After nearly six years, writer Amy Tan delivers her long-awaited work, The Bonesetter’s Daughter. A mixture of grief and memory, beauty and excavation, Tan creates a tale of old China and contemporary California, woven through the intricate world of mothers and daughters.

Ruth Young lives in San Francisco as a ghostwriter, unsatisfied in her home life and struggling to – literally – find her voice. Luling is her Chinese mother – who once dramatic and sharp, is beginning to quickly lose her memory. But before the past entirely disappears, Ruth discovers Luling’s already finished memoir – the first line: “These are the things I should not forget.” Set in the village where Peking Man is being unearthed, webbed between ghosts and curses, marriage and war, Luling’s past comes to surface.

And in between the pages, lies the pivotal character of Precious Auntie – a woman who puts both Ruth and Luling on a search for identity, family and love.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)

Guests:

Amy Tan, Author

George W. Bush is on the road again …today in Atlanta…selling his trillion-dollar tax cut plan to the American people. On Tuesday night, the President took center stage in his first address to a joint session of Congress.

He talked about issues he ran on during the campaign – increasing education spending, strengthening the military, and government support for faith-based organizations. But his main goal was to outline his plan for a 1.6 trillion dollar across the board tax cut. The address to Congress marked Bush’s debut as a President setting forth his legislative agenda to the nation. Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Clinton, noted that a president’s first budget speech is really “his last campaign speech.” “From now on, Panetta said, the task is governing”, not campaigning. The controversial plan is shaping up as Bush’s first defining battle with Congress, the outcome of which could well be determined by public opinion.

So Connection listeners, what’s YOUR opinion? What do you think about George Bush’s address Tuesday night? Did his renowned personal charm come across the small screen to you?
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)

Guests:

Ceci Connolly, National Political Reporter for “The Washington Post”, Wayne Slater, Austin Bureau Chief for “The Dallas Morning News” and Earl Black, Professor of Political Science at Rice University in Houston, TX

What do Grammy award winner Eminem and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven have in common?

In his day, Beethoven was the musical bad boy, the radical rule-breaker who turned tradition on its head. If bad boys live long enough, they may, like Beethoven, go mainstream….their innovations transformed into conventions. Accepting his Grammy this week, rap star Eminem turned toward the mainstream…and history will tell what legacy he leaves. Meanwhile, Beethoven lives on, two hundred years later…his compositions used as background for animated cartoons, in elevators and phone answering systems.

This fate, for the composer of a piano sonata called the “Pulp Fiction” of its time? Are we missing something? Composer Robert Kapilow says absolutely.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)

Guests:

Robert Kapilow: Conductor, composer, pianist and commentator.