once sold allowed her to by passage to the US and a measure of independence. I felt it was understandable when Ruth broke her arm, considering Luling’s superstitions surrounding the importance of human bones that she would see that as a portal to communicate with her lost mother.
Ruth herself gained much when she broke her arm. Her mother’s attention and focus, which most children feel they don’t get enough of! Her silence seemed to link into this time and also seemed to be an attention seeking behaviour to begin with.
As Ruth began to explore her mother’s past and gains understanding of who she is and the amazing life she has led it seems as if her own confidence in who she is and her connection to the past grounds her. I feel it is a basic need in all of us to know how we are connected to others and where we fit into our world and where we belong.
Luling’s writing’s were fascinating and I really enjoyed this part of the story. I loved Luling and I enjoyed the ending of the story quite warm and fuzzy.
A lot of my own mother’s story is missing for me, she was of the generation, of not sharing too many personal details and keeping secrets for the sake of keeping up appearances. A finely honed skill in a town as small as the one I was raised in !!
Gracie and I thankfully have a more sharing relationship than that, although there are still many things I don’t share and perhaps this is me being secretive and private or perhaps a little afraid of being judged too harshly as your children, as well as being your champions can also be your fiercest critics.
Hope you’re both not too cold !!
love Nancy
Hello Ladies
ReplyDeleteA very happy 2017 to you both. Hope it brings you some rain, Nancy. Not sure whether I should be wishing Benjamin his snow, Katie, but I hope you all enjoy aspects of it when it arrives. I have read The Joy Luck Club but it was years ago and I seem to recall lots of mahjong, kitchen settings and mother daughter relationships. On such a fragile basis, I think I prefer The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Details, like the family’s ink business, were fascinating. There’s a real sense of cultural and family history here.
You’ve both done such a great job responding to this month’s questions that anything I have to say would be repetitive. The bones were a great linking device, reflecting, too, on the position of women in family and society: structural.
Lots of repetition of the word ‘family’ in my comments there, which is appropriate both for our book this month and these last few weeks here in Hornsea. Mum was admitted to hospital in the week before Christmas, and though she stayed only a few days, the time since has been a period of deterioration. It’s likely that this morning will see her admitted to a home. Between us, we have been giving 24 hour care but this has resulted in exhaustion, a sense of complete inadequacy and no improvement.
It has also, in the long reaches of the night, given me much opportunity to consider what I know about my Mum. A lot, I’m pleased to say. In part this is because of official letters I’ve had to write on her behalf; a cache of personal letters found when I was looking for clothes; my Dad’s stories (they’ve been together over seventy years); her retreat into childhood as the dementia took hold, and our attempts to write it down; and the fact we spent lots of holiday time together through the years: London, Paris, Singapore, Somerset as my teacher’s holidays and travelling meant my Mum and I met in different places. Having no daughter of my own, it’s difficult to put my relationship with my mother into any kind of context. But it’s been a major part of my life. We are very alike. I shall miss her very much.
Very depressing, ladies. I apologise. Difficult to write about anything else, really. A very well chosen book which has given me the opportunity to reflect on lots of personal “stuff”. Thank you.