In an interview, Tan describes what she hopes people will learn from her book. The celebrated author of 'The Joy Luck Club' and more than a dozen other works will discuss 'The Backyard Bird Chronicles' at the University of San Diego on Wednesday.
Most of the drawings in Amy Tan’s unusual and rewarding new book, 'The Backyard Bird Chronicles,' are of birds: birds at play, birds nibbling. Her book pulls from six years of journal entries about watching and studying birds in her backyard in Sausalito. But one of the drawings is not like the others. It is a pencil sketch of Tan's own face, peering through binoculars. In front of her eyes are two big black lenses.
' Tan knows she is not a scientist, and in the book she often jokes about how she's doing things in a non-science way. She gives the birds human attributes. She talks to them. She answers for them. She loves them. Did being a writer and embracing that part of her — imagination, humor and emotion — help her ask better questions or tune in better or differently? 'Absolutely,' Tan answered.
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