Amy Tan

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Amy Tan (Chinese: 譚恩美; pinyin: Tán Ēnměi; born February 19, 1952) is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships and what it means to grow up as a first generation Asian American. In 1993, Tan's adaptation of her most popular fiction work, The Joy Luck Club, became a commercially successful film.

She has written several other books, including The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, and The Bonesetter's Daughter, and a collection of non-fiction essays entitled The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings. Her most recent book, Saving Fish From Drowning, explores the tribulations experienced by a group of people who disappear while on an art expedition into the jungles of Burma. In addition, Tan has written two children's books: The Moon Lady (1992) and The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), which was turned into an animated series airing on PBS. She has also appeared on PBS in a short spot on encouraging children to write.

Born in Oakland, California to Chinese immigrants John (a Baptist minister) and Daisy (a Shanghai nurse), Tan was fourteen when her father and elder brother died of brain tumours. With her mother and younger brother Peter, Tan moved to Montreux, Switzerland shortly afterward. As a teenager, Tan experienced many cross-cultural conflicts with her mother. One incident involved her mother setting up a police sting that netted Tan's boyfriend, a suspected drug dealer.

Tan received a master's degree in linguistics at San José State University. Her first job was as a children's speech-language pathologist.

Tan's mother Daisy witnessed her mother committing suicide. Tan believed that her grandmother, her mother and herself all suffered from depression. In 1985, after her psychiatrist fell asleep for the third time during one of their sessions, Tan quit therapy and took up fiction writing instead.^{[citation needed]} Tan has also suffered from neurological Lyme disease since 1999, a struggle she has chronicled on her website[1] and in interviews with the media[2]. She has become an outspoken advocate on behalf of patients with the disease.

Since turning 40, Tan has been a member of the literary garage band Rock Bottom Remainders with Dave Barry, Matt Groening and Stephen King, who dedicated his non-fiction book On Writing to her. Along with King, she appeared in an episode of The Simpsons called "Insane Clown Poppy".

She has been married to Louis DeMattei since 1974. They live in the San Francisco Bay Area with their pets.

Contents 1 Selected works 2 References 3 Quotes 4 External links

[edit] Selected works

• The Joy Luck Club, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1989.
• The Kitchen God's Wife, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1991.
• The Moon Lady, Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992.
• Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat, Aladdin, 1994.
• The Hundred Secret Senses, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995.
• The Bonesetter's Daughter, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2001.
• The Opposite of Fate, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003.
• Saving Fish from Drowning, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2005.

[edit] References

• "Amy Tan, Ticked Off About Lyme" Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation reprint of article by J.J. McCoy, Washington Post, August 5, 2003, retrieved March 16, 2006

[edit] Quotes

• "I think books were my salvation, they saved me from being miserable."^{[citation needed]}

• Tan began her talk by launching into an anecdote about coming upon a Cliffs Notes version of her first novel, "The Joy Luck Club," in a bookstore. Surprised to see her work among Cliffs Notes' "Lord Jim", "Ulysses" and "Hamlet" (all of which she used in college to get through her English literature classes), her first thought was, "I'm not dead yet." (The Opposite of Fate 10)

• "I'm sitting in the $4.95 bookstore bleachers along with Shakespeare, Conrad and Joyce," she said. "I acknowledge that there is a fundamental difference that separates us. I am a contemporary author and they are not. And since I'm not dead yet, I can talk back." (The Opposite of Fate 10)

[edit] External links

• Amy Tan Home Page
• Official agency page
• 1989 audio interview by Don Swaim
• Amy Tan talks about her book Saving Fish From Drowning