If You Can’t Change Your Fate, Change Your Attitude.
The above is a quote I pulled off a google search of “Amy Tan quotes”, because I wanted the my post of the year to based off one of my favorite authors.
(Ps, this was edited on the 10th of February , because for the life of me, I don’t know why I didn’t write an actual post earlier on…)
The first book of hers I read was the “Kitchen God’s Wife”. I was in secondary school then, and read anything I could lay my hands on (but made sure the x-rated ones were behind closed doors… Sorry, Mom). I don’t remember where I had picked it up, but it was probably at a makeshift kiosk, on the roadside. Sellers would lay out sheets and spread the books out, usually secondhand, which I prefer to be honest.
There’s something about the smell of old books… The feeling that someone had read it before and I was reading it now. Sharing an experience across time…
……. Maybe that’s an odd way to look at it, but I digress.
That first book taught me about the nuance in storytelling, or better put, showed me the depth it gave to a story. It’s been years since I read it, and though I remember the storyline, it’s not enough to give a full depth analysis/review. (which I plan on doing after I re-read the book this summer. *fingers crossed that I get to travel home*).
But what made the book particularly memorable was the way she wrote about identity, and the alienation (or ignorance of) from one’s roots/family history, particularly from the mother-daughter relationship angle…
What does this have to do with New Year?… I don’t know, but I do wish you a good one!
Thanks for reading my rambling. And I really do wish this year brings you HAPPINESS in a more concise manner than this post.
the nigerian millenial 