About this title: When June's mother dies, she is invited to join a long-standing club of Chinese women who urge her not only to take her mother's place at the mah-jongg table, but also to carry the news of her mother's death to her step-sisters in China. Through the stories of the women and their daughters, the values of different generations are articulated. June ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780399134203ISBN:0399134204
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 288 p. Previous Owner's Inscription. read more
"There is no real main character in this story all the characters (and their stories) are equally important and equally engaging. While the book was not a page turner, I did care what happen to all the characters. It was very intriguing to know how all the mothers came to America and how their experiences shaped how the raised each of their perspective daughters. For the daughters it was more interesting to watch them try to navigate being Chinese and American. I did not get the feeling in the book that the mothers ever wanted to fit into American culture and that they did not really what their children to either. They wanted them to have Chinese values with American opportunity. While the daughters just wanted to be Chinese.
At times I felt myself siding with the daughters because to me it seemed that the mothers had no understanding of who their daughters were. It appeared that the mothers just wanted them to be obey all their wishing, sacrificing their own. I don't know if Tan did this on purpose but I is kind of confusing. Because some of the mothers hardship seems to come from just obeying and not thinking. And these women (the mothers) than expect their daughters to do the same thing.
What I really like about this book was the style that it was written in sometimes it was like reading a fairy tale (almost "Like Water for Chocolate") but more realistic. The imaginary was beautiful and caught my imagination quickly. I kept having this thought that I would love to see this as a foreign film where the whole thing has to be translated. I know that there is a movie, I even saw it years ago. But I don't remember the movie being as vivid as the book.
Another positive with this book is that with the daughters Tan was able to portray the idea of what it is like to grow up as a second generation immigrant. In this case not quite American but not quite Chinese. The daughters have to struggle with what their mother are trying to teach them about being Chinese, which often comes out like riddles, and what they think the should know about being American. The mothers and daughters struggle with this battle between being Chinese and being American. Almost like they can't do both.
One of the negatives I had was that the mothers sometimes came for as stereotypes. I think this is sometimes a problem when people of color try to write books that not only speak to their experience and culture but will also appeal to a wider audience.
Pros: Imagery, Characters, Stories, Internal Conflict Cons: Stereotype Like Characters"
"My mom insisted I read The Joy Luck Club, but it was only after I saw it on the AP Lit reading list that I decided to concede to my mother's request. And I'm glad I did because The Joy Luck Club is a beautifully written book that's insightful without coming across as overly academic and stuffy.
"And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of sue are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way." {pg. 215}
Amy Tan's writing style really drawls you in and she does a fantastic job of establishing voices for all eight characters, no easily feat I'm sure. True, twice I had to check the name to make sure I was connecting the right mother and daughter, but each character is clearly their own person with their own experiences and struggles.
"And I want to tell her this: We are lost, she and I, unseen and not seeing, unheard and not hearing, unknown by others." {pg. 67}
Obviously, based on the back cover blurb, The Joy Luck Club is about mother-daughter relationships. But despite being completely rooted in Chinese culture, I could still understand what Tan was trying to explain through each of the mother's relationships with their respective daughters.
"But inside I am becoming ashamed. I am ashamed she is ashamed. Because she is my daughter and I am proud of her, and I am her mother but she I not proud of me." {pg. 255}
Still, some of women's stories bored me and a couple frustrated me with their "do as I say, not as I do" attitudes. I realize that this is a somewhat common philosophy among mothers {Err, not you, Mom}, but I couldn't help but to yell at these women for criticizing their own daughters as they chose their own courses, when some of them did the exact same thing in China."
"This is one of those modern classics I never got around to reading until now. I preferred it to "Saving Fish From Drowning" though they both have their touching, sad, and darkly comic moments. I expected the plot to focus more on the club's actual meetings, but each chapter represents a new story about either a mother or daughter member's experience, either many years ago in China, or in the recent past as a Chinese-American immigrant in San Francisco (interestingly, the other Chinese-American book I read recently, Ha Jin's "A Free Life," starts its story in 1989, the same year "Joy Luck Club" was written by Amy Tan; but the life histories depicted don't overlap because "Joy Luck Club" takes place much earlier). My only complaint was that I wanted more from each chapter -- each story was so rich and mesmerizing that I wanted to know what happened next, not jump to another person's story. Each vignette could have been expanded to an entire novel in its own right. I loved reading about the Chinese moms' myths, the cultural rifts between mothers and daughters, the assimilation or lack thereof...and the miscommunications were utterly heartbreaking. The writing is dreamy and stark at the same time. I really loved it."
"Well, I finally caved in to all those people who said, "you're asian, you should read amy tan." Ok...I bought the book and I have to admit that it's a wonderful surprise, warm and heart felt. And it helps that I've never seen the movie, I was just a kid when it came out, so I don't have a bias."
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