The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

This book is about four Chinese mothers, born in the first decades of the 20th century, and their four daughters who were born in America shortly after World War II. The book opens with Jing-Mei Woo - who is now in her thirties - being invited by her father to join the 'Joy Luck Club' shortly after the death of her mother. This is a group of eight Chinese people which meets to play mah-jong, to raise money, and to gossip. Jing-Mei doesn't really want to join with these older people - her father, and three sets of honourary aunts and uncles, but does so for the sake of her mother's memory. After eating a meal, playing a game, and remembering some incidents ...  Read the complete review

At the moment, I have a passion for reading novels set in cultures different from my own. They provide me with such a different experience and perspective to think from that I find them addictive. This is why I picked up ?The Joy Luck Club? by Amy Tan for £1.00 in a charity shop (where else?). I was unaware that she wasn?t just a one-off author and has in fact written other novels, amongst them ?The Bone-setter?s Daughter.? This book, ?The Joy Luck Club? published in 1989 won The National Book Aware and L.A Times Book Award, also in 1989. The book begins by introducing us to Jing-Mei Woo and the Joy Luck Club. This is a club where a group of old friends go ...  Read the complete review

Amy Tan was born in California but her parents were Chinese immigrants. She started writing short stories in 1985 and drew on her Chinese background and the experiences her family had been through in China. The Joy Luck Club is a set of sixteen tales about four Chinese mothers and their Chinese - American daughters. Their stories interlock to give the book continuity. One or two stories were published in magazines but the complete volume quickly became a best seller when it was published in 1989. This book is often called a 'novel' but much of it is based on fact and actual incidents. The contrasting worlds of modern America and old China are ...  Read the complete review

Amy Tan is one of my favourite authors. She has a slightly different style of writing (cant explain it but there is something different about it) but it gets to me every single time I pick up one of her books. The Joy luck club is her first book and it is a great book. She follows the lives of 4 women and their daughters first the mothers then the daughters and how their life inter act with each other. All of the women being Chineese and "now" living in America. The Joy luck club makes you laugh, cry, angry and sad. It is a all in all BRILLIANT book and I would reccommend it VERY highly. (as I would all her other books) Only ...  Read the complete review