The Bonesetter's Daughter: Amy Tan

I love the back and forth between present day and the past spanning three generations of memory. Ruth, the daughter, describes her loveless relationship, which seemed to start off so well, she expresses concern for her mother who starts suffering from dementia, and her work, which has become dissatisfactory. Ruth takes her mother to the doctor to do some tests and her mother gives some false information. Later Ruth realizes her mother really did have a different mother than her aunt and really did have a different birthdate, she was telling the truth at the doctor. The story builds from Ruth finding out the truth of her mother's past, which she had written down for Ruth years earlier. The history begins with Ruth's grandmother, who was the only surviving family member of a bone setter. He raised her to be feel and uncharacteristic of a woman at the time. When she married he sent her with a "dragon bone" which ended up being human. The story is filled with tragedy. Ruth's mother was raised in her father's home thinking her aunt's wife was her mother, her actual mother commits suicide and she lives through WWII at an orphanage. Once in the United States Ruth's mother becomes a widow when Ruth is small and does not complain of living in a strange world with different customs while raising her daughter who is American in thought and actuality. It was a brilliant story of family, culture, and learning. It was a very educational and an enjoyable read.