• .

  • *** This comment contains spoilers! ***
  • 

  • 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.)

    

    Is this helpful?

• ― Lucja said on Aug 20, 2008 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

• 1 of 2 people find this helpful

  • 

  • 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.

    

    Is this helpful?

• ― pthow said on Apr 8, 2007 | 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.

Groups with this in collection

Malaysian Bookworms (36)

50 Book Challenge! (298)

• Books I Want to ReadChinaMy favoritesBooks I Couldn't Put DownNovelsfictionnovel2 Literature/NovelsModern Fiction說個故事吧-外文
• See all (11)