Term 4: Week 7 Summary of the book

[Nurr]

Write a short summary of the story. Only for those who received a book this week.

[Dyah]

The novel opens after the death of Suyuan Woo, an elderly Chinese woman and the founding member of the Joy Luck Club. Suyuan has died without fulfilling her "long-cherished wish": to be reunited with her twin daughters who were lost in China. Suyuan’s American-born daughter, Jing-mei (June) Woo, is asked to replace her mother at the Joy Luck Club’s meetings.

At the first meeting, Jing-mei learns that her long-lost half-sisters have been found alive and well in China. The other three elderly members of the Club – her mother’s best friends and Jing-mei’s "aunties" – give Jing-mei enough money to travel to China and meet her sisters. Essentially, Jing-mei has the opportunity to fulfill her mother’s greatest wish. Jing-mei’s aunties assign her the task of telling her twin sisters about the mother they never knew. The only problem is, Jing-mei feels like she never really knew her own mother.

This simple premise allows the book to cast a much wider net, as it raises the question of how well daughters know their mothers. The other three members of the Joy Luck Club – Ying-ying, Lindo, and An-mei – all have wisdom that they wish to impart to their independent, American daughters. However, their daughters – Lena, Waverly, and Rose – all have their own perspectives on life as Americans. This gives the book a total of eight perspectives and life stories to draw from. The novel is comprised of sixteen chapters, with each woman (with the exception of Suyuan) getting two chapters with which to tell her story.

At the end of the book, Jing-mei flies to China to meet her half sisters. She is extremely apprehensive about meeting them. When the sisters do meet for the first time, they instantly hug and cry. Jing-mei’s mother’s wish has been fulfilled, and through the process, Jing-mei feels that she has come closer to her mother

[Delicia]

The book that I chose to summarize is Freddie's war.

'Maybe we should go and fight, that's all,' said Freddie. 'I can just see you in the army, Freddie,' said one of the others. 'You'll have your hands in the air before the enemy's got his gun out.' They all laughed.

It is 1936, the world is probably going to war. Freddie, a working-class boy in England, reads the newspapers every day for the latest developments. One story is about foreign volunteers heading to Spain.

[Samantha]

The book i read was Tess of the d'Urbervilles. A pretty young girl has to leave home to make money for her family. She is clever and a good worker;but she is uneducated and does not know the cruel way of the world. So, when a rich young man says he love her, she is careful-but not careful enough. He is persuasive, and she is overwhelmed. It is not her fault, but the world says it is. Her young life is already stainedby men's desires and by death.