she is described as becoming a strong-willed
woman who turns down a feudal marriage pro-
posal from a cruel man, in order to marry for love.
Her husband is soon killed, however, and Precious
Auntie’s life is made miserable by this cruel man.
Years later, when she learns that her daughter
LuLing is to marry into the very family that caused
her so much pain, Precious Auntie kills herself. As
expected, LuLing faces a bad marriage and war-
time troubles, and she finally escapes to America,
all the while feeling haunted by the lack of forgive-
ness from her birth mother.
Part 3 of the novel concerns how Ruth is af-
fected by her mother’s narrative and how the two
women, through memory and the healing power
of forgiveness, are able to have a loving, close rela-
tionship. Ironically, through LuLing’s loss of mem-
ory, the wrongs of the past are smoothed over and
righted. The epilogue of the novel finds Ruth in
full possession of her voice and happy in her own
relationships on August 12, beginning to write her
own story and the story of her mother and grand-
mother instead of ghostwriting for others.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter spans three genera-
tions of women who, though intimately connected
to each other, cannot at first sense the continuity
of their lives. Through storytelling, however, the
three lives become linked and healed. A central
issue in the novel concerns the ability to speak:
Precious Auntie is literally unable to speak because
she has disfigured herself as a gesture of strength
and anger. She is able to communicate through her
daughter, who understands her sign language and
shorthand. LuLing finds expression in the written
word, luckily before she begins to lose her memory.
She is still unable to speak to her daughter of her
life, but manages to communicate nevertheless,
especially through the memoirs. Ruth is paralyzed
for several days each year by silence, since she is
unable to voice her beliefs and opinions, even to
those closest to her. When the women make an ef-
fort to respect their shared history, their lives are
blessed by an easier communication and under-
standing. Tan is also concerned in this novel with
the mystical power of memory and its real and elu-
sive connection to actual events. Memories, how-
ever altered by our perceptions, strongly shape our
lives. Throughout the novel, Tan uses the motif
of unearthing—of Peking Man from the cave,
of familial history and names, and of individual
emotion—to express the process of interpersonal
reconciliation, so much more difficult than an ar-
chaeological excavation. Through this novel, Tan
once again explores aspects of her own childhood
and her mother’s challenging life.
Vanessa RasmussenBrainard, Cecilia Manguerra (1947– )
Born in Cebu, Brainard is best known for her in-
ternationally acclaimed novel WHEN THE RAINBOW
GODDESS WEPT (1994). Having published several
other collections of stories, she is now regarded as
the voice of her generation in Philippine literature,
working tirelessly to promote the voices of Filipino
writers in the United States.
Brainard received her B.A. in communication
arts from Maryknoll College in Quezon City in
1968 and in 1969 migrated to the United States
to escape the oppressive political climate of the
Philippines under the dictatorship of Ferdinand
Marcos. She attended graduate school in film stud-
ies at UCLA. While in the United States, Brainard
reestablished her friendship with Lauren Brain-
ard, whom she had met in the Philippines when
he was serving with the Peace Corps. They even-
tually married while Lauren was in law school in
San Francisco and later moved to Santa Monica,
California. Between 1969 and 1981, Cecilia Brain-
ard worked as a scriptwriter while also being in-
volved in fund-raising activities with a nonprofit
organization. In 1981 she began a serious career in
writing. Currently, Cecilia Brainard lives in Santa
Monica, California, and is an adjunct professor at
the University of Southern California.
Living in the United States as a Filipina pro-
vided Brainard the stimulus to grow as a writer,
and from 1982 to 1988 she wrote a bimonthly
column entitled Filipina American Perspective for
the now-defunct Philippine American News. These
essays were her first foray into writing as an exile
from her home country and provided her with
the perfect forum to explore both her childhood26 Brainard, Cecilia Manguerra