Books: “Where the Past Begins: a Writer’s Memoir” by Amy Tan

Nobody’s life proceeds in a straight line so why should Amy Tan’s? Famous for such novels as The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife, she takes a break from fiction to recount her own life’s story in “Where The Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir” (2017). And dayum, it’s a doozie.

Those who follow good writers like AT are familiar with stories of her volatile Chinese mother. But this book explains the why and wherefore of such behavior: her mom’s previous life as a concubine in pre-Maoist China—and her descent into depression after escaping to the US in 1949.

Much of AT’s life reads as a typical Cold War childhood that will be familiar to us OK Boomers. But how many of us had mothers eccentric enough to flee with their families to Holland and Germany without knowing a word of Dutch or German?

Other subjects revealed in this wonderful memoir (and heretofore unknown to AT fans): her relationship with her father (good), her one-time visit to a cave (hilarious), and the effect of music on her fiction writing (she loves Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony).

AT also talks about several car accidents which she was lucky enough to escape without serious injury to body or mind. Fan boys (and fan girls) will take much joy in her good luck.