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Feb 05, 2018Andrew Kyle Bacon rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This book falls short of being a great novel for an ironic reason. The main character, Ruth, is an editor: she assist authors in tightening their work and putting it to the paper not as they wrote it, but as they imagined it. Part of me suspects this novel needed its main character's expertise. In no way is the novel bad, or even greatly flawed, it simply goes on a bit too long. With some slight tightening, this novel could be quick and impactful. The pay off in the final chapters of the novel, while satisfying, are somewhat undone by the novel's length. Structurally, this book is interesting and fun, being broken into three parts. Parts 1 and 3 concern Ruth, dealing with her mother suffering from Alzheimer's, and part 2 details her mother's life as a child in China. While all three of these are interesting and weave together in very interesting ways, the length hurts the pacing, making it difficult to get through at times. I feel that I am in no way the intended audience for this book (I am a 26 year old dude), I still enjoyed this novel thoroughly, despite what I feel are issues with pacing and length. I had always wanted to read an Amy Tan novel for some reason, and I'm glad that I finally have. I'll certainly read more of her work in the future.