The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan.

[Tuesday evening book club]

This review was written by a member of the Tuesday Evening Book Club.

The Bonesetter's Daughter is a story about three generations of women in one family, Gu Liu Xin, Lu Ling and Ruth Young. The Bonesetter's daughter of the title was Gu Lin Xin, who was for many years referred to by her family as "Precious Aunite". Lu Ling, who like Precious Auntie was an accomplished calligrapher, but who was separated from her family at a young age and was sent to a remote orphanage, where she became a teacher in time, surviving the Japanese invasion, the death of her first husband and eventually emigrating to the US. She and her stepsister Gao Ling, who had also emigrated to US, married two brothers. When Lu Ling's husband was killed in accident she was left with a young daughter Ruth to bring up with little money. Ruth becomes a successful ghostwriter for various publishing houses.

The story contains many contrasts, modern day America with old traditional China with its Dickensian portraits of villains, scholars, healers and lovers; the freedom of western women versus the strictures of Chinese society on women; the old crafts of China where writing is "the gathering of the free-flowing of the heart" to Ruth's ghost-writing where she must withhold any personal input.

A mystical touch is added to the story with the references to the "oracle bones" and the Peking Man discovery.

I found the book an interesting study of a culture I am unfamilar with. It was a bit heavy in parts with the negativity in the relationships between the women but the translation of the written down account of Lu Ling's early life explained much of the reasons for this.

It is not a feel good book but it is engaging and Amy Tan writes well.