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  • Amy Tan was born in America. She grew up in America. She writes in English.

    I was born in Malaysia. I grew up in Taiwan. Mandarin is my native tongue.

    So I the reason I got this book wasn't because I wanted to read about China or the Chinese people, but because I wanted to read about ... Continue

    Amy Tan was born in America. She grew up in America. She writes in English.

    I was born in Malaysia. I grew up in Taiwan. Mandarin is my native tongue.

    So I the reason I got this book wasn't because I wanted to read about China or the Chinese people, but because I wanted to read about Chinese people in America.

    To be fair, Amy Tan is brilliant for this part. But she instead chose to spend much more effort on the China portion of the story, something she doesn't have firsthand. And, alas, she failed as a consequence.

    

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• ― pthow said on Apr 8, 2007 about the School & Library Binding edition| Add your feedback

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  • It was just so good I read the book twice. The language she use to describe things were so beautiful and vivid, I now use the book as reference when i write my own essay.

    

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• ― Ringo Kam said on Oct 16, 2008 | Add your feedback

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  • Required reading?

  • I can't remember if this was required reading, or I was just curious after watching the movie- but I had heard so many great stories about both the book and the movie- I needed to be exposed to both!

    I'm so glad I did, and I can't wait to read more of Amy Tan's writing. She is great at weaving ... Continue

    I can't remember if this was required reading, or I was just curious after watching the movie- but I had heard so many great stories about both the book and the movie- I needed to be exposed to both!

    I'm so glad I did, and I can't wait to read more of Amy Tan's writing. She is great at weaving a story, through different generations and the women who share them. It was very insightful into another culture that I had minimal exposure to, as I'm not Asian, or Asian-American.

    

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• ― Running Fox said on Sep 29, 2008 | Add your feedback

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  • *** This comment contains spoilers! ***
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  • As a Chinese-American, I'm a little biased against books that attempt to describe the Chinese experience by Americans, of Chinese descent or otherwise. Even though some of the episodes were probably quite "authentic" - e.g., the man with the four wives and whose youngest wife swallowed opium, and t ... Continue

    As a Chinese-American, I'm a little biased against books that attempt to describe the Chinese experience by Americans, of Chinese descent or otherwise. Even though some of the episodes were probably quite "authentic" - e.g., the man with the four wives and whose youngest wife swallowed opium, and the stereotypical Chinese mother for whom nothing was ever good enough - I couldn't help but feel that Amy Tan chose the stories based on qualities that would appear exotic to a Western reader.

    Btw, I thought the movie was much worse than the book in this respect. Some of the dialogue that attempts to imitate the syntax and tone of Chinese speech made me cringe; it doesn't even sound like what a Chinese-born speaker of English would say. (Cantonese is my native language, so I think I can speak to this.)

    

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• ― Lucja said on Aug 20, 2008 | Add your feedback

"Brilliant....Each story is a fascinating vignette, and together they they weave the reader through a world where the Moon Lady can grant any wish, where a child, promised in marriage at two and delivered at 12, can, with cunning, free herself; where a rich man's concubine secures her daughter's future by killing herself, and where a woman can live on, knowing she has lost her entire life."
WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
A stunning literary achievement, THE JOY LUCK CLUB explores the tender and tenacious bond between four daughters and their mothers. The daughters know one side of their mothers, but they don't know about their earlier never-spoken of lives in China. The mothers want love and obedience from their daughters, but they don't know the gifts that the daughters keep to themselves. Heartwarming and bittersweet, this is a novel for mother, daughters, and those that love them.

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