
- 368 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
From New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, a memoir about finding meaning in life through acts of creativity and imagination. As seen on PBS American Masters "Unintended Memoir."
In Where the Past Begins, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan reveals the ways that our memories and personal experiences can inform our creative work. Drawing on her vivid impressions of her upbringing, Tan investigates the truths and inspirations behind her writing while illuminating how we all explore, confront, and process complex memories, especially half-forgotten ones from childhood.
With candor, empathy, and humor, Tan sheds light on her own writing process, sharing her hard-won insights on the nature of creativity and inspiration while exploring the universal urge to examine truth through the workings of imagination—and what that imaginative world tells us about our own lives. Where the Past Begins is both a unique look into the mind of an extraordinary storyteller and an indispensable guide for writers, artists, and other creative thinkers.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Introduction Where the Past Begins
- PROLOGUE The Breaker of Combs
- I.
- CHAPTER ONE A Leaky Imagination
- CHAPTER TWO Music as Muse
- Quirk Souvenir from a Dream
- CHAPTER THREE Hidden Genius
- Interlude Reorientation: Homer, Alaska
- II.
- CHAPTER FOUR Genuine Emotions
- CHAPTER FIVE The Feeling of What It Felt Like When It Happened
- Quirk A Mere Mortal at Age Twenty-Five
- Quirk How to Change Fate: Step 1
- III.
- Interlude The Unfurling of Leaves
- Interlude The Auntie of the Woman Who Lost Her Mind
- CHAPTER SIX Unstoppable
- Quirk Time and Distance: Age Twenty-Four
- IV.
- CHAPTER SEVEN The Darkest Moment of My Life
- Quirk Nipping Dog
- CHAPTER EIGHT The Father I Did Not Know
- Quirk Reliable Witness
- V.
- Interlude I Am the Author of This Novel
- CHAPTER NINE How I Learned to Read
- Quirk Splayed Poem: The Road
- Quirk Eidolons
- CHAPTER TEN Letters to the Editor
- CHAPTER ELEVEN Letters in English
- Quirk Why Write?
- VI.
- CHAPTER TWELVE Language: A Love Story
- Quirk Intestinal Fortitude
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN Principles of Linguistics
- EPILOGUE Companions in the House
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Also by Amy Tan
- Copyright
- About the Publisher