The Bonesetter's Daughter (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Amy Tan
- First Published: 2001
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Mothers, Parents and children, Suicide, Murder or homicide, Twentieth century, Guilt, California, West, U.S., Asia or Asians, Illegitimacy, San Francisco, Speech, Bereavement or grief, Asian Americans, China or Chinese people, Chinese Americans, Silence, Alzheimer’s disease, Calligraphy, Rejection
- Locales: San Francisco, CA, China
The Bonesetter's Daughter focuses on ghostwriter Ruth Young, her present life with an almost invisible lover, and the ongoing struggle with her mercurial Chinese mother, LuLing. Fully professional as she rewrites her clients’ books, Ruth is otherwise hesitant. After LuLing fries eggs with the shells on and prowls the neighborhood in her nightgown, she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and cannot live alone safely. Reluctantly, Ruth moves in. LuLing, a fine calligrapher, presents her with a manuscript of her life in China, but Ruth resists reading it.
Narrated in the...
[The entire page is 574 words long]
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