Though I always look forward to the next book group gathering, next week's meeting of regular readers should be a feisty affair, for I can't wait to hear who else figured out the tantalizing twist in Amy Tan's brilliant Saving Fish From Drowning.
Not since Water for Elephants have I enjoyed a book group pick as much as this. Tan's tale of a chosen group of Bay Area elite on a modern-day imperious mystery ride through the wilds of Burma, is one of the most original, thought-provoking, entertaining and ironic works of fiction to grace the old, red bookshelf in the past few years.
So much so that if you are one of the many friends and readers that I've rattled on to in regards to the striking subject matter and method of narration in this particular book pick, you might want to stop reading this post right now.
For this ardent reader's rug was pulled right out from under her this morning when she finally took five to google the main characters...........
I ended up exactly where dozens of Tan's Bay Area readers before me found the hard, cold floor in the midst of what had been the most exhilarating, floaty literary trip.
I'm only half way through the book. I guess I had a sneaky suspicion that this tale was way to cool to be entirely non-fictional. And it does say at the very beginning (in tiny type) that it is a work of fiction. Fool that I am for any well written account, I didn't want to imagine an illusion in its entirety.
Lesson learned: reader beware.
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