Get Free Ebook Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir, by Amy Tan

Get Free Ebook Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir, by Amy Tan

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Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir, by Amy Tan

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Review

“The best new memoir I’ve read in a decade is Amy Tan’s breath-taking high-wire act of memory and imagination . . . [a] classic of the form . . . A must-read for the ages.” (Mary Karr)“Any book by best-selling Tan is cause for excitement, and this surprising and gripping memoir will be zealously promoted and discussed.” (Booklist (starred review))

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About the Author

Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, Saving Fish from Drowning, and two children's books, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat, which was adapted into a PBS television series. Tan was also a coproducer and coscreenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club. Her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives with her husband in San Francisco and New York.

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Product details

Hardcover: 368 pages

Publisher: Ecco; First Edition First Printing Signed By A edition (October 17, 2017)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0062319299

ISBN-13: 978-0062319296

Product Dimensions:

6 x 1.2 x 9 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

3.6 out of 5 stars

69 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#61,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Master storyteller Amy Tan’s new memoir, WHERE THE PAST BEGINS, is a gift to readers and writers alike. She brings us along as she riffles through bins of stuff saved and collected, the stuff that holds pieces of us, that guards bits of our history. Through memories and reflections, journal entries, photographs and correspondence, through segments called “Quirks” and “Interludes,” Tan takes us into her mind, her heart --- into her past.Tan takes her history and unravels it, examines it and weaves it back together into a meaningful understanding of herself and, more broadly, of humanity.From the first words of the introduction, we are reminded of Tan’s command of story, the poetry of her writing, the joy in her use of metaphor. WHERE THE PAST BEGINS is generous, honest and raw. Tan lays herself out, revealing vulnerabilities and traumas, insecurities and self-doubt, and a wide-open view into her creative spirit and view of the world.This memoir feels like we are joining Tan in digging into old family archives, unfurling documents, photos and clues into her family history. The words are confessions and reflections on her upbringing, relationships and formative years, with the perspective of time. Musings and observations from Tan in her 20s, 40s and 50s are beautifully juxtaposed, displaying the growth of a woman and the shifts that come with age.Throughout the book, Tan uses the lens of a woman in her 60s as she analyzes what makes her who she is. In the collection of family artifacts, she uncovers mistruths, secrets and twists in the family lore. Tan grew up with a critical mother, and her constant threats of suicide lead her to be vigilant and unsettled. Tan writes, “I am intolerant of people who dangle threats and uncertainty as power…. And yet much of my writing, I realize, is about uncertainty --- the heartbreaking moments when something is not clear, when the situation is changing, when a truth turns into a half-truth and then a lie.”Tans gives us a glimpse into her creative understandings, impressions and discoveries. She shares the kernels of her life that developed into fiction, her insights into human nature that became the rich cast of characters in her treasured, bestselling stories. She says, “My characters are witness to what I went through.”As a fan and reader of Tan’s novels, it was a privilege to be invited inside the exploration of her past, her life and the journey of her own continued self-discovery. As a writer, I marveled at how she digs deeper and deeper into her mind, excavating long-buried memories. She takes the reader with her into her study of brain function and using emotions to uncover things not remembered.In reading, as in life, we search for meaning and commonality. Tan talks about a recurring dream she has of finding an extra room in her house. The details vary, but I have an eerily similar dream that visits me regularly and has for decades. I’ve heard of this same dream from an unusual number of people. Another thread that touched me was from her journal, aged 25, in which she shares a quirk that I could completely understand. She talks about observing a sliver of someone’s life and then extrapolating and inventing things around it. I do this and make myself dizzy with the notion that I’ve witnessed a moment in a stranger’s life, a moment they would assume had gone unnoticed and would never know I shared it, even for a second.WHERE THE PAST BEGINS is a must-read for Amy Tan admirers. You’ll feel like you’re with a dear old friend sharing her stories with you in the most personal way. Your heart will touch hers. You’ll see the undeniable strength she’s drawn from her traumatic childhood and how she’s extracted her nuanced grasp of human motivation.Reviewed by Leah DeCesare

Opposite of Fate, Amy Tan's other nonfiction book, is one of my favorite books by her, so naturally I had to pick up Where the Past Begins. I sat down to read the essay "How I Learned to Read," expecting cozy musings about, I dunno, Beatrix Potter, but it suddenly turned into a rollercoaster ride of a read, and I was almost shouting out loud as I read it! To think I thought that Tan had told all the stories she possibly could about her family. Her essays on writing are illuminating and honest, where she even very candidly discusses her failures, and even her work emails to her editor are pleasant to read; for someone who has had a crazy life as Amy Tan (arrested by Swiss police as a teenager! Mother threatened her life with a knife! Lyme disease!), she sure seems cheerful and clear-eyed.

I’ve always felt a kinship with Amy Tan. She is the daughter of Chinese immigrants; I’m the daughter of German immigrants. She understands going to school and being different from the other kids, having parents who are different. She is the same age as me, and she married her husband around the same time I married mine. I feel like we’ve lived parallel lives.Amy Tan would be annoyed I presume to know her. In Where the Past Begins, she says, “I am not the subject matter of mothers and daughters or Chinese culture or immigrant experience that most people cite as my domain.” Oops. That’s entirely what I think about her books. So apparently, I’m mistaken. I don’t get her at all. She goes on to explain, “I am a writer compelled by a subconscious neediness to know, which is different from a need to know. The latter can be satisfied with information. The former is a perpetual state of uncertainty and a tether to the past.” Tan writes to understand who she is in this world. She often explores old family stories in her work, copiously researching to learn what is historically accurate and how circumstances impacted the people who came before her.Where the Past Begins grew out of Tan’s editor, Daniel Halpern’s, suggestion that she write a book about her process, based on “some of the thousands of e-mails I bombarded him with during the writing of The Valley of Amazement.” Tan didn’t like the concept, and I’m glad because the book is so much more; the one chapter that consists of some of the e-mails is not as interesting to me as it was to Mr. Halpern.The rest of the book blends together the story of her life, her parents’ lives, and even her grandmother’s too-short life; it’s fascinating reading. Much of her writing process is described, especially concerning The Valley of Amazement. I am comforted somehow to learn that Tan suffers from the same insecurities that I and so many of my writer friends do—that the current project will never be finished, that it won’t be good enough…There are photographs, too. Some of her grandmother, her parents, young Amy and her brothers, and pictures Tan has drawn. I love the pictures of Amy in the 1950s; they could have been me in my fluffy-skirted dresses. Her Christmas picture shows a tree decorated just like the ones from my childhood, with individual strands of tinsel meticulously hung from the branches; my family owned a TV just like the one standing in the corner of the Tan living room.Tan details some of the devastating pain in her life: the deaths of her older brother and her father from brain tumors within six months of each other when she was a teen; her mother's battles with mental illness and Alzheimer's disease.There are surprises, as well: I didn’t know Tan has a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Masters and Ph.D. in linguistics.Reading Where the Past Begins makes me want to reread her earlier (2003) memoir, The Opposite of Fate. I suspect some of the same facts appeared there, but I’d forgotten.Where the Past Begins is well worth the investment of time and money, especially if you like Tan’s novels. As a lily-white American of European heritage, I found reading about Tan’s family history compelling and enlightening.

Utterly fascinating and informative read. As a writer, it got my mind really thinking even further about the process. Amy Tan is an honest, superb writer whatever she writes. Anyone aspiring to write should read this, and anyone interested in the writing process should read it, too.

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