REC: THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER by Amy Tan

THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER by Amy Tan I just realized that this book is like a fully worked out example of a Gene Wolfe puzzle story, only with a revealing resolution. It's got mythologizing, de-mythologizing, nested stories, unreliable narrators, multiple autobiographies, real science, pseudoscience, superscience, magic, ghosts, psychic powers, journeys of transformation, colonialism, war, syncretism, the cruel lives of children, metafiction, and even some plain old drama, sex, and violence. Even a little torture and a hint of execution! In particular, the successive stories are an example of fictional relaxation in the 5HC sense, and contributed more to my understanding as a western reader of the general eastern and specifically Chinese perspective than everything else I've read, watched, or experienced. Highly recommended!