Tortured and Happy: Amy Tan Memoir

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/books/amy-tan-memoir.html
There’s no shortage of dramatic material from Ms. Tan’s past, and she could have easily mined her childhood to write a traditional account of her life. Born in California in 1952 to Chinese immigrants, she grew up in fear of her volatile mother. Ms. Tan’s late mother, Daisy, was depressed and unstable, and repeatedly threatened suicide. She once tried to throw herself out of the car when the family was driving on the highway. When Ms. Tan was 16, her mother brandished a meat cleaver and threatened to kill her.