Saving Fish from Drowning

Amy Tan’s 2005 book Saving Fish from Drowning has many thought-provoking paradoxes. The book title itself is taken from the paradoxical anonymous quote intimating that by fishing fishes’ lives are actually being saved:

“A pious man explained to his followers: ‘It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank, where they flop and twirl. “Don’t be scared,” I tell those fishes. “I am saving you from drowning.” Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes.”

The story isn’t at all about fishing but rather about an internationally arranged tour group that is scheduled to go to China and Burma (non-politically correct, Myanmar, and its military government SLORC, State Law and Order Restoration Council) and how disaster seeks the tourists out even before the trip begins – the knowledgeable tour guide is mysteriously murdered. Fortunately for the tourists though the spirit of the tour guide travels with them but unfortunately can’t communicate with them as she sees them getting ripped off by tourist traps and attractions that her experience and knowledge of the cultures sought to avoid. The tourists go on to commit serious cultural faux paux and are nearly kicked out of China and forced, three days ahead of schedule, to enter political insecure Myanmar  where 11 of the 12 members of the tour group are kidnapped by Burmese mountain group, a Karen hill tribe, thinking the 14-year-old American boy who easily performs card tricks is mistakenly thought to be “Younger White Brother” (intimated to be younger brother to Jesus Christ?) and his Steven King book to be the “Lost Important Writings.” (For those interested in knowing more about this mythical belief system of the Karen tribe, much can be found on the internet.)

Well, the story dragged on a bit too long for me but to resolve the tale, the 11 tourists were un-kidnapped because of worldwide publicity, the Karen hill tribe that perpetuated the kidnapping were supposedly awarded their hearts’ desire and given freedom to continue with their chosen lifestyle, and with those two underlying threads of contention resolved, the book could end.

I really enjoyed the writing and witticisms of the first third of the book but afterwards there were just too many diversions to the main story and the story got too diffused to keep my interest. I’ve read three other books by Amy Tan – The Joy Luck Club, The Hundred Secret Senses, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. I think this was my least favorite, but I do have to say, I did get some new insights on the Burmese culture, a culture that doesn’t get a lot of print, so for that “thumb’s up”.

Some witticisms/paradoxes from the book:

“From what I have observed, when the anesthesia of love wears off, there is always the pain of consequences.” p.15

A tour guide effectively explaining “karma” to the tourists concerning a buffalo wearing blinders and thrashing around in mud while being beaten in order for it to thrash more and make smooth mud for bricks: “Past life this buffalo must be doing bad things. Now suffer, so next life get better…” In effect, the tour guide was trying to say that “your situation and form in life are already determined before you are born. If you are a buffalo suffering in mud, you must have committed wrongs upon others in a previous existence, and thus, you deserve this particular reincarnation. Perhaps this buffalo was once a man who killed an innocent person. Maybe he was a thief. By suffering now, he would earn a much cushier reincarnation in the next go-round. It’s an accepted way of thinking in China, a pragmatic was of viewing all the misfortunes of the world.” p.77

On Buddha and Buddhism: “All this talk on oblivion, of wanting nothing and becoming nobody, seems rather contradictory from a Buddhist sense. The Buddha did all this and he became so much a nobody that he became famous, the biggest nobody of them all.” p.148

When the tour guide said, “For your safety and security, please remain on the bus.” Safety? Security? The mere mention of those words caused the tourists to feel unsafe and insecure. p.175

On lucky money and Buddhist beliefs: Peddlers surrounded and elbowed them shouting, “Lucky money! You give us lucky money!” Lucky money is the money a peddler makes from selling his/her first item of the day. They believe the first sale brings them luck money for the remainder of the day. And making sales and purchasing is all part of karma. When exchanges are made, peddlers receive luck and the purchasers receive merit (in Buddhism for the next life). p.219