Amy Tan tries a fresh theme in new book

Amy Tan’s writings have usually focused on the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, and she is truly a master at conveying such tales.

It did get a bit exhausting after a while, though, to read about the same theme repeatedly from a genuinely talented writer.

The fact that Tan has taken a very different route in her new novel, “Saving Fish From Drowning,” is refreshing and relieving, although there are still remnants of mother-daughter issues here, too.

It is hoped, though, this is just a practice run, because she can do better.

“Saving” is narrated by spirited, but deceased, art dealer Bibi Chen, whose ghost shepherds a dozen friends to Burma (aka Myanmar) for a tour planned long before her untimely death.

Cursed at the start of the trip for being, well, clueless Americans, most of the group’s members eventually find themselves held captive in a hidden village by a tribal people who believe one of the tourists is a prophet destined to save them from the cruelty they’ve experienced in a very cruel place.

As the world beyond their forest enclave bumblingly seeks them out – with the media smelling a ratings grabber and the rulers of the country’s military junta hoping for a coup of the public relations kind – the travelers must learn to cope.

Tan’s writing ebbs and flows in this book, the length of which waters down her poetic flourishes.

The biggest challenge Tan faces in “Saving” is making it worth reading about the trials of a bunch of mostly selfish characters who don’t inspire much sympathy.

Bibi is an exception. Too bad she’s dead, because she’d be a terrific dinner guest.

The living characters learn lessons, of course. They’re in one of the most repressive and impoverished places on earth, and it would be a travesty if they experienced no change in consciousness.

Still, by the end of the book, ones wonders whether the “tragedy” that befalls the group is tragic enough.

Maybe they deserved worse.

Actually, they probably did.