The Bonesetter's Daughter is a novel written by Amy Tan. Released in 2001, it tells of a young woman discovering the life story of her mother.
Characters[]
- Ruth Luyi Young
- LuLing Liu Young
- GaoLing Liu Young
- Art Kamen
- Dory Kamen
- Sofia Kamen
- Wendy Scott
- Mr. Tang
- Dr. Huey
- Gideon
- Francine
- Agapi Agnos (or Doris DeMatteo)
- Arlene Kamen
- Marty Kamen
- Lance Rogers
- Dottie Rogers
LuLing's past[]
- Liu Xin Gu (or Precious Auntie)
- LuLing's mother
- LuLing's father
- Mr. Chang, the coffinmaker
- Miss Grutoff
- Old Widow Lau
- Pan Kai Jing
- Mr. Wei
- Patty Flowers
- Lady Ida Flowers
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . .
In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative known as the bonesetter. When headstrong LuLing rejects the marriage proposal of the coffin-maker, a shocking series of events are set in motion–all of which lead back to Ruth and LuLing in modern San Francisco. The truth that Ruth learns from her mother’s past will forever change her perception of family, love, and forgiveness.
Full summary[]
The narrative begins with a short note written by LuLing Young on her family history.
Part One[]
Chapter One[]
While her voice is missing (a regular occurrence ever since she moved into her lover (Art Kamen)'s flat in San Francisco), ghostwriter Ruth Young sits at her desk. While rooting through it, she finds papers filled with Chinese calligraphy presumably written by her mother. Though she has a very rusty knowledge of calligraphy, she begins to translate the pages.
The next morning, she wakes up to find that everyone else in the flat (Art and his children, Sofia and Dory) are awake. Her best friend (a woman named Wendy) calls Ruth to tell her that her (Wendy's) mother married a personal trainer. Once this is done, Ruth begins counting everything she has to do before getting stalled at the ninth thing.
While driving Art's children to a skating rink, Ruth mulls over what could be the ninth task. By thinking back to last night's dream, she decides that fixing the water heater is the ninth task.
The narrative then jumps back ten years to when Ruth met Art for the first time. After breaking up with a boyfriend named Paul and while at a nude yoga class with Wendy, Ruth meets a man that she assumes to be gay. They strike up a conversation on favorite words. While discussing her past relationship, Ruth learns that Art isn't gay (though he is divorced). This is the start of their relationship.
While at the dry cleaner's, Ruth remembers that she was supposed to call Wendy. They discuss her mother's new relationship.
Chapter Two[]
While at the grocery store, Ruth remembers her mother (LuLing)'s doctor appointment and buys Chilean sea bass.
Once at home, Ruth works on a book for a therapist client named Agapi Agnos. The book is a pretentious "psychology" book based around various psychological studies (along with a pseudoscientific explanation of cosmology). Once this is finished, she calls her higher-up (Gideon) within the ghostwriting company.
After this call, Ruth calls a plumber. Once the plumber has finished, Ruth drives to her mother's apartment building to bring her to her doctor's appointment. Before she can get to her mother's flat, the downstairs neighbor Francine talks to her about her mother's ability as a landlord. Once inside LuLing's flat, Ruth finds that her mother is mad at her due to a misunderstanding around the time of the doctor's appointment.
While Ruth calls the doctor's office, LuLing begins looking for her purse before declaring that she left it in the house of her sister, GaoLing (though she is confused on the date that she actually visited GaoLing's house). Ruth begins looking for the purse, finding it under a mound of magazines that LuLing has been hoarding.
Chapter Three[]
While at the doctor (a Dr. Huey)'s office, LuLing shows signs of Alzheimer's disease. Though Ruth tries to hide these signs, she fails. Dr. Huey tells Ruth that LuLing's confusion and odd mannerisms (such as claiming that she saw the O.J. Simpson murders) are caused by dementia.
The narrative shifts to Ruth's childhood. While at school, Ruth broke her arm by throwing herself down a slide. Discovering that her mother becomes extremely doting while she is "in so much pain that she cannot speak", Ruth decides to stop talking entirely. This causes problems at school until Ruth begins using sand writing to speak. Ruth begins using sand writing as a way to talk back to her own mother, until LuLing takes something that she has written as a sign from her own past. Due to this, Ruth begins speaking again.
Chapters Four and Five[]
The next day (from the present sections of Chapter Three), Ruth visits a Chinese restaurant with members of her and Art's family to celebrate the Full Moon Festival. While there, LuLing shows more signs of dementia. Art's parents also invite Art's ex-wife to the event.
After the celebration, Ruth brings LuLing back to the hospital. An MRI shows that LuLing is suffering from brain shrinkage, possibly caused by Alzheimer's disease.
The narrative shifts by three months, with Ruth bringing her mother to her flat to eat dinner regularly in that time. One day, after talking about a dead cat that Ruth used to own, LuLing claims that she visited the Himalayan Mountains. Ruth tries to tell her mother that she is confused, but LuLing explodes on her (a frequent event throughout Ruth's life).
Ruth tries to hire cleaners to visit LuLing's house, but each one she hires quits due to LuLing's eccentricities. As such, Ruth begins visiting LuLing's house to make sure that she doesn't accidentally kill herself. Ruth's worrying about her mother begins to take a toll on her mental health and her work (even making her dip out of a planned vacation with Art).
One day, Ruth visits her mother's apartment and finds that she is missing. She finds out that LuLing left wearing only slippers and pajamas. Ruth calls the cops, but immediately after they arrive, LuLing emerges from a walkway. LuLing reveals that she was looking for a grocery store but got lost. After leaving her mother with her sister, Ruth leaves for a beach called Land's End.
Chapter Six[]
While at Land's End, Ruth remembers an extremely embarrassing moment from her childhood. While she was only eleven (and lived in Berkeley), Ruth lived in an apartment complex. They lived next to a married couple named Lance and Dottie Rogers. One day, Ruth visited the couple to watch television (as they had a color television while Ruth didn't). While there, Ruth visited the bathroom immediately after Lance did.
Due to some misinformed sexual education from her friends, Ruth believed that she had gotten pregnant from this. Dottie Rogers completely believed Ruth and accused her husband of statutory rape before Ruth reveals her misinformed explanation of what happened. Instead of trying to console Ruth, Dottie becomes extremely nasty towards her.
Later on, Ruth visits Lance. Though he is nicer to her, he frightens Ruth. Due to this, Ruth convinces her mother to leave the apartment complex for San Francisco.
Chapter Seven[]
While rooting through her mother's apartment, Ruth finds her old diary. This makes her remember how, in her teenage years, she caused her mother to nearly kill herself by carelessly writing in her diary. After this, her mother gave her gave her gifts (a jade ring and a "Chinese Bible") then immediately took them back.
The next thing Ruth finds in her exploration of the apartment is a series of papers filled with calligraphy, detailing LuLing's life.
Part Two[]
Heart[]
The narrative begins with LuLing's ancestry. Her mother, Bao Bomu (called Precious Auntie for most of the narrative), was the daughter of a bonesetter who had two suitors - a member of the Liu clan named Liu Hu Sen (or Baby Uncle) and a rich coffinmaker named Chang. She chose Baby Uncle.
Right before she could get married, the couple was ambushed by Chang (who pretended to be a robber). While Baby Uncle wasn't killed by Chang, he accidentally killed himself by spooking his horse.
Bao was taken in by the Liu clan. In her grief, Bao drank boiling hot ink to try to commit suicide. This failed, with Bao giving birth to LiuLing. After this she was adopted by the Liu clan (a prominent family of inkmakers who lived in a village called Immortal Heart). Bao's status as Ruth's mother is hidden by the family, with them instead giving her the job of nursemaid.
Change[]
In 1929, as the Peking Man was first unearthed, LuLing tries to get her Precious Auntie to sell "dragon bones" in her possession. Precious Auntie refuses, believing that doing so will cause a curse to befall them.
Some time after this, LuLing is noticed by Chang (now an extremely rich man, due to his sale of dragon bones) as he delivers a coffin for LuLing's great-grandmother. Chang arranges a marriage between LuLing and one of his younger relatives. Precious Auntie tries to stop this, but fails.
Due to this, LuLing is invited to Peking. While there, she lives with a relative named Old Widow Lau and visits the shop that her father works at. Before she can meet her new husband, LuLing returns to Immortal Heart. While at home, LuLing stands up to Precious Auntie for the first time in her life.
Ghost[]
Shortly before LuLing can be married off, Precious Auntie gives her a document detailing her true parentage. Out of spite, LuLing refuses to read it. The next day, Precious Auntie commits suicide, with LuLing reading the document immediately after this. Shortly after Precious Auntie's suicide, the Changs rescind their arranged marriage.
Two weeks later, the ink shop that LuLing's father works at burns to the ground - taking several shops around it with it. LuLing's father claims that it was the work of Precious Auntie's ghost.
The now destitute Liu clan decides to flee Immortal Heart to escape vengeful neighbors. Before they can leave, they send LuLing and GaoLing to Peking. While in Peking, they visit a blind prophet. The prophet gives them an extremely devastating prophecy.
Before the Liu clan flees, they are noticed by the "Famous Catcher of Ghosts", who holds a ceremony to trap the spirit of Precious Auntie in a jar. Despite the curse being broken, LuLing's mother decides to send her to an orphanage.
Destiny and Effortless[]
The orphanage is a Christian orphanage that formerly served as a monastery. While in the orphanage, LuLing learns that her sister had been married off to Chang Fu Nan (who, along with the rest of the family, is addicted to opium). She also falls in love with the son of a teacher (Teacher Pan), named Kai Jing.
As Kai Jing and LuLing's love blossoms, the Japanese begin their attack on China. GaoLing visits the orphanage and reveals that she was arrested by the Japanese. To escape her husband, she and a nun named Sister Yu forge a document stating that Chang Fu Nan is to be questioned by the Japanese.
Kai Jing and LuLing marry shortly after this. Despite basically throwing her away, LuLing's mother (along with most of her family) visit the wedding. LuLing's relationship seems to be stable. That is until Kai Jing is pressganged by the Communists. Kai Jing returns once the Communists lose their battle against the Japanese, but this return is brief. Kai Jing is captured by the Japanese only a few days later and killed by them.
Character[]
As the Japanese advance, LuLing considers suicide but decides against it due to Sister Yu telling her that she would not join Kai Jing in heaven if she killed herself. The Japanese soon arrive at the orphanage and capture an American teacher named Miss Grutoff the day after America declares war on Japan. Sister Yu, Teacher Pan, and the Lings escape along with several orphan children (with LuLing disguising herself as an old woman stricken with tuberculosis).
As the war rages on, the group lives in the Ling family ink shop (now controlled by the Changs). Even after the war with the Japanese ends, their troubles are not over. One day, GaoLing's husband returns and reveals that he sold the shop. GaoLing initially decides to stay in the shop and fight for it.
This changes once Miss Grutoff returns from a Japanese POW camp stricken with malaria. To be successfully treated, Grutoff needs to travel back to America with an escort. Though LuLing wants to go, GaoLing convinces her to stay in Hong Kong while she goes to America until GaoLing can bring her sister with her.
Fragrance[]
In Hong Kong, LuLing lives in various states of squalor due to rising inflation. She discovers that Miss Grutoff died in America and that GaoLing is unable to bring her to America.
Eventually, LuLing is able to escape absolute poverty by working for an English family (the Flowers) living in Hong Kong. The family are former shipping magnates, with LuLing caring for the elderly, incontinent Ida Flowers. In America, GaoLing meets two brothers (the Young brothers). While she plans on marrying one of them, she is unsure which to marry.
Before LuLing can leave Hong Kong for America, she is found by GaoLing's husband. He tries to blackmail her into feeding his opium addiction. While this largely fails, LuLing relents right before she leaves for America (having been sponsored by one of the brothers as a "Famous Visiting Artist") and sells Precious Auntie's oracle bone to give Chang Fu Nan enough money to stay in opium-fueled docility while LuLing leaves for America. This succeeds.
Part Three[]
Chapter One[]
Ruth sends the calligraphy to a translator (Mr. Tang, who knew Chang Fu Nan and is intrigued by LuLing) who visits LuLing's flat once the translation is finished. Ruth also begins living at LuLing's flat, which takes a toll on her relationship with Art until he suggests sending LuLing to a state-of-the-art retirement complex.
Before sending LuLing to the complex (using a feigned document claiming LuLing's apartment is full of radon gas), Ruth and Art visit the complex and find it to be a peaceful and luxurious place. They then tell LuLing about it (using things such as cable television as persuasion). LuLing agrees to move into the complex.
Chapter Two[]
The Young family gathers at GaoLing's house to celebrate "Auntie Gal"'s birthday. During this event, Ruth discusses the calligraphy with GaoLing, discovering that Mr. Chang was publicly executed by the Communists and that the Liu clan's house was destroyed in 1972. After this, LuLing falls into the pool and is rescued by Art.
Shortly after this, Ruth and Art go on a date in a fancy restaurant to reconnect.
Chapter Three[]
Mr. Tang and LuLing begin dating. They meet Ruth and Art at a museum for Asian culture and discuss their relationship. While there, Ruth asks about Precious Auntie's name but doesn't believe her mother. That is until she talks with GaoLing and discovers that LuLing was (at least mostly) right.
Epilogue[]
A short epilogue which features Ruth writing while the ghosts of the past watch over her.
The original photo of Gu Jingmei (right)
Notes[]
- The title refers to Precious Auntie, the daughter of a bonesetter (or bone doctor, a doctor who specializes in fixing broken bones and various other ailments).
- The cover art of the original edition (pictured in the infobox) shows Gu Jingmei, Amy Tan's grandmother.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai Girls | Lisa See | 2009 | A novel with similar themes |
| The Kitchen God's Wife | Amy Tan | 1991 | A novel by the same author with similar themes |
| The Middle Heart | Bette Bao Lord | 1996 | A novel with similar themes |
| Wild Swans | Jung Chang | 1991 | A nonfiction book with similar themes |
| Falling from Xi'an and Log 384 | Steven Saville and Richard Salter | 2006 | Two Doctor Who short stories about events from Chinese history featured (or at least mentioned) in this story |