Tuesday, January 17, 2017

The Joy Luck Club

Author: Amy Tan
Title: The Joy Luck Club
Publication Year: 1989

Summary

The Joy Luck Club was published in 1989 and prides itself as being a New York Times Best Seller. It has multiple main characters all of whom know each other. The book begins with Jing-Mei Woo's narration. In the first chapter, Jing-Mei takes her recently, deceased mother's place at the Joy Luck Club and listens to the life stories of various club members. She also remembers when her mother tells her about her first marriage and her life in China. Jing-Mei learns that she has two sisters in China who her mother tried to find for decades. The Joy Luck Club has eight main characters and who narrate parts of the story. At the end of the novel Jing-Mei goes to China to see her sisters for the first time.

Worth a Read?

Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club was okay. I just hope that Tan's other novels were better though. The positive elements include the story's insight into the differing experiences of the mothers who narrated the book and the daughters who narrated. The wants of the two generations clashed from time to time in a way that many families can relate to. For some reason, the book did not fascinate me as well as it should have and it was tough to get through many of the parts. The good parts of the book drew me in, but unfortunately the book had too many characters. It was tough to keep up with all eight of them. Worse yet, every time I became attached to a scene, the character would change. I didn't feel as attached to the characters as a should have been. What do you guys think? Leave a comment below if you wish.

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