Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir

Where the Past Begins:  A Writer’s Memoir by Amy Tan               Audio Book: 14 hours, 32 minutes     Paperback Book:  576 pages            

WOW!   Wow!  And WOW!   When I started this audiobook, I thought well Amy Tan will talk about her career as a writer, maybe the writer’s band she plays tambourine in while dressed as a dominatrix for charity events, maybe her process and her Chinese upbringing and her parents and where they are from.   O.K. she does that but she goes so MUCH further than that.   YIKES!!!   I had no idea she deals with Lyme disease symptoms,  her stories are based on real events in the lives of her mother and grandmother whoa!    So many things she has gone through in life her brother and father both dying from brain tumors in the same year.    Various car wrecks she has been in that caused her to lose brain function so badly she couldn’t talk properly nor process thoughts nor take care of herself and was hospitalized.   She has been misdiagnosed and spent time in a mental institution.    She speaks plainly and openly about her life, her family her ancestors, and various lovers she has had over the years.    The deep love she bears for her dogs and how devastated being unable to get out of bed and function normally when each of three of her beloved furry babies passed away, two from age one from illness.   She weaves ancestry and stories and books so mesmerizingly your mind takes you right along with her on this visual movie that plays in your head showing you what she describes.   This book encompasses a lot of emotions and sorrow but it comes back with laughter and joy, too.     She dealt with her mother’s rampant binges into self-loathing to the point of trying to commit suicide many times while her father, a Methodist preacher was alive then she shares the fun and funny times the family spent together and the places she has lived all over the world.   What adventures she has had, a tumultuous ride of highs and lows and dealing with other people’s expectations and coming to grips with who she is as a person and what she will and will not give away of herself.     She is woman hear her roar.    Deeply personal and honest self-reflection the good parts, the bad parts and the ugly parts – she reveals them all and how they have brought her to be who she is and how life has delivered the stories to her to tell the world.    Amazing, Amy Tan.