Reviewed by

PEGGY BARNETT Amy Tan has written seven books, including The Joy

Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter, and has won numerous literary awards.

Much of this novel, Saving Fish from Drowning, is satiric, as one might suspect from the opening anecdote: "A pious man explained to his followers: 'It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scoop out a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank where they flop and twirl. 'Don't be scared,' I tell those fishes. 'I am saving you from drowning.' Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and I sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes.'"

Some of what she satirizes is obvious - American tourists, dictatorships, nave beliefs. At other times, the reader is not sure how serious she is. The narrator is a ghost. In a note to the reader, the author explains a meeting with a psychic who introduces her to this story of Bibi Chen. In the same introduction, we read that eleven Americans are missing in Burma (Myanmar).

"Bibi" begins her narration by telling us that it was not her fault. She had planned an expedition which she called "Following the Buddha's Footsteps" for a group of her friends which would take them (and her) from the southwestern corner of China down the famous Burma Road. Unfortunately, she died mysteriously before the expedition began, but her friends decided to go anyway, as a kind of memorial to her.

It doesn't get any easier from there. Bibi is an omniscient narrator, but she cannot influence events, except in one instance. The travelers encounter difficulties right away. They are unbelievably innocent to be adventuring in such dangerous places, and their guides, though more knowledgeable, are not much savvier. We meet the travelers individually, of course, and find them sympathetic, though not always lovable.

Life gets really scary, but the characters never seem to be really worried. Meanwhile we have Bibi discoursing on various related topics, but stopping to get back to the plot: "But enough of this prattle, and back to the bus." Occasionally she says, "But that is only my opinion."

Tan's descriptions of the local people and the landscape almost make us want to follow in Buddha's footsteps, too, but we learn better as we follow the American travelers. It's not very safe where they are going, and Bibi is not really there to protect them. Because of the lightly humorous tone of Saving Fish, the suspense is not breathless, but suspense is there. Are the disaster spirits, the Nats, out to destroy the visitors? Will a tribal curse be their undoing? Will their relationships hurt or help in their survival?

Saving Fish from Drowning is available at the Mary Willis Library to answer these questions.