I came very close to DNF this book, but the interest in sister Kwan and the Chinese aspect of the story kept me reading. I couldn't stand the narrator, sister Olivia. She is absolutely toxic; a selfish nitwit. She had exactly ten pages at the end of the book where she was "redeemed." Too little, too late.
I'm not sorry I finished the book though. Kwan and her Yin eyes, the tales of the ghosts, those were enchanting. ( )

I nearly gave up on this book but I stuck with it and am glad I did. It was a slow start for me and not sure why. However, once I got into it I thought it was a great story. A few unanswered questions at the end I would have liked to seen tied up but still a good read. ( )

This is my first Amy Tan's novel, and I am impressed. I never thought I would really get into a novel that has shimmering ghosts as part of the theme. But I did! The interaction of the two main characters, half-sisters Olivia and Kwan, is complicated due to a host of reasons, not the least of which is Olivia's entanglement in so many personal problems. But Kwan, in an indirect way, slowly but surely disentangles them for her half-sister. Past lives, glimpses in China's history - all come into play here. Kwan's character won me over: her childlike, unabashedley frank and totally selfless personality coupled with unexpected wisdom of an aged person, the realistic ease with which Amy Tan describes Kwan as a Chinese person who finds herself in foreign to her circumstances and adjusts to them in her own way - all this, combined, leads to an unexpected and interesting denouement. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Only vaguely recall. Good online reviews. Consistent with earlier-read Tans; comparison / reconciliations across Chinese and American cultures. Kwan has 'yin" eyes! ( )

i don't know how to describe this, but i feel like every time i read amy tan, i'm reading heart writing. this was so lovely and beautiful. the history and relationship she evokes here is really something special. there is this feeling of going back in time, of seeing a culture and a small town living away from the world, and there is a modern sense also. she merges these two ways of life and these sensibilities so well.

this was pretty wonderful all around.

"She was finally old enough to forget all she had been told to be." ( )