The Invention Of Noodles and A Promising Lead

I smiled, laughed out loud, and enjoyed Chapter 14 a lot. Amy Tan is clever and amusing as she describes life in the remote rainforest of No Name Place. Our lucky, goofy group recovers from malaria through the herbal medicine and tea remedies of the village people, and they now long for real food (noodles). They go into the rainforest to forage, expanding their cuisine to include fresh bamboo shoots and forest mushrooms, truffles, as instructed by the villagers.

The friends are in a good mood, and are humorous and playful with one another. They learn more skills of self-sufficiency such as making yarn out of pounded-thin strands of bamboo, (go green!) woven into clothing. Heidi and Moff discover strange plants, red, “nearly fluorescent” plants, which turn out to be prized aphrodisiacs, called by the villagers,“Second Life.” (Moff wonders if they’re listed in the reference book “Weird Plant Morphology.”) They discuss the destruction of rainforests worldwide, and the loss of many species feared destroyed for good.

Later, while watching Darwin’s Fittest on the TV in the jungle with the villagers, the group is shocked and excited to see Harry in a news feature talking about where his missing friends can be—who were thought seen being led around by two strange men, as though drugged. A spell cast by Nats enters the discussion. They also learn that Walter is, in fact, not dead but in the hospital with amnesia….

We’re moving right along now, nearing the end of the book and events are happening fast...but how will the group eventually be found?