The Joy Luck Club was formed of four Chinese women recently moved to San Francisco who meet to eat dim sum, play mah-jong and to share stories. Forty years on they and their daughters tell wise and witty tales of hope, loss, family and history. Spanning pre-Revolutionary China to 1980s San Francisco, the women talk as secrets are spilled, mothers boast and despair and daughters struggle with tangled truths.
The Joy Luck Club
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Review
"Pure enchantment" (Mail on Sunday)
"Honest, moving and beautifully courageous" (Alice Walker)
"In this deft and original debut, Amy Tan shows that she is both a consummate storyteller and writer whose prose manages to be emotionally charged without a trace of sentimentality" (Sunday Times)
"A brilliant first novel... Tan writes from the heart, cutting sharp edges with wit, wisdom and a gentle and delicate precision... The novel covers a remarkable spectrum and reveals the private secrets and ghosts that haunt, torment - and comfort. Completely compelling" (Time Out)
"That rare, mesmerizing novel that one always seeks but seldom finds...a pure joy to read" (Chicago Tribune)
"Honest, moving and beautifully courageous" (Alice Walker)
"In this deft and original debut, Amy Tan shows that she is both a consummate storyteller and writer whose prose manages to be emotionally charged without a trace of sentimentality" (Sunday Times)
"A brilliant first novel... Tan writes from the heart, cutting sharp edges with wit, wisdom and a gentle and delicate precision... The novel covers a remarkable spectrum and reveals the private secrets and ghosts that haunt, torment - and comfort. Completely compelling" (Time Out)
"That rare, mesmerizing novel that one always seeks but seldom finds...a pure joy to read" (Chicago Tribune)
Book Description
A stunning reissue of Amy Tan's bestselling classic novel of mothers and daughters.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By K. Alley
Format:Paperback
The Joy Luck Club follows the lives of a group of Chinese women and daughters living in modern day San Francisco. Not unlike "How to Make an American Quilt" (not sure which came first) the book examines the difficult maternal relationships using flashbacks to various parts of the mother's lives. It is only once you know someone's history that you can understand why a person behaves the way they do.
I love this book. Reading it was one of those rare joys that made me forget who and where I was as I read it. I even managed to read throughout the entire night before noticing that the sun had come up. I had forgotten to go to bed! Beautifully drawn characters, elaborate but not complicated plots, and hauntingly evocative of descriptions of life for women in early 20th century China. The Chinese aspect of the story dominates but women from all cultures will recognise the universal relationships between mothers and daughters. It has even given me a new appreciate for Chinese food! Don't wait for a rainy day - read it now. Sisterhood is global.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I have just finished this book, after reading it in one day. The story unfolds through the narrative tales of eight women; four Chinese women who left China for America, and their daughters, who struggle to come to terms with their Chinese American identity. The book is beautifully written, and the personalities of all eight women come through very strongly. The tales of the mothers' lives in China are sensitively combined with the perceptions of the daughters, making the book a moving and beautiful one. I do not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone, but if you enjoyed 'Wild Swans' I think you would especially enjoy this book.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Amy Tan continues to enchant her readers with wondrous but tragic tales of life, loves and disappointments. Having read two of her other works her style is familiar and her ability to tell a story placing layer upon layer of conflicting and often confusing emotions together yet do it with such deft ease and understanding is so enjoyable. There is so much of family relationships of high expectations and perhaps too easy resulting disappointments or at least the character's perception of them. Perhaps though she should try to write something a bit less cynical, less steeped in sorrow and hardship and something with more hope for the future rather than the all too familiar bitter-sweet ending. It does lay life bare in many ways though the hardships gone through in the past (mother's generation) may only have been typical of a certain time and place and the hardships of the present are really mostly of the daughter's own making i.e. they seem not to look for great love merelt something convenient and then end up discarding their modern marriages as easily as they came by them. It does, though, show the value of a strong set of beliefs and traditions by which to live as, although they may seem outdated to the modern generation as in the stories of the daughters who felt more settled with modern (cynical and mistrusting) America than with ancient Chinese customs, the value of believing in something becomes more and more apparent as the younger generation is seen to be part of the throwaway society assigning little value or effort to making things count which is strongly contrasted to the older generation of Chinese born mothers who know what they believe and try to teach their daughters the importance of faith and hope before it is too late.... Read more ›
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Alex Magpie
Format:Paperback
Focussing on a female dominated mother-daughter generation gap and a Chinese-American culture difference Tan mixes social and personality differences to create a broad and encompassing novel about change. TJLC shows, in its older generation, the huge amounts of reliance displaced individuals have on bonding with other alienated people and the human struggle surmounted to achieve happiness. The daughters in TJLC portray the difficulties sometimes endured being Chinese-American and seeming to be an outsider of each culture. So through these two different aspects of the novel Tan incorporates a “traditional” Chinese story at times in the vein of a less political Wild Swans and the cultural disparity of the modern world adds weight to the “emigrant” literature already established from writers such as Frank McCourt (Irish immigration to the USA) and Caryl Phillips (West Indian immigration to Britain).
Sometimes the tone of TJLC can be overly sentimental and meandering but in all Tan creates a moving tale of displacement, the need to belong and solidarity.
Sometimes the tone of TJLC can be overly sentimental and meandering but in all Tan creates a moving tale of displacement, the need to belong and solidarity.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Never having read a book about Chinese culture or family and having picked the book at random I was entranced and informed. The story is of the relationships between four Chinese women,now living in San Francisco, and their mothers and daughters. A great first novel.
Format:Paperback
On the surface this is the story of four mothers and their daughters in San Francisco but it is really a tale of twentieth century China and its legacy in the lives and culture of those who have left. The mothers' lives in China and the effect they have on their daughters infuses the whole tale so that although some of it is set in America the book is really about the Chinese cultural influence on women's lives.
The book is told in a series of chapters which offer glimpses into lives at a certain point. They are not really short stories as they don't all conclude or even contain a whole story - I think of them as glimpses into lives, as though we see just part of a whole which gives us the flavour of something greater. For this reason we don't always know what came before what we are told or even how it concluded but we then move on into another glimpse of another life. All the pieces should add together to give us an impression of China and its legacy to its emigrants.
In truth, I found the book frustrating. I like my narratives to have a beginning, a middle and an end and I would have liked to read a full novel about any of these short pieces. Bringing them together as a whole gave me an impression as the author intended but I would have been happier with more conventional storytelling. This is very much about a preference for a particular style of writing rather than me thinking that there was something wrong or bad about the way in which the book was written. In fact, it is a credit to the writer that the little she had to say about each episode was so engaging that I wanted the full story.
This book is written in a lyrical, flowing style. It offers an insight into the experience of the immigrant community in America and its effect on the next generation.... Read more ›
The book is told in a series of chapters which offer glimpses into lives at a certain point. They are not really short stories as they don't all conclude or even contain a whole story - I think of them as glimpses into lives, as though we see just part of a whole which gives us the flavour of something greater. For this reason we don't always know what came before what we are told or even how it concluded but we then move on into another glimpse of another life. All the pieces should add together to give us an impression of China and its legacy to its emigrants.
In truth, I found the book frustrating. I like my narratives to have a beginning, a middle and an end and I would have liked to read a full novel about any of these short pieces. Bringing them together as a whole gave me an impression as the author intended but I would have been happier with more conventional storytelling. This is very much about a preference for a particular style of writing rather than me thinking that there was something wrong or bad about the way in which the book was written. In fact, it is a credit to the writer that the little she had to say about each episode was so engaging that I wanted the full story.
This book is written in a lyrical, flowing style. It offers an insight into the experience of the immigrant community in America and its effect on the next generation.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Joy Luck Club a joy to read.
Enjoyable story with a slightly different tale depicting mother and daughter relationships as well as experiences of an emigre
Beautifully poetic writing and very readable.
Beautifully poetic writing and very readable.
Published 6 months ago by nancy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic story about the immigrant experience
In the 1940s, four women recently arrived in San Francisco from China start a joy luck club, a chance to get together over dim sum and mah jong and discuss their lives. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Sam
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read if a little confusing
I enjoyed the book but did lose track a bit of the relationship between the characters. A good insight into the relationships between mothers and daughters brought up in different... Read more
Published 11 months ago by ANNE1962
5.0 out of 5 stars
enjoyable book
This was an interesting, and moving account of several mother/daughter relationships with the usual conflicts added to by the Chinese/Amercan cultural influences. Read more
Published 16 months ago by scot-art
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Joy Luck Club
This book should be read by all westerners, the moms are truly scary. don't worry about the guys, this is a really good read, after this we will all love our westerner moms they... Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2010 by farmcat
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasantly surprised
My sister gave me this book and ordered me to read it. 10 pages in and I was cursing her for making me read another "Divine secrets of ...", but I kept reading. I'm glad I did. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2010 by liveenl
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Stories
First, I think one needs to be aware that the book tells the story of three sets of mothers and daughters as individual accounts in first person. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2010 by A Reader's Voice
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amy Tan's 'The Joy Luck Club'
Bought this book as a present for my sister because I know it's good and love the film too. No problems with delivery. Good value. Would recommend.
Published on 29 Nov 2009 by Julie RKV
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving, enlightening and a joy to read.
Addressing the differences between cultures and several generations, Amy Tan's novel is an enlightening, involving and thoroughly enjoyable work. Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2001 by laura_a_howe@yahoo.co.uk
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