Tales Around The Mahjong Table (The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan)

Member Name: janharper

Product:	The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
Date:	13/10/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting read with lots of detail

Disadvantages: Too short

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 brought sharply into focus by the tales told around a mah-jong table and in the mother's memories and attempts to understand the modern world around her.

The ancient game of mah-jong plays a major part in holding the stories together. It is a social game which was banned in China in 1949 under the communist regime as it was considered gambling and therefore a capitalist pursuit.

We are left in doubt about the gambling as the session around the table unfold. The title of the book comes from the name of the mah-jong club that the four mothers form: 'The Joy Luck Club'.

Personally I thought this was a very cleverly put together group of stories which were given a common thread by way of the mah-jong table.

It is a very moving book at time but also has a tinge of humour in parts. There is a lot of sadness over what has passed but not so much that it makes it heavy reading.

The book itself is quite short at just 288 pages and I must admit that I would have liked to read more.

It was a bit difficult at times to remember who was speaking, or telling a tale but that may well have been down to lack of concentration on my part, rather than a fault in the structure of the book.

An enjoyable read and certainly something I would recommend to others. The fact that I wanted more says it all.

Summary: Good stories, linked together but I felt let down at the end, wanted more