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Where the Past Begins: Memory and Imagination

by Amy Tan

Memory as creative material

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Paperback New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Author recognition

    New York Times bestselling author

AlbakiReads Editorial

Memory as creative material

Amy Tan connects the memories and personal experiences of her upbringing with the work of making fiction, considering how recollections—especially those partly forgotten from childhood—can shape a writer’s search for meaning and truth. The book combines memoir with reflection on creativity and imagination, including Tan’s account of her writing process and the inspirations behind her work. Its subject is not only how experience enters storytelling, but also how people revisit and interpret the past through imagination. This gives the book a dual focus: a personal inquiry into memory and a discussion of creative practice.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Writers interested in how personal experience can inform creative work
  • Readers seeking memoir alongside reflections on imagination and memory
  • Artists and other creative thinkers interested in inspiration and process

Themes

Memory and childhoodCreativity and imaginationWriting processPersonal experience and truth

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

From New York Times bestselling author Amy Tan, a memoir about finding meaning in life through acts of creativity and imagination. As seen on PBS American Masters "Unintended Memoir."

In Where the Past Begins, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan reveals the ways that our memories and personal experiences can inform our creative work. Drawing on her vivid impressions of her upbringing, Tan investigates the truths and inspirations behind her writing while illuminating how we all explore, confront, and process complex memories, especially half-forgotten ones from childhood.

With candor, empathy, and humor, Tan sheds light on her own writing process, sharing her hard-won insights on the nature of creativity and inspiration while exploring the universal urge to examine truth through the workings of imagination--and what that imaginative world tells us about our own lives. Where the Past Begins is both a unique look into the mind of an extraordinary storyteller and an indispensable guide for writers, artists, and other creative thinkers.

 

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