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Saving Fish From Drowning
by Amy Tan


5.5

based on 19 reviews
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based on 24 votes
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Official Publisher Site

The "Joy Luck Club" author's latest novel finds a group of American tourists lost in the Burmese jungle.

Putnam, 496 pages
10/18/2005
$26.95

ISBN: 0399153012

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Chicago Sun-Times Sharon Barrett

Despite the extreme contrasts in the humorous stories and the serious ones, Tan has made of them a flavorful concoction of sweet and sour. Read it and have a few good laughs. Read it and weep.

Booklist Donna Seaman

Writing with stinging irony about oppression, genocide, culture clashes, religion, media spin, and corruption, [Tan] slyly considers the unintended consequences of everything from a thwarted seduction to a war based on lies. [1 Sep 2005, p.8]

Publishers Weekly

Tan seems to be having fun with it, indulging in the wry, witty voice of Bibi while still exploring her signature questions of fate, connection, identity and family. [29 Aug 2005, p.34]

Daily Telegraph Elena Seymenliyska

Subtle and gripping.

The Independent Lisa Gee

Saving Fish from Drowning is engaging and enjoyable. Tan's warm-hearted humour and characteristically kooky characters serve to keep the reader hooked, while her clear-eyed questioning undercuts a tendency toward whimsical sentimentality.

Library Journal Maureen Neville

Tan has admirably tackled the unique challenge of building a novel based on a real-life incident and turning the resulting tale into a commentary on the ironies of modern life. [1 Oct 2005, p.70]

Los Angeles Times Yxta Maya Murray

"Saving Fish From Drowning's" Americans don't spend their time relic-stealing or barbarian-hunting. Instead, they learn they are in sore need of the Buddha's gifts in a world made incomprehensible by violence and strife. [14 Oct 2005]

San Francisco Chronicle Sara Peyton

How much you enjoy "Saving Fish From Drowning" may have to do with how willing you are to be bewitched by a superbly executed, goodhearted farce that is part romance and part mystery with a political bent. With Tan's many talents on display, it's her idiosyncratic wit and sly observations about the nature of illusion that make this book pure pleasure.

Sydney Morning Herald Michael McGirr

One of the characteristics of Amy Tan's writing is that you end up sympathising with characters you thought you'd loathe.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Donna Bailey Nurse

The novel is never really about what will happen, but about how the story will be told, about how many versions will exist and whose will dominate. It's about the power of language and its use for good or evil, and the persistence of ghosts. [22 Oct 2005, p.D16]

USA Today Carol Memmott

A hilarious yet politically charged tale packed with illusions and the human capacity for love.

The New York Times Book Review Andrew Sullivan

The book has clever moments and some good one-liners, but none of Tan's books is funny; humor is not her forte. She has a clunky way with irony, and the sprawling slapstick set pieces at the core of this effort are draggy and inept.

Kirkus Reviews

The author's research ultimately smothers her story and characters. A pity, because this vividly imagined tale might very well have been her best yet. [1 Aug 2005, p.813]

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

Though she's a top-notch observer of the upper-class American abroad, her characters are tethered to a weirdly loopy and farcical story line. The rich, sinister material and Tan's sharply drawn tourists deserve better. [21 Oct 2005, p.78]

Boston Globe Gail Caldwell

When it finds its point, "Saving Fish From Drowning" is replete with the riches that have made Tan's reputation. She can be smart, funny, and above all a powerful storyteller... But the novel is so suffused with repetition and dead-end anecdotes that the reader is as weary as our disoriented tourists by the time the action starts.

The Onion A.V. Club Tasha Robinson

An impressive narrative step up from Tan's previous gorgeous but increasingly samey domestic-exotic dramas, and it's impressively cynical and misanthropic, more like a Chuck Palahniuk novel than like The Joy Luck Club. But all the ambition it adds to Tan's normal strengths would come through clearer with a few subtractions: say, of half the unnecessary characters, a third of the repetitive length, and most of the gimmicks and veils.

Daily Telegraph Kate Chisolm

A pertinent exploration of the dangers of cross-cultural confusions is buried deep within this strange concoction of comic travelogue, murder mystery and jungle horror story, but in the end Tan can't resist the slushy sunset and feel-good resolution.

The Guardian Pascal Khoo Thwe

The descriptions of the tourists are highly entertaining, and their interactions dynamic and spontaneous... The plot, however, is formulaic, rather too close to that of a Hollywood blockbuster, while the non-American characters are somewhat wooden and stilted, like extras in an action movie, there solely for visual effect.

Washington Post Craig Nova

The central element of this book's plot, the kidnapping, doesn't take place until after 230 pages of... inane observations, and by the time you get there, you're ready to go home.

The average user rating for this book is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Karen C gave it a5:
Amy Tan is one of my favorite authors, but this book is taking me forever to read. There are just too many characters, and most of them are too uninteresting to care about.

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
May be my favorite Amy Tan book yet. Thank you Amy!

Debby S gave it a5:
I think the situation of the refugees in Burma is tragic. I am afraid that Amy Tan's book exploits that tragedy for its drama. I think she should dedicate a portion of proceeds from sales of the book to the international refugee organizations. No one wants to be moved off of their homeland, live in camps, or be abused, imprisoned, or tortured, and denied democracy. The indigenous people of Burma have a right to self determination. I want Amy Tan to take a stand now that she has shown a light on the Burmese people. Otherwise, what is the point. I believe the totalitarian regime, the military junta that governs Myanmar, does not have the best interests of all its citizens at heart. Citizens of Burma are suffering. It is not acceptable.

Kate O gave it an8:
A great read and a useful way to depict the troubles of the Burmese.

Elise G gave it a5:
Really liked the beginning and the end, but the 300 or so pages in the middle of the book failed to truly engage me. If it wasn't my bookclub's assignment I might have given up on it. I was more concerned with how the author was going to whittle her way out the story than I was about the characters in the book.

t t gave it a0:
it was a horrible book and i'll never read any tan again...it had no story line no plot and no captivating ending

karen j gave it a3:
I've loved all the amy tan books except this one. I pushed myself to read the first half, hoping it would redeem itself. It didn't. I put it down and don't think i will pick it up again. An author with a less accomplished reputation would never have gotten this book published.

Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan

Saving Fish From Drowning
by Amy Tan