“The Joy Luck Club is one of my favorite books. From the moment I first started reading it, I knew it was going to be incredible. For me, it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish forever. It inspired me as a writer and still remains hugely inspirational.” —Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich AsiansAmy Tan’s beloved, New York Times bestselling tale of mothers and … York Times bestselling tale of mothers and daughters, now the focus of a new documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir on Netflix
Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who’s “saying” the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. “To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable.” Forty years later the stories and history continue.
With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.
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One of the rare times a movie does right by the book.
Great exposure to a set of cultural norms, opinions and beliefs different than my own with memorable characters and stories woven together.
it was just ok….
This is the story of a woman who has just lost her mother and she is trying to understand her better. The story shifts from the viewpoints of four older Chinese women and their daughters. The changing of the viewpoints is very confusing so I quit trying to keep track and just separated between generations. The concepts still come across.
For me, this was a gripping introduction to the life experiences of Chinese women, in China and in the US. I’m grateful to Ms Tan for sharing her understanding with those of us who know nothing of the female Chinese experience.
I don’t know why I took all these years to read it.
Wonderful wonderful book!
Reflects real family life and characters!
One of my favorites
Beautifully written, definitely one of my all time favorite books!
Fantastic read!!
couldn’t put it down. amy tam leaves you hanging just enough to want to satisfy by reading on.
Unlike many books of Fiction or Non Fiction. Amy & her Mother have a unique
relationship. Her Mother is a very strong, very stubborn, very opinionated woman. Very much Old Country Traditional Chinese. Amy had many difficult interactions with her as a growing Chinese American Girl. Their relationship was often stormy, and her Mother very authoritarian. As an adult she lived with Amy, with roles eventually reversing as Amy became the caretaker. I highly recommend this and all of Amy Tan’s books. She paints vivid pictures of Chinese American life. How each of her large family, accepts, embraces or rejects the American Dream. She gives much background of the value systems, in Old China, the new China of Mao Tse Tung that they felt they must leave, & how what they left behind, influenced their acceptance of America. Over the course of her several books she shares a family portrait of vibrant personalities & shares much of herself, her journey of personal growth & development, her daily life as a go between two very different cultural styles. One the old ways, represented by her Mother, the other the modern Chinese American Ways by herself, her family, her friends & everybody else. She has both the skill & the ability to express what must often have been aggravating, frustrating, & at times overwhelming, using humor, sharp wit, and
love. Read them, and enjoy becoming part of Amy Tan’s world.
So enlightening
great story, this book made me become an Amy Tan fan! Liked the book better than the movie. Thank you Amy!
This book and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” secured my love of Tan’s books and her appreciation for generational and racial gaps between family members. Her emphasis on mothers and their daughters always makes me think of my own mother.
Loved it!
The lives of four second-generation women are shaped by the lives of their Chinese-American mothers. The lives of those mothers are shaped by the love they bear their daughters. Tan is unexcelled at exploring the mother-daughter relationship–particularly that one, but relationships in general.
One of my all time favorites.
Coming to terms with the life you live as opposed to the one you might have had if things had been different at crucial moments. Stays with you long after the end.