The Joy Luck Club

by Amy Tan, Clare West

The Joy Luck Club

book data

20204 ratings, 3.90 average rating, 1118 reviews (more data...)

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published

January 1st 2002 (first published 1989) by Cornelsen & Oxford University Press

binding

Paperback

isbn

3464115755 (isbn13: 9783464115756)

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All ratings | 5 stars (5244) | 4 stars (8745) | 3 stars (5006) | 2 stars (1024) | 1 star (274) | avg 3.90

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Joe

Joe rated it:

(review of isbn 0804106304)

05/22/07

Read in April, 2000

recommends it for: Best Quality people

Ok, I admit it, I was obsessed with Amy Tan my first year of college. I learned all there was about her, read The Joy Luck Club, and finally I gave up hope.
As a freshmen, at Linfield College, I was astonished that Amy Tan could have possibly walked the same hallowed halls of Melrose, perhaps sat in the same offices in the English department, or read a book in Northrup's astro-turf room.
My daydreams were filled with her coming over to my dorm room to have tea and "talk literatur...more

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Rebecca

Rebecca rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

04/19/07

After I read The Joy Luck Club (summer required reading before sophomore English in high school), I started pestering my mom about her abandoned children in mainland China. I also declared that I would name my two kids after the aforementioned abandoned children: Spring Flower and Spring Rain.

My mom laughed in my face about the latter, saying no self-respecting Chinese would give their kids such pedestrian names, and would be mock-pissed about the former.

The truth is that The Joy Luck Cl...more

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Aileen

Aileen rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

11/04/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: anyone

The book started off with Jing-Mei Woo, who was asked to sit in as one of the four players in the Joy Luck Club. She was to replace her mother who had recently passed away. The Joy Luck Club consists of four women who played a common Chinese game, and base on what I have seen it is usually used for gambling. The Joy Luck Club is what develops the plot because it is where we get the stories of each of the women in it.

This book is separated into four sections. In all of these sections there ...more
The book started off with Jing-Mei Woo, who was asked to sit in as one of the four players in the Joy Luck Club. She was to replace her mother who had recently passed away. The Joy Luck Club consists of four women who played a common Chinese game, and base on what I have seen it is usually used for gambling. The Joy Luck Club is what develops the plot because it is where we get the stories of each of the women in it.

This book is separated into four sections. In all of these sections there would be a chapter where Jing-Mei Woo talks about her relationship with her mother. Each chapter in the first and last sections was about the three other women in the Joy Luck Club. It was written in their point of view. In these chapters they would talk about their past and their relationships with their mothers. Then they would talk about their relationships with their daughters. The next two sections were about the daughters of the three other women in the Joy Luck Club and they were written in their point of view. These chapters would be about their life and then about their relationship with their mothers. This is a weird way to write a book but it makes sense to write it that way so that we can hear the voices of each of these characters and their mother-daughter issues.

Throughout the book she would also include the pronunciation of Chinese words: “Yiding” meaning must. This was pretty interesting to me because as a Chinese person I did not understand more than half of it. The author also kept me reading probably because I personally am interested in these stories. A part of the book was about the history of China and people’s experiences back then. Jing-Mei Woo’s mother was force to give up her two children when the Japanese attacked China. She was walking to escape the Japanese with a lot of her belongings and her two children. First she was force to leave her belonging and then the food and then the children. Back then in China, the parents usually get to decide whom their child gets marry to and sometimes they decide even before the child was born. They would do this for the family’s benefit. Lindo Jong was sentenced to marry a boy she didn’t meet until she was about eight or nine. This is similar to most ancient Chinese movies I have seen, the women would then be married to the man, and then she would find a way to get the man to leave her. These stories interest me and it reminds me of those times when my mom would tell me about her stories.

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Jaclyn

Jaclyn rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

08/16/08

Read in August, 2008

Mothers and daughters. Mothers and daughters and families losing and finding each other across cultural boundaries. There's enough material there for Amy Tan to write a thousand books.

Suyuan Woo has died and left an empty place at the mah-jongg table. Her daughter, Jing-Mei "June" Woo is invited to join the game, which her mother named the Joy Luck Club. There must always be four men and four women in the club, and Jing-Mei's father has chosen her to take his wife's place. Thr...more Mothers and daughters. Mothers and daughters and families losing and finding each other across cultural boundaries. There's enough material there for Amy Tan to write a thousand books.

Suyuan Woo has died and left an empty place at the mah-jongg table. Her daughter, Jing-Mei "June" Woo is invited to join the game, which her mother named the Joy Luck Club. There must always be four men and four women in the club, and Jing-Mei's father has chosen her to take his wife's place. Through her mother's friends An-Mei, Lindo and Ying-Ying, Jing-Mei comes to learn about her mother's life story and secrets she never told. Jing-Mei's journey of discovery weaves in and out of the story of the other three women and their daughters, An-Mei and Rose, Lindo and Waverly, Ying-Ying and Lena. The three "aunties" who sit at the other corners of the mah-jongg table bemoan the breakdown in communication with their American-raised daughters, who seem to have all misplaced their Chinese identity. Lena and Rose are lost souls in disintegrating marriages. Waverly does seem to want to reclaim some of her Chinese culture, but can't get over old anger and misunderstandings. Only Jing-mei is ultimately able to transcend the generational and cultural gap between the mothers and daughters. She sheds her American name, June, and becomes Jing-Mei at the beginning of the book when she is first invited to take her mother's place in the Joy Luck Club. She is something of an ambassador between the younger American-born generation and her mother's friends. Still, she is unable to understand the message An-Mei, Lindo and Ying-Ying are trying to communicate to her, until she finally asks her father to tell her about her mother. When Jing-Mei's father tells her what her Chinese name means, she finally grasps her mother's history and legacy.

"The Joy Luck Club" is a beautifully written book, but it's more than that. I was swept up in the language at times, but I never lost sight of the underlying story - four women struggling to leave their reluctant daughters their "life's importance." Although it's a story that focuses heavily on the influence of Chinese culture on mother-daughter relationships, any woman can relate to its lovely and powerful message....less

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Jeffrey

Jeffrey rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

11/01/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: Anyone

I thought that this book was really good. The way that it had shown the stories of the moms and daughters made me want to read more. This book kind of reminds me of Maxine Hong Kingston's "Woman Warrior" because of the chapters splitting into different point of views. The different stories of the 2 generations kept me interested. The beginning stories of Jing-Mei's Mother and herself were most appealing to me because it has the quote that stuck out to me the most out of the whole b...more

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May

May added it (review of isbn 0143038095)

04/03/08

Read in March, 2008

The Joy Luck Club is a tremendously well written book filled with passion, emotion, and love that arises from family interactions. This book is written in the form of eight vignettes, four from four different women (the mothers) and four from their daughters. This book concentrates on four Chinese American immigrant families that start this "club" for playing the traditional game of Mahjong. The story begins with June Woo who had just lost her mother to an aneurysm. She was chosen ...more The Joy Luck Club is a tremendously well written book filled with passion, emotion, and love that arises from family interactions. This book is written in the form of eight vignettes, four from four different women (the mothers) and four from their daughters. This book concentrates on four Chinese American immigrant families that start this "club" for playing the traditional game of Mahjong. The story begins with June Woo who had just lost her mother to an aneurysm. She was chosen to replace her mothers seat in the club with the four other mothers. She always had a rocky and foreign relationship with her mother and through this club and her interactions with her mother's close friends, she unfolds the story that her mother had never had the opportunity to tell. Also, all the different narratives show the relationship between that of a mother and a daughter of the rest of the Joy Luck Club members. With these narratives unfold personal emotions and feelings that they have withheld from one another and gives all readers a inside depth understanding of the mindset of a parent and a child and sees the position of thought in both.

There were many themes throughout this book that I found to be interesting and personally touching. First of all, when I had first read the narratives of the mothers, I realized the difficulties of assimilation and adaptation to the "American Life". I had several flashbacks to what my childhood was like and what my parents had endured while immigrating the United States. Additionally, me being a first generation child in the US gave me an understanding of the daughters in Amy Tan's (the author) book. The daughters experienced a totally different life than their mothers and thus the drifting in connection between them begin to increase. But through June Woo and her listening to the women's stories about her mother and about themselves, she received an understanding of not only her mother, but of her own self and her identity.

I found this book to be an easy read and of importance to all those with immigrant families or had faced similar experiences because it is, in my perspective, one of the best written books surrounding the theme of cultural boundaries and immigration. ...less

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Betsy

Betsy rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

07/15/08

Well, I finally caved in to all those people who said, "you're asian, you should read amy tan." Ok...I bought the book and I have to admit that it's a wonderful surprise, warm and heart felt. And it helps that I've never seen the movie, I was just a kid when it came out, so I don't have a bias.

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2 comments

Kristin

Kristin rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

03/29/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Kristin by: Rikki

I truly enjoyed Amy Tan's style of writing (this is the first book of hers that I've read). She has a way of saying things that evokes so much emotion and I truly admire that about her as a storyteller. I especially love how in blending the story of the Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters that she makes you feel as if you are a part of these women's lives and their culture and she draws you into their circle and into their individual psyches. I really understood and identified w...more

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Beth

Beth rated it:

(review of isbn 0833552929)

02/19/08

Read in February, 2007

I took an Asian History class in college and loved it. The Chinese culture has a way of drawing you in. Or maybe it wasn’t really Chinese culture; I wouldn’t know — maybe I can only see my American perception of Chinese culture.

Whatever it was — culture or only a facsimile of it — reading The Joy Luck Club drew me in almost instantly. The book is written with prose and descriptions fitting of the characters — beautiful and lyrical but with hidden sorrows and bitterness. The plot ...more

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Ngoc

Ngoc rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

08/17/07

bookshelves: favorites, fiction

Read in January, 1998

I love this book! As a first generation child in this country (my parents immigrated from Vietnam), I could really relate to the girls in the story. I was the girl who played piano, always being forced to practice. Although I loved music and was a talented pianist, I quit because I couldn't deal with the pressure anymore. It wasn't for my enjoyment, it was to please my parents (or at least that's what it seemed like). I think we all have ways of dealing with the pressures of childhood.
...more

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Sammy

Sammy rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

06/12/07

bookshelves: the-good

Read in April, 2007

My mom really wanted me to read this book, mainly because of it's emphasis on the classic mother-daughter relationship. But I saw it more as a reflection on the mother's life before her child and how it sort of affected how she raised her daughter later on. I never really saw the daughter (with the exception of June) learn about their mother and hold a new understanding of her. The most the other girls caught was a sort of toleration of their mother.

Amy Tan is one of those writers who draws ...more

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Debbie

Debbie rated it:

(review of isbn 0399134204)

05/03/08

bookshelves: 2004, general-fiction

Read in April, 2004

I watched the movie before I read the book, which made for an interesting reading experience. I cried my way through the movie but only started crying during the last few pages of the book. The story has been criticized as being untrue to the experience of growing up Chinese American. As one myself, I can see where she changed things to further a point in the story or to create a deeper emotional feeling. However, I can sympathize with the four women who recount their experiences growing up an A...more

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Katie

Katie rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

11/06/07

I love, loved, and will always love this book. Amy Tan makes pages fly and words come alive in this book, I never wanted it to end. This fiction book based on reality, makes you believe anything and everything inside of it. I can picture now Waverly Jong pitching a hissy fit in the middle of the Chinese grocery store telling her mother she does not want her to brag about her chess anymore. Not only do I have a picture perfect image of the event, I can also feel her mother’s sadness, taken ...more

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Rachel

Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

09/28/07

Read in October, 2007

I've caught bits & pieces of this book from over the years and finally sat down to read it all. I'm not sure what it is about Tan that captivates me. Her storytelling comes so naturally, captivating readers from the beginning; she creates a special intimacy with the reader through a vulnerability. Reading her novel is like having a cup of coffee and one of those deeply personal conversations with a close friend: you get a chance to speak your heart's thoughts, voicing and making tangible ...more

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sarah

sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

05/14/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in May, 1998

recommends it for: jetsam

I'm including Amy Tan in my collection because she's like the Shylock of Chinese female living up the lime light. No... better: She is to literary skill in an Asian American woman's voice what Dashboard Confessional is to rock talent. Bane. And a bad name.

Poserific, putrific, self-gratifying prose. The single greatest stunt a solitary Asian entity has ever accomplished was when she convinced the white world that the parody of our culture should be promulgated as a compensatory truth.

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Lena

Lena rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

04/15/08

This is my mother & I. The moments in which neither understands each other; the constant battle understanding and accepting the culture in which I was born to and the culture in which I was immersed in after birth; the fear that someday I will have lived my life and find that I failed to understand my mother or what learn the lessons she tries so hard to convey to me; and the typical Chinese mother-daughter... does my mom know how much I love and admire her?

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Xing

Xing rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

11/06/08

I really like this book, i think this ios a great book. This book is about four chinese immigrates. Four different family had their own reasin to come to U.S.A. But there were one common thinngs about them. They all problem with their America born Chinese kids. They had different culture and the way that they deal with problem.

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Cailean

Cailean rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

01/25/08

bookshelves: have-read

Read in January, 1999

Amy Tan's writing style is so enjoyable to read. She really paints a colorful world where you get to know the characters and feel enveloped in the culture. A great first book to read if you're interested in her other books - easily the most popular. I give it 4 stars because there is a little bit of swearing.

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Drea

Drea rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038095)

07/18/08

Read in January, 2004

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I've never been exposed to Asian culture - besides stereotypical crap...this was a beautiful book about women's relationships that made me nod my head over and over again. The movie was lovely as well.

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Leslie

Leslie rated it:

(review of isbn 0072435097)

04/27/08

I remember liking it, but not much about the content. I do remember mothers and daughters with intergenerational friction and immigrant/first generation friction.

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