One Book One Marin Launch Party Event

Wednesday night at Book Passage author Amy Tan was presented with the 2nd One Book award (elegant crystal bookends), kicking off the launch party for One Book One Marin 2008. Ms. Tan's novel, Saving Fish from Drowning, is the selection for the community-wide effort by libraries and partners to promote interest in reading and discussion, as well as participation in special library events and book groups.

Host Michael Krasny was present to introduce Ms. Tan. Describing her book as a political novel (as well as a comedy), he said writers struggle with personal moral questions such as going to a Buddhist country like Burma (now Myanmar) and writing about the repressive regime, or, not to go --as a protest.

Ms. Tan commented that she uses her writing to ask questions of herself: how do things happen? What is our role in the larger world? A larger metaphor for her book is Travel-- seeing and experiencing life elsewhere, the culture, history and politics of a place.

A work of fiction seduces one with a story, weaving a web of fiction and truth.