Amy Tan
The Bonesetter’s Daughter tells the story of two complex mother-daughter relationships. The book begins in present-day San Francisco, where Ruth, an American born Chinese woman, is struggling to deal with her aging mother. The two have a difficult relationship, and LuLing is starting to show signs of Alzheimer’s disease, causing Ruth to struggle with both anger and guilt over her mother. As Ruth worries about her mother, her own relationship with her longtime partner, Art, starts to fall apart. As life’s uncertainties become too much for Ruth, she decides to finally have the stories her mother wrote translated into English. Thus begins the second part of the novel, which focuses on LuLing’s tragic life and the story of how she discovered the truth about her real mother. Both stories were engaging, but I found the story of LuLing and her mother drew me in the most. Tan gives so much insight into the Chinese culture and family structure. This book was definitely one of my favorites of 2005.