The Joy Luck Club: A Novel

Despite being categorized as a novel, this is definitely a short story collection with eight main characters that know each other but interact in a way that doesn't move one story forward. The stories are excellent so I don't mind the miscategorization too much. I'd be interested in rereading this in a different order though, just reading one family at a time because I get the families mixed up except that the chess stories link Waverly Jong and her ultimate "chess master" mom who strategized through her arranged marriage.

I'm not going to dissect this one. I barely even skimmed the reviews after seeing "sexism" and "feminism" splashing the page. Had I read this for a class, I may have thought differently - who's to say?

I thought this was really good.

I often think that I will regret knowing so little of my mom's childhood/young adulthood if she passes away without me finding out. For Jing-Mei/June, this is exactly what happens. And thus we learn of not only her mother's past, but all the mothers in the Joy Luck Club. We also get to know how the life was during childhood and how it is now in adulthood for the daughters of these women.

While there wasn't a big plot to speak of, I thought each mother's story was absolutely fascinating. These are childhoods I can't even fathom (from being filthy rich to being married off to being the daughter of a concubine). These pasts affected how they raised their own children, an interesting combination of wanting the new "American" life for them while wanting the respect of the Chinese culture to reside in them simultaneously.

Don't let the span of time it took me to finish this fool you; this was so good that I was unable to put it down once I actually had the time to sit down with it. I really read it in two sittings.

4-4.5 Stars

A very interesting look into the inner family circle of the Asian family, especially migrant families. The story is revolves around 4 Asian American women and their American born daughters who each tell their life story from each persons POV. So you'd expect to get major whiplash from the switching back and forth but somehow i think Amy Tan manages to actually make it work and keeps the stories intertwined and making sense. The main character would have to be 36 year old June Woo (Asian name is Jing Mei) whose mother Sung Mei has just died so in memory of her mum she takes her place in a weekly mahjong game club she played with 3 other migrant women called The Joy Luck Club. Each woman narrates the story of how and why she fled China in the 1940's while we also learn each daughters view of their relationship with their mother. In the end June realizes that she didn't really understand her mother and she journeys to China to meet twin sisters she never knew she had. Oh and I loved learning little bits of Asian trivia like that fortune cookie Proverbs aren't really Chinese at all!! Lol So a very cleverly written, witty but touching and unexpected story. No wonder the movie adaptation was called the Titanic of the Asian community.

Beautiful moving book. I love the pain and growth that encompasses family.

Before reading this book, I watched the film and loved it! This book explores the complex relationship between mothers and daughters as well as weaving in the cultural differences with the mothers being raised in Chinese and the daughters having grown up as Chinese American. The title of the book gets its' name from the mahjhong group that was formed by Suyuan Woo when she came to San Francisco after leaving China where she was an officers wife, who died and having to leave behind her twin daughters as she was fleeing China during WWII. Suyuan has passed away and now it is her daughter Jing-Mei (June) Woo who is taking her place with the remaining 3 other ladies who also left China during the war. In my mind I looked at the book in various sections - the back story around each mother, the view of each daughter as they mature to adults and then the relationship between the mothers and daughters. Suyan never stopped looking for her twin daughters and the tragedy is that she never gets to meet them due to her death and her daughter June gets to meet her sisters after the 3 other mothers push for her to go to China to meet them and take pride in her Oriental heritage. An-Mei Hsu' mother committed suicide in order to ensure that An-Mei was able to become free as her mother was a concubine to a cruel wealthy man Wu Tsing after he raped her and as his third wife was on the considered lower in the chain. An-Mei suffers tragedy when her child Bing dies by drowning when the family was at the beach. An-Mei's daughter Rose is very timid and only comes into her full potential when her husband Ted leaves her. Lindo Jong was promised in marriage as a child to another child Tyan-yu and at the age of 12 is married to him when her family's home is destroyed by flood. Lindo is treated terribly by her in-laws and she forms a fantastic plan to get out of her marriage by showing how the marriage was not approved and that the match makers lied. Lindo's daughter Waverly is a former child chess prodigy and Waverly feels that her mother's pride in her is just a way to show off for herself. Waverly's second marriage to Rich sets the stage for some humorous points in the book. The best one for me is where Lindo is saying that a meal she cooked is not good and Rich fills his plate and tells her all it needs is soya sauce. Waverly feels that her mother is her advisory but her mother is teaching her the art of invisible strength. Ying Ying St. Clair came from wealth and married a man who left her for an opera singer. Ying Ying has an abortion and has lost her spirit that she must find. Her daughter Lena has a very unique marriage in which her and her husband divide finances 50/50 even though her husband makes much more money then her. Lena is very resentful and finally she realizes that Harold was turning her into a ghost. She, like her mother, finds her spirit and sets herself free. We see the 4 strong mothers who endured horrible situations during their life in China contrasted with their own daughters have a much easier upbringing, though to the daughters is not that easy. The 4 daughters all learn about their heritage and how much their mothers loved them. We see internal communication straggles as the mothers speak Chinese but the daughters don't have the interest in speaking the language. Also in the book, the reader gets a glimpse into Chinese traditions such as the importance the expectations of children in a family as well as a brief look at the atrocious that the Chinese people endured by the Japanese during the war. There is a lot of symbolism in the book from Lindo buying 24K gold bracelet when she has extra money - Lindo realizes that she needs to be true to herself like true 24K gold to the Ying Ying's husband getting a promotion and moving the family to a higher apartment then where they were before but the area is windy and is a bad omen in the Chinese culture. For me, this book caused me to pause and realize that at times we speak but never listen to what the other person is saying. Also there are people that come into our lives that have lessons to teach us if only we listen with our rational side as opposed to our emotional side.