The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings ~ Amy Tan

The Opposite of Fate
by Amy Tan

Most people would recognize Amy Tan as the author of The Joy Luck Club which was turned into a movie in 1993.  There have been other books, including The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter and Saving Fish from Drowning, as well as two children’s stories and a memoir titled, The Opposite of Fate. 

The last is my favorite.  There is something special when a writer tells their personal story.  The writing skills are all there - pacing, plot, characterization, but with the immediacy of first person knowledge.    We get to see what they consider to have been important to their development as a writer and what they really meant when they wrote something.  In Amy Tan’s perspective, not nearly as much as has been ascribed to her writing.

Her sense of humor is evident.  She writes about the annoyance and yet the odd pride in finding that there are Cliff Notes for her book, The Joy Luck Club, which make several wild claims.  She finds they question “Which daughter in the book is most like Amy Tan?” and turns the page to finally find out the answer, as it has been asked of her so many times in interviews.  But there is no answer, it’s just a question.  She is “left to ponder my existential angst in the usual fashion.”

Tan offers deep truths that we feel in our bones, “It’s your belief in yourself that enables you to do what you wish” and “…if I did not like what was before me, I had only to look at my shoes, then look up and walk ahead toward a fresher, more pleasant scene.”

She has wondered how she can write about things she doesn’t know.  Is she “downloading stories from the Nirvana Wide Web?”  Or are they simply memories from her childhood, things she overheard and took in but didn’t remember doing so?  She deems her childhood too implausible to make for good fiction, but capable of being mined for fiction. 

She’s had a lot of fun in her life, like playing with the Rockbottom Remainders, a group of writers who perform to raise money for children’s literacy.  She’s also had some harrowing experiences.  She has faced down gang thugs, been in a car accident and had a roommate, and good friend, murdered by thieves who broke into his new apartment.

Her essay on living with chronic Lyme Disease will be particularly poignant, and heartening, for anyone who lives with a chronic disease.  Tan concludes, “Yes, the world to me is still a scary place, but no more than it is for most people.  I am no longer governed by fate and fear.  I have hope and, with that, a determination to change what is not right.  As a storyteller, I know that if I don’t like the ending, I can write a better one.”

As a writer I found this book very inspirational and, as a reader, a fascinating collection of stories.  I would recommend it to anyone.