Best-seller Novelist Promises The Journal a Visit

While breezing through Santa Barbara and holding discussions about the writing process, best-selling novelist Amy Tan shared some closing thoughts about her visit while reminiscing on her college days with Valley Journal Publisher Nancy Crawford-Hall.

Amy visited UCSB’s Campbell Hall and also held a public conversation with revered travel writer and essayist Pico Iyer, in mid April.

She also spoke about the debut of her new novel, “Saving Fish from Drowning.” This novel comes after Amy’s other works, which include the 1989 best-selling novel “The Joy Luck Club” and subsequent books “The Bonesetter’s Wife” and “The Kitchen God’s Wife.”

“The response from ‘The Joy Luck Club’ still surprises me,” Amy said. “You never expect a book to last very long.”

Ever since Amy attended San Jose State University with Nancy, she remembers Nancy as a mysterious woman.

“I remember we sat down one day and I found out how Nancy grew up,” Amy said. “It was very strange for [me] that she lived in a household that had to sit down formally for dinner every night.

“Nancy has always been a woman of many different lives, and that holds true even today,” she added.

Amy plans to return to the Central Coast to pay the Valley an exclusive visit. Though she has never been to Santa Ynez, she was enthusiastic about the coming prospects.

“Someday I need to see this place [Santa Ynez],” Amy said. “Apparently I have to come back and go to Nancy’s ranch and ride a horse.”