On Christmas morning, the tourists cruise across a misty lake and disappear. But after her mysterious death, Bibi watches aghast from her ghostly perch as the travelers veer off her itinerary and embark on a trail paved with cultural gaffes and tribal curses, Buddhist illusions and romantic desires. San Francisco art patron Bibi Chen has planned a journey of the senses along the famed Burma Road for eleven lucky friends. With Tan's many talents on display, it's her idiosyncratic wit and sly observations. Â€œA superbly executed, good-hearted farce that is part romance and part mystery. If you are familiar with Tan's other novels, what parallels can you draw between the mother-daughter relations in her previous stories and Bibi's impressions of her mother and stepmother?ġ2.Â€œA rollicking, adventure-filled story. How does the tour group's behavior reinforce or rebut stereotypes of the 'ugly American'?ġ0. Is her demise tragic? Comic? Ironic? Why does Tan leave us to assume for most of the novel that Bibi was murdered?ĩ. The ﬁrst time in her adult life that Bibi feels 'unmindful' passionate love results in her accidental death.

What are Bibi's attitudes toward sex and the human body? How do her observations reﬂect her own psychology and background?Ĩ.

In what ways are names and 'brands' important to the story? How are words used to conceal truth in Burma and among the travelers?ħ. The novel takes its title from a euphemism for ﬁshing. Why do you think she made this choice? How did it shape your impression of the story?Ħ. Tan prefaces Saving Fish from Drowning with 'A Note to the Reader' that is mostly ﬁctitious, and also invents the accompanying newspaper article. Can we always take her observations at face value?ĥ. Bibi is not necessarily always a reliable or likable narrator.

In what sense do the tourists feel culpable for the suffering they see in Burma? Does Amy Tan offer a solution to their feelings of guilt?Ĥ. How does Vera's experience in the jungle inﬂuence her book on self-reliance?ģ. Saving Fish from Drowning begins, 'It was not my fault.'How is the concept of personal responsibility important in the novel?Ģ.

Saving fish from drowning by amy tan