Book Review #3 -The Hundred Secret Senses

So, I took a hiatus from actually reviewing the books I was reading. It seems a little silly to review brain candy books and historical romances. But, here I am, back at it, reading actual literature. This book centers on Olivia, a Chinese American, trying to make sense of life and her relationships with her sister and estranged husband. Olivia's a little neurotic, the same way that many of us are, and it doesn't help that her sister, Kwan, is, hmmm, shall we say a little different. Amy Tan does write quite beautifully. One of my favorite passages in the book was:

"I planned to talk about the problems later. How he saw avoidance as normal and I saw it as a warning. How we didn't know how to talk to each other anymore, how in protecting our own territory we were losing common ground. before it was too late, I wanted to say that whatever love had brought us together had dwindled and now needed to be restocked. At times I feared that our love had never overflowed into plenty, that it had been enough for a few years but was never meant to last a lifetime. We mistook a snack for a recurring harvest. We were two people starved for abundant love but too tired to say so, leg-ironed together until time passed us by and we left this world, two vague hopes without dreams, just another random combination of sperm and egg, male and female, once here now gone....Now that our marriage is over, I know what love is. It's a trick on the brain, the adrenal glands releasing endorphins. It floods the cells that transmit worry and better sense, drowns them with biochemical bliss. You can know all these things about love, yet it remains irresistible, as beguiling as the floating arms of long sleep."

Overall a very good read, I couldn't put it down once I started.