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Title: Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir
Author: Amy Tan
Narrator: Amy Tan
Format: Unabridged
Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-17-17
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians
Publisher's Summary:
From New York Times best-selling author Amy Tan, a memoir on her life as a writer, her childhood and the symbiotic relationship between fiction and emotional memory.
In Where the Past Begins, best-selling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan is at her most intimate in revealing the truths and inspirations that underlie her extraordinary fiction. By delving into vivid memories of her traumatic childhood, confessions of self-doubt in her journals, and heartbreaking letters to and from her mother, she gives evidence to all that made it both unlikely and inevitable that she would become a writer. Through spontaneous storytelling, she shows how a fluid fictional state of mind unleashed near-forgotten memories that became the emotional nucleus of her stories.
Tan explores shocking truths uncovered by family memorabilia - the real reason behind an IQ test she took at age six, why her parents lied about their education, mysteries surrounding her maternal grandmother - and, for the first time publicly, writes about her complex relationship with her father, who died when she was 15. Supplied with candour and characteristic humour, Where the Past Begins takes listeners into the idiosyncratic workings of her writer's mind, a journey that explores memory, imagination, and truth, with fiction serving as both her divining rod and link to meaning.
Critic Reviews:
"Tan, who was born in the US to Chinese immigrant parents, is a gifted storyteller." (Financial Times)
"Chinese-Americans are among the most dynamic, and socially cohesive, ethnic groups in the US...Tan is one of their leading voices." (Sunday Times)
Members Reviews:
A must-read for Amy Tan admirers
Master storyteller Amy Tanâs 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 âQuirksâ and âInterludes,â 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 Tanâs 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.
