The Joy Luck Club in Words Between Worlds

Nov 12, 2018 E Jovetta Reads rated it liked it

I just was not able to get into this book and forced my way through it. Totally confused on most of the characters and who was who's mother. It just wasn't for me. Yet another unpopular opinion on a book so many people loved. ...more

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Nov 28, 2018 Charlotte rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories-read, asian-pacific-islands-authors-read, read-in-2018

“I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?”

I was expecting more of a straightforward storyline going into this book and not so many different perspectives and vignettes. However, the opening and ending chapter worked really well together and framed the rest of the book. I also did feel that I’ve learned something from each of those chapters and they not just showed the complexity of Chinese-American ...more

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May 23, 2017 Lois rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women, contemporary, family, dropcaps, 2017

I was somewhat skeptical of the rave I've heard so much from so many people about this book. Because honestly, white people talking Asian (in this case, Asian-American) literature is certainly different from Asians talking Asian literature. However, the book did meet my expectation and I was very, VERY happy to finally have read it. Especially the book did draw out some of my own emotions and thoughts I had in my relationship with my Mom and being a foreigner in America. That was cathartic and I I was somewhat skeptical of the rave I've heard so much from so many people about this book. Because honestly, white people talking Asian (in this case, Asian-American) literature is certainly different from Asians talking Asian literature. However, the book did meet my expectation and I was very, VERY happy to finally have read it. Especially the book did draw out some of my own emotions and thoughts I had in my relationship with my Mom and being a foreigner in America. That was cathartic and I really needed that.

While it's easy to think of mother-daughter relationships, family saga of immigrant families, and struggles of Chinese-Americans in the 80s as main topics and they are, but I really think communication is an overarching theme that recurs among the main topics of this book. How they struggle to communicate with one another, yet in the end, they all come to a deeper understanding and/or appreciation from at least one side, in all relationships found in the book, was powerful to me.

With every light comes a shadow, and this book does have some criticisms. One of the main criticisms, allegedly from China, I read on a Korean portal is that it looks down on Chinese men in order to prove a point. I was glad to read that before the book, but I don't know if that criticism is at all valid. (Well, yeah, how is China going to take a book on Chinese women and their hardships without ANY criticisms. Take the hint. BUT, it wasn't really a minor criticism coming from China actually.) All that to say, that criticisms does exist, and yes, some Chinese men were depicted less than desirably, but not out of proportion. To me anyway.

I was surprised to see this was set in the late 80s. From what I've gathered from other readers it sounded a lot more contemporary. I guess it beckons, reasonably, for timelessness, but I could see at places that some sentiments were dated. I wonder there are Asian immigrant literature that's set in 2000s or around that time. In any case, I recommend this book. ...more

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