Saving Fish from Drowning

If you’re a fre­quenter to the book­stores, you may have seen a copy of Amy Tan’s Sav­ing Fish from Drown­ing, a novel clad in a light blue paper­back cover. Although I haven’t read the novel itself, but the syn­op­sis at the back of the book is some­thing worth sharing.

Any­way, here it is.

It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hun­dred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scooped out a hun­dred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank where they flop and twirl. “Don’t be scared,” I tell those fish. “I’m sav­ing you from drown­ing.” Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet sad to say, I’m always to late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste any­thing, I take those dead fishes to the mar­ket and sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes..

It was a few months ago when me and my fam­ily were at the Pop­u­lar Book­store book fair at the Per­mata Carpark. I found that same light blue book again and was tempted to read that except at the back of it ‘cos every­time it brings a smile to my face, accom­pa­nied by a vague feel­ing of calm­ness and how-do-you-describe-it. Per­haps it’s because it por­trays the sim­ple life of fish­er­men, and how they spend life through each day as inno­cent and hum­ble as they can be. It also shows how the author sees fish­ing from a dif­fer­ent point of view, which is some­what.. cute..

Any­way, I hope this makes your day.