The Opposite of Fate

The Opposite of Fate
Amy Tan

An unbearably moving, intensely passionate, deeply personal account of life as seen through the eyes of one of America’s best-loved novelists.‘When I began writing this history, I let go of my doubts. I trusted the ghosts of my imagination. They showed me the hundred secret senses. And what I wrote is what I discovered about the endurance of love.’So writes Amy Tan at the beginning of this remarkably candid insight into her life. Tan takes us on a journey from her childhood, as a sensitive but intelligent young Chinese-American, ashamed of her parents’ Chinese ways, to the present day and her position as one of the world's best-loved novelists.She describes the daily difficulties of being at once American and Chinese and yet feeling at times like she was truly neither. Most significantly, and heartbreakingly, she tells the history of her family: the grandmother who committed suicide as the only means of defiance open to her against a husband who ignored her wishes; her remarkable mother, whose first husband had her jailed when she tried to leave him; and the shocking deaths of both her father and husband when Amy was just 14.How this weight of history has brought itself to bear on the adult Amy looms large in her own story. Ghosts, chance and fate have played a part in her life, and ‘The Opposite of Fate’ is an insight into those ancestors, the women who ‘never let me forget why these stories need to be told’.

Title Page (#ulink_9bc3917f-4bf3-5091-9ff9-a96043b49dfe)

The Opposite of Fate

Amy Tan

Dedication (#ulink_9b8f8fe9-5dd0-5652-97fb-9d1acfd04b58)

With love to Lou DeMattei, who knows the fiction and nonfiction of my life, as well as all that cannot be put into words.

Table of Contents

Title Page (#ulink_c2ba4559-804a-5aee-80f9-9a6af8c97d24)

Dedication (#ulink_09314349-de5e-5d91-8f67-7e7833ec8400)

A Note to the Reader (#ucd401287-f647-5eae-b47f-abe517ba6d11)

FATE AND FAITH (#ua8732740-4bc8-5a5d-a86f-09c0d7839be1)

THE CLIFFSNOTES VERSION OF MY LIFE (#u6125971c-b81b-58c4-b89f-2900c49cdc0d)

HOW WE KNEW (#u8560bd02-b5e1-5f8f-9e45-492e5f0f7bc0)

A QUESTION OF FATE (#uc0bdb43d-2b42-5f0c-b114-49d688f6f034)

FAITH (#u199a06f3-b8d3-5682-9bd0-3270c3f9c94b)

CHANGING THE PAST (#ua7eb71c3-3cee-50c3-b70a-1ac7772b5eac)

LAST WEEK (#uaa1aafbe-0d37-5156-a67a-0e5be40bba6e)

MY GRANDMOTHER’S CHOICE (#litres_trial_promo)

THINLY DISGUISED MEMOIR (#litres_trial_promo)

PERSONA ERRATA (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENT (#litres_trial_promo)

AMERICAN CIRCUMSTANCES AND CHINESE CHARACTER (#litres_trial_promo)

FISH CHEEKS (#litres_trial_promo)

DANGEROUS ADVICE (#litres_trial_promo)

MIDLIFE CONFIDENTIAL (#litres_trial_promo)

ARRIVAL BANQUET (#litres_trial_promo)

JOY LUCK AND HOLLYWOOD (#litres_trial_promo)

STRONG WINDS, STRONG INFLUENCES (#litres_trial_promo)

WHAT SHE MEANT (#litres_trial_promo)

CONFESSIONS (#litres_trial_promo)

PRETTY BEYOND BELIEF (#litres_trial_promo)

THE MOST HATEFUL WORDS (#litres_trial_promo)

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH VLADIMIR NABOKOV (#litres_trial_promo)

LUCK, CHANCE, AND A CHARMED LIFE (#litres_trial_promo)

INFERIOR DECORATING (#litres_trial_promo)

ROOM WITH A VIEW, NEW KITCHEN, AND GHOSTS (#litres_trial_promo)

RETREAT TO REALITY (#litres_trial_promo)

MY HAIR, MY FACE, MY NAILS (#litres_trial_promo)

THE GHOSTS OF MY IMAGINATION (#litres_trial_promo)

A CHOICE OF WORDS (#litres_trial_promo)

WHAT THE LIBRARY MEANS TO ME (#litres_trial_promo)

MOTHER TONGUE (#litres_trial_promo)

THE LANGUAGE OF DISCRETION (#litres_trial_promo)

FIVE WRITING TIPS (#litres_trial_promo)

REQUIRED READING AND OTHER DANGEROUS SUBJECTS (#litres_trial_promo)

ANGST AND THE SECOND BOOK (#litres_trial_promo)

THE BEST STORIES (#litres_trial_promo)

HOPE (#litres_trial_promo)

WHAT I WOULD REMEMBER (#litres_trial_promo)