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The Joy Luck Club (Hardcover)

by Amy Tan (Author)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (354 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Minerva (Jan 1 1997)
ISBN-10: 0749385308
ISBN-13: 978-0749385309

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (354 customer reviews)

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Product Description

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Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Intensely poetic, startlingly imaginative and moving, this remarkable book will speak to many women, mothers and grown daughters, about the persistent tensions and powerful bonds between generations and cultures. The narrative voice moves among seven characters. Jing-mei "June" Woo recounts her first session in a San Francisco mah-jong club founded by her recently dead, spiritually vital, mother. The three remaining club members and their daughters alternate with stories of their lives, tales that are stunning, funny and heartbreaking. The mothers, all born in China, tell about grueling hardship and misery, the tyranny of family pride and the fear of losing face. The daughters try to reconcile their personalities, shaped by American standards, with seemingly irrational maternal expectations. "My mother and I never understood each other; we translated each other's meanings. I talked to her in English, she answered back in Chinese," says one character. A crippling generation gap is the result: the mothers, superstitious, full of dread, always fearing bad luck, raise their daughters with hope that their lives will be better, but they also mourn the loss of a heritage their daughters cannot comprehend. Deceptively simple, yet inherently dramatic, each chapter can stand alone; yet personalities unfold and details build to deepen the impact and meaning of the whole. Thus, when infants abandoned in China in the first chapter turn up as adults in the last, their reunion with the one remaining family member is a poignant reminder of what is possible and what is not. On the order of Maxine Hong Kingston's work, but more accessible, its Oriental orientation an irresistible magnet, Tan's first novel is a major achievement. First serial to Atlantic, Ladies' Home Journal and San Francisco Focus; BOMC and QPBC featured alternates.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

354 Reviews

5 star:		(195)
4 star:		(105)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(31)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (354 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Right on the money, Feb 11 2005

By	J.Jones - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Joy Luck Club (Mass Market Paperback)

"Americanized" daughters living in California. The difference between their generations and cultures creates conflict between the mother and daughters. Each chapter in the novel is a separate narrative told by one of the eight main characters. This allows the reader to see all the conflicts from both sides and understand why there are conflicts. The title of the novel comes from one of the mothers, Suyaun. She started a club in China during the war to keep the women's minds off the war and preoccupied with something fun. She called it the "Joy Luck Club". All four women would gather together to play Mahjong and tell stories. The story mainly focuses on the character of Jing-mei. Her mother has just died and the three other mothers from "The Joy Luck Club" try to encourage Jing-mei to travel to China and tell her half sisters about their mother whom they never knew and her life. Since Jing-mei does not believe that she will be able to tell her mother's life story to her sisters, the other mothers become concerned. They wonder what their own daughters would be able to say of them and if they would do there lives justice. They then begin telling each other stories in hopes that Jing-mei will go to China. Finally Jing-mei decides to visit her two sisters and takes her father along for support and so that he can visit his relatives in China. The trip to China is filled with anxiety and deep wondering thoughts by Jing-mei. When they arrive in China Jing-mei's father's aunt and cousins greeted them. After staying with them for a day they take a train to find the two girls. Picturing them as young girls, Jing-mei is awe struck when she sees them for the first time and they are grown. All three of them act as if they have always known each other and feel a sense of completeness when they meet. The message in Amy Tan's novel to me is that no matter what the conflicts are that you are faced with in your family they still wish good things upon you even if they do not always show it. Her novel also allows the reader to see the "gaps" that are in there own families and how they can possibly deal with them by seeing both of sides of the conflict. I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to anyone looking for a "quick" but in-depth read. Even though it is somewhat long it moves along quickly and keeps the readers attention. It is a wonderful book for anyone with its historical and cultural events and mother/daughter conflicts similar to those today. The Joy Luck Club is an all around good book and made me realize even more just how important family can be and is. If you enjoyed books such as McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood," then you'll like the intricacies of "Joy."

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Joy Luck Club, Jun 22 2004

By	Kylie Oschin "ianthorpesbestfan" (Ontario, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joy Luck Club (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book in my sophomore year of high school when I was sixteen. I was truly amazed by the great word usage that Amy Tan was able to achieve. Being an asian-american myself, I found it very easy to relate to the four Chinese mothers and the four american daughters. But I do believe that regardless of race, color, or creed, anyone can enjoy this book and be able to appreciate the stylized story telling.

Another thing I love about this book is its format. There are four different lessons that are subdivided into four stories that are all narrated by either the American daughters or the Chinese Mothers. (If you look at the book, it's make more sense than I'm making right now.)

One of the main themes in the book is communication between generations. All the mothers really want for their daughters is for them not to lose "face" and remember where they came from. And all the daughters want is for their mothers to accept them for who they really are. This book shows how great a mother's wisdom can be even when a daughter doesn't want to hear it.

This is my favorite book of all time and I advise everyone to read it regardless of age. It's a classic and a good one for a reason. I'll end this with my favortie quotes from The Joy Luck Club: A girl is like a young tree, you must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind. And then you will be like a weed, growing wild in any direction running along the ground until someone pulls you out and throws you away."

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Joy Luck Club, Jun 8 2004

By	smartnurse123 (Slidell, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joy Luck Club (Mass Market Paperback)

Each of the four Chinese ladies at the Mahjong table has a story to tell. The Joy Luck Club tells the story in detail. Each arrived in America through different circumstances. Many faced poverty, arranged marriages and loss of children, family and possessions. They lived through hardships that they cannot forget. When they arrived in America, they learned to speak English and adapt to American ways although Chinese culture still dominated their lives. The Joy Luck Club is also about their daughters. The daughters are American-born Chinese and are totally different. They cannot understand their mothers and become frustrated easily by their ways.

The story is rich with detail and engages the reader in small captivating chapters. It is easy to cry as you imagine some of the pain that the mothers experienced in China. One can tell the huge generation gap among immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters more clearly after reading this book.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A soft and silent anguish that draws you in
An audiobook abridged on two tapes, I absolutely adored listening to this story, even though it spends a very long time in a darker place, with kind of silent anguish that seems... Read more

Published on Jun 3 2004 by Jonathan Burgoine

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar!
The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan was one of the most thought-provoking books I have ever read. The story is about four women who came from China to America and how their experiences... Read more

Published on Jun 2 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Adrian's Book Review of The Joy Luck Club
This is an amazing book, breaks all emotional boundries. After reading this book I have become an instant Amy Tan fan for life. Read more

Published on May 13 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars Unintelligent, Sentimental, Ugly
If you dislike those little sentimental poems found in gift cards, then don't read this book! Amy Tan has resorted to some very cheap tactics, no doubt unwittingly, brainwashed... Read more

Published on May 4 2004