The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, tells the stories of eight women, caught between the cultures of China and America: four Chinese immigrant mothers, Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying "Betty" St. Clair; and their four American-born daughters, Jing-mei "June" Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair.
The Joy Luck Club is formed by Suyuan Woo as a club for playing mah jong and feasting, with three friends, also Chinese immigrants, who she met at church in San Francisco. It is started in memory of a Joy Luck Club Suyuan was in Kweilin, before a Japanese invasion during World War II forced her to flee.
The book is divided into four sections with four chapters each, broadly narrating different aspects of the lives of the eight women.
The first section, Feathers from a Thousand Li Away, focuses on the pasts of the four mothers when they lived in China. Suyuan Woo, at the beginning of the novel, has just passed away, so her story is told by her daughter Jing-mei. Each of the mothers had a difficult past, which eventually convinced them to move to America.
The second section, Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, has the four daughters tell the stories of significant moments in their childhoods, while in the third, American Translation, they talk about their current lives as adults. The final section, Queen Mother of the Western Skies, again focuses on the mothers, after the moments they described in the first section.
The Joy Luck Club is unlike any other book I've ever read before. It captured my interest with the unusual structuring (the division is, according to Wikipedia, like that of a mah jong game), the fascinating vignettes of the eight women's lives, the glimpses into a culture I know almost nothing about, and the way it portrayed the conflict the women feel between the two cultures they live with. I'd never before read a book with seven points-of-view, and seven storylines woven together, yet was so clear.
I was deeply intrigued by the stories in the books- stories of a search for twin daughters abandoned for their safety; of an unfortunate concubine of a rich man, who sacrifices her life to protect her children; of women with dysfunctional relationships with their husbands; of a teenage girl successfully scheming to get out of an arranged marriage; of a living ghost of a woman who sees things before they happen; of a talented woman holding herself back in fear and annoyance of her mother; of a directionless woman who realises her mother's dream.
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in a conflict of cultures, multiple interwoven storylines, the surprisingly difficult pasts that haunt the present lives of eight women, or any combination of the above. It's totally worth reading.
The Joy Luck Club is formed by Suyuan Woo as a club for playing mah jong and feasting, with three friends, also Chinese immigrants, who she met at church in San Francisco. It is started in memory of a Joy Luck Club Suyuan was in Kweilin, before a Japanese invasion during World War II forced her to flee.
The book is divided into four sections with four chapters each, broadly narrating different aspects of the lives of the eight women.
The first section, Feathers from a Thousand Li Away, focuses on the pasts of the four mothers when they lived in China. Suyuan Woo, at the beginning of the novel, has just passed away, so her story is told by her daughter Jing-mei. Each of the mothers had a difficult past, which eventually convinced them to move to America.
The second section, Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, has the four daughters tell the stories of significant moments in their childhoods, while in the third, American Translation, they talk about their current lives as adults. The final section, Queen Mother of the Western Skies, again focuses on the mothers, after the moments they described in the first section.
The Joy Luck Club is unlike any other book I've ever read before. It captured my interest with the unusual structuring (the division is, according to Wikipedia, like that of a mah jong game), the fascinating vignettes of the eight women's lives, the glimpses into a culture I know almost nothing about, and the way it portrayed the conflict the women feel between the two cultures they live with. I'd never before read a book with seven points-of-view, and seven storylines woven together, yet was so clear.
I was deeply intrigued by the stories in the books- stories of a search for twin daughters abandoned for their safety; of an unfortunate concubine of a rich man, who sacrifices her life to protect her children; of women with dysfunctional relationships with their husbands; of a teenage girl successfully scheming to get out of an arranged marriage; of a living ghost of a woman who sees things before they happen; of a talented woman holding herself back in fear and annoyance of her mother; of a directionless woman who realises her mother's dream.
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in a conflict of cultures, multiple interwoven storylines, the surprisingly difficult pasts that haunt the present lives of eight women, or any combination of the above. It's totally worth reading.
