Where the Past Begins

I've read Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan which is the author's memoir.  Most of the book was very interesting.  Tan writes about her grandmother and mother who lived in China prior to the Revolution and their stories formed the back story for Tan's life.  Her parents had a difficult time after they went to America to improve their lives and that of their children. They faced terrible tragedy.  As a child, this was often very bewildering. Tan's parents had high hopes for the success of their children to justify coming to the US.  Tan had boxes of material to sort through and discovered some of the documents which impacted on her life, giving her an understanding which could not have been appreciated as a child.  The structure of the book was not appealing.  I was engaged with the narrative but when the story went "off course" to, for example, examine pages of emails, I found this less interesting. 3/5