Saving Fish from Drowning-Amy Tan

          

 

 

학원을 다니지 않게 되니 일요일에 온전히 놀게 된다.

그렇게 하려고 그만두고서도 속으로는 안절부절이다.

학원 다닐 때와 자꾸 비교가 되고 있다.

뭔가 써봐야지 않나하고 살살 틈을 노려 얘기했더니 그동안 읽은 책에 대한 느낌을 영어로 쓰겠단다.

 

그러렴 했더니 자기의 글모음 파일에 써놓았다.

 

2007.3.6 Saving Fish from Drowning - Amy Tan

 

The whole impression of the book was 'loose'. There were too many characters - first the narrator, Bibi chen to her 11 friends, people in Karen tribe, and even the tour guide, Walter. All these characters had similar weight in the book, so there were too much description about all of them. It made the book a little bit boring, and even though USA today depicted it as 'a rollicking, adventure-filling book', it wasn't a bit interesting to me. It could have been, because the idea of a dead woman being conscious and narrating how her 11 friends got lost in Burma is surely interesting. It could have been mysterious, thrilling, and of course, exciting, if the author skipped all the description and tried to focus on one exact theme. But it seemed like author didn't try to do that. The most interesting parts like why Bibi chen was dead, or the reason why 11 tourists were missing, were just described simply, so they were not interesting at all. I expected these parts to be the most exciting, and the parts never met my expectations.

 

Also, one thing I didn't really understand about the book was, where was the theme? The title is 'saving fish from drowning', which means, catching fish, to some Burman fishermen. They think catching fish is the same as 'saving fish from drowning'. I thought that it meant being happy and positive in all situations, as the 11 missing tourists try to be positive even in the jungle with malaria. But the problem was that the whole theme didn't really show in the book. The part of tourists trying to be positive was pretty small, and wasn't really well depicted enough to show the theme. When I closed the book, all I felt was 'wow, it's finally finished.' The theme wasn't strong at all, perhaps because of the way author described it.

 

Some parts where the author tried to delve deeper into human relationships or the thoughts of Buddha were quite impressive, and made me think more into them. But the problem was, as I mentioned, there were too many characters and too many things the author wanted to talk about. It was simply 'too much', so it felt like the author failed to describe any of the themes she wanted to express.

 

The book was not really that impressive to me, even though it had a lot of factors that could make it more interesting. Perhaps the writer's style didn't really fit me, or I was not able to understand what the writer really meant. But to this point, it was a little disappointing, especially considering the author's reputation.