The Bonesetter's Daughter
Precious Auntie was the daughter of a Chinese bonesetter doctor who followed the trade of his ancestors and used bones to cure most any ailment. But when he along with his daughter's future husband were killed on their wedding day, Precious Auntie, though pregnant, tried to destroy her own life and ended up with a badly scarred face and no voice.
Amy Tan's novel is based on Precious Auntie's later years as a nurse to Luling, actually her own illegitimate daughter, and a curse that Luling and her daughter, Ruth, now fear.
Ruth was born in San Francisco and now works as a book editor. She narrates a story of her mother being stricken with Alzheimer's disease but still writing in Chinese the past she remembers before she left China. When Ruth has this translated, she understands the mystery that has plagued her and her mother for so many years.
What Luling remembers goes back to the 1920s when she was in Precious Auntie's care. But when Luling became old enough to marry into a rival family, Precious Auntie objected and killed herself. Luling finally refused the marriage, but she still felt a curse from her mother's death. She was sent to an orphanage and was later able to escape the battles between the Japanese, the Nationalist, and the Communists, in the 1930s and 40s.
Then she and her sister were able to get visas to America and get married. Although Luling's husband died shortly after they were wed, she soon gave birth to Ruth but raised her knowing little or nothing of her Chinese background.
Tan's review of Precious Auntie's and Luling's lives in China exposes some intriguing historical accounts concerning discovery of the Peking Man, the tradition of secret names, and some effects of the wars going on in China at that time.
Then in America, Ruth recalls Precious Auntie's words, "What is the past but what you choose to remember?" and is then able to resolve the often humorous conflicts between herself and Luling. She and her future husband Art also explore new ways to handle Luling's growing problem with Alzheimer's disease.
THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER was published in 2001 and it is Amy Tan's fourth novel.