“Where the Past Begins (A Writer’s Memoir)” by Amy Tan (post 5): “My hands are not the ones tapping the keyboard, although I still believe they are”

In this memoir, every so often, Amy Tan interrupts the story of her life for what she calls “interludes,” such as an excerpt from her journal or a brief essay. One of the latter is titled “I Am The Author of This Novel.”

“I am the author of this novel, which is told by a first-person narrator, who is not me…

“I am not the first-person narrator. I am the author who determined the voice of the narrator, which, by extension, is the voice of the entire narrative…

“…by voice, I mean more the mind of the character and her identity, how she perceives herself in the world she inhabits…

“The main point is: her mind is not my mind, and her identity is not my identity…

“And just to be clear…the first-person fictional consciousness is not me, unless you think my doppelgänger should get credit as a separate entity. And now, in just raising the rhetorical question, she evidently thinks she should be acknowledged.

“So let me rephrase: I am the author of a novel told by a doppelgänger in possession of my thoughts, who inserts her subconscious into my subconscious…My hands are not the ones tapping the keyboard, although I still believe they are, and these words you are reading are entirely hers, which I still believe are mine” (1, pp. 223-226).

The above is a variation of the tortuous explanation that many novelists give at book signings when asked if their novel is autobiographical. Except that the novelist would probably not invoke the concept of “voice” at book signings. It is a term more commonly used in creative writing workshops (2). (Search “voice” in this blog for previous discussions.)

The creative writing term “voice” is more or less equivalent to the psychological term “alternate personality.”

1. Amy Tan. Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir. New York, ecco/HarperCollins, 2017.

2. Thaisa Frank & Dorothy Wall. Finding Your Writer’s Voice: A Guide to Creative Fiction. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1994.