Bibi Chen, the wealthy entrepreneur philanthropist narrator of Amy Tan's gorgeously written, satirical and deeply humane novel Saving Fish from Drowning, is dead—she's not sure, but she believes she was murdered. Yet Bibi, the thoroughly Americanized child of a Shanghai aristocrat and his concubine, still follows along on the Asian tour she'd arranged for her liberal-minded friends, if only as an omniscient spirit. The trip goes on as scheduled; to do otherwise would mean forfeiture of a hefty down payment, as well as the chance, perhaps, to uplift the downtrodden stuck in those exotic, Shangri-la-like places like so many mud-tramping water buffalo.

From the beginning, things don't go well. During the trip's China leg, one of the group is caught urinating in a sacred place. The tourists flee to Burma, where they soon find themselves stuck with a local tribe waiting for the return of their Messiah and ruled by two little children named Loot and Bootie. The situation is ripe for satire: through bouts of malaria, the tourists stay glued to a television powered by a stationary bike attached to a car battery for news of their ordeal as it is broadcast over CNN. The cultivation of an antimalarial plant discovered as an offshoot of the tourists' stay at No Name Place is quickly and savagely suppressed by the Burmese government. And their experiences inspire a reality TV show called "Junglemaniacs!"

But the wacky plot and characterizations are just a scaffolding for Tan's explorations of cultures and histories so foreign to most Americans that they might as well have come out of a fairy tale. Through Bibi's somewhat ironic voice, we're plunged into the weirdness of life among myriad Asian ethnic groups as well as American slackers and quasi-celebrities; the poignant and sometimes dopey good-heartedness of aid organizations and the way Western culture is translated and transmogrified. As in her earlier novels, Tan's intelligence, depth and reach make the reader marvel.

Arlene McKanic writes from Jamaica, New York. Copyright 2005 BookPage Reviews.

Renowned best-selling author Tan follows up The Bonesetter's Daughter with a novel loosely based on fact and purportedly communicated by a deceased San Francisco woman named Bibi Chen to a medium via "automatic writing." Prior to her untimely death, Bibi had arranged an excursion to China and Southeast Asia for herself and 12 friends. In her wry, satiric, yet humane voice from beyond the grave, she recounts how 11 of these friends disappear in Burma and become entangled with the misfortunes of an oppressed people in a country run by the tyrannical Myanmar military regime. Tan focuses on the hilarity and absurdity that results from cultural misunderstandings between widely different world views and suggests that even remote parts of the world cannot escape the media's tentacles, government PR spin doctors, global commercial exploitation, and a fascination with reality television. Fortunately, the light shed on these concerns does not come at the cost of character development, as we are privy to the travelers' innermost thoughts and yearnings (owing to Bibi's postmortem ability to read minds). Tan has admirably tackled the unique challenge of building a novel based on a real-life incident and turning the resulting tale into a commentary on the ironies of modern life. Recommended for all libraries.--Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L.

Tan (The Bonesetter's Daughter ) delivers another highly entertaining novel, this one narrated from beyond the grave. San Francisco socialite and art-world doyenne Bibi Chen has planned the vacation of a lifetime along the notorious Burma Road for 12 of her dearest friends. Violently murdered days before takeoff, she's reduced to watching her friends bumble through their travels from the remove of the spirit world. Making the best of it, the 11 friends who aren't hung over depart their Myanmar resort on Christmas morning to boat across a misty lake--and vanish. The tourists find themselves trapped in jungle-covered mountains, held by a refugee tribe that believes Rupert, the group's surly teenager, is the reincarnation of their god Younger White Brother, come to save them from the unstable, militaristic Myanmar government. Tan's travelers, who range from a neurotic hypochondriac to the debonair, self-involved host of a show called The Fido Files , fight and flirt among themselves. While ensemble casting precludes the intimacy that characterizes Tan's mother-daughter stories, the book branches out with a broad plot and dynamic digressions. It's based on a true story, and Tan seems to be having fun with it, indulging in the wry, witty voice of Bibi while still exploring her signature questions of fate, connection, identity and family. (Oct.)

Adult/High School -Fish is based on the real-life disappearance of 12 American tourists in Myanmar. The narrator is Bibi Chen, dealer in Chinese antiquities, who had arranged an art-oriented tour for her friends. When she dies under mysterious circumstances, the others decide to proceed, saying that Bibi will join them "in spirit"-an invitation she accepts. Mostly well-meaning, but ignorant and naive, the group lands in one hilarious situation after another due to cultural misunderstandings. On a lake outing, they are kidnapped and taken to a hidden village where a rebel tribe waits for the Younger White Brother, who will make them invisible and bullet-proof and enable them to recover their land. They believe that they’ve found him in 15-year-old Rupert, an amateur magician. The tour group consists of 10 adults and 2 adolescents, some pillars of the community and some decidedly not, but all rich, intelligent, and spoiled. Bibi, feisty and opinionated, uncovers their fears, desires, and motives, and the shades of truth in their words. As the novel progresses, they become more human and less stereotypical, changing as a result of their experiences. Although Tan also satirizes the tourist industry, American Buddhism, and reality TV, her focus is on the American belief that everyone everywhere plays by the same rules. An extremely funny novel with serious undercurrents.-Sandy Freund, Richard Byrd Library, Fairfax County, VA