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Summary: The Joy Luck Club
Review: The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is no doubt, one of the most enchanting American-Chinese books I have ever read. It was written based on some of the old Chinese history and traditions, traveling through a time line from the early 1900s to the 1990s. It tells the story of four mothers and their daughters. Each story describes the lives of the mothers and how their histories made impacts on their daughters. Every one of them is different, some are heart wrenching, bringing me to the verge of tears, some of them are more optimistic, and definitely inspirational. Amy Tan clearly portrayed differences in the mothers and their daughters in their opinions and perceptions of the things, drawing a well-defined line between the old traditional Chinese beliefs and the modern first generation American concepts. Yet, amidst these differences, little similarities were slowly revealed. She made use of certain events to draw the parallels in the mother-daughter relationships, and little symbolic metaphors that sum up each story. Little things that hide behind the big events slowly uncover themselves each time I read this book. Although this is an American Chinese book, it would definitely still be interesting for other races to find out more about the Chinese culture and to understand its traditions better. This is indeed Asian-American literature at its best and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone. -
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Summary: Mrs. Dumke read this
Review: This book was incredible. From the moment I picked it up I couldn't put it down. I had to find out what happened to the various people next. Mrs. Dumke, if you ask me to say their names, I'm just informing you, it's not going to happen. There is no way I could pronounce those names correctly. Anyway, for all of you out there that haven't read this book and are considering it, read it. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and there aren't many that I truly love.
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Summary: Tour de Fours?!
Review: Forget the whole mother-daughter angle, forget the Asian (Chinese) slash American angle, forget the Amy Tan-is-a-Maxine-Hong-Kingston-clone angle, the number four works well in Tan's debut novel. What makes this novel rereadable is the novel's framework, divisions and structure, not to mention those moments that are poignant to the point of being dangerously melodramatic. It's unfortunate that twelve years after this novel and Tan still can't break free from the formula she set in The Joy Luck Club. All the other novels are diluted versions of this one.
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Summary: Great read but needs someone on which to focus
Review: Tan does a marvelous job of contrasting the Americanized Chinese life with the "classical" Chinese life by having sets of mothers and daughters. Also, the structure of the novel works well in that each part is in a similar time-frame and deals with a similar relationship problem but views it from each family. However, what I found annoying is that no character emerges as a strong, unifying force to which the reader can relate. This ends up causing one to feel like there are a great number of vaguely-understood characters rather than one or two well-known and memorable characters with a supporting cast. Perhaps that was Tan's intent--to have central ideas illustrated by numerous characters. But I'm not into novels of ideals so that would be lost on me. In summary, a good read and I look forward to exploring her more recent works. Just not on my "best ever" list.
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Summary: Four Women and their daughters
Review: In the Joy Luck Club I have learned that the bond between mother and daughter is greater in some countries than in others. These women and their daughters have all experienced hard times but have pushed through them together and learned from them. The mothers are all immigrants from China that came over for different reasons. Some for money, some for family, and some just to escape the Chinese way of life. They went through tough times to get to America like giving up twin babies or making up lies about ancestors to escape an arranged marriage. These mothers were so strong and wanted nothing more than to teach their daughters to be strong as well. The daughters are AMERICAN GIRLS or so they say. They were raised in an American culture and learned the American ways. Some even went against their parents wishes and dated and married white boys, which was a bad thing to do. I really ewnjoyed the book. At first it was hard to read but once I got started I couldn't stop. My favorite character was Waverly Jong, the headstrong daughter who escapes her mothers world of chess meant for her daughter to become successful and eventually one day going to China to find her two twin sisters that her mother had to leave in China. When her mother died and Waverly had to take her mom'm place at the Jpy Luck Club she went to China with the goose feather to share her joy with her other daughters. Waverly also delivered my favorite line when she got to China. She was choked up and said, " Mama has gone to heaven, but I have come to share her joy!" and the daughters meet for the first time and hug each other. It weas really touching. All in all the book was very good and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to read a story that touches your heart.
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Summary: Women's Own
Review: The book has been reviewed so many times over that I'm pretty sure this'll be buried somewhere in the 500th page. But I had to write this... The Joy Luck Club is yet another example of the vibrant immigrant literature that has thrived in the melting pot called the United States. It's a remarkable book, not only for its manner of narration or its subject matter, but because every woman who reads it will be able to identify with at least a section of it, no matter which part of the world she belongs to. This should not, however, relegate this gem of a book to that much-reviled 'feminist literature' section; it's that and much more. However, it'd require a man of special sensitivity/maturity to enjoy this book as a woman would. Tan is a remarkable story-teller and she tells a remarkable story. She describes the wiles and the strength of two generations of Chinese-American women with a fascinating detachment -- and because she doesn't judge her characters, the reader is free to make what she wants of the protagonists. I picked up The Joy Luck Club because The Bonesetter's Daughter, which I wanted, wasn't available. And thank god for that -- otherwise I wouldn't know what I'd been missing.
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Summary: Review for Spanish class
Review: For our Spanish class we got an assignment to read a book about another culture. So I went to the library and I picked up "The Joy Luck Club" because I thought it would be interesting to read. Well I was right. "The Joy Luck Club" is about a group of four women, their four daughters, and their families. The four women where brought together at a table where they play mahjong, eat dim sum, and talk. Each chapter of the book tells of one of their life stories. Each woman went through hard times that not many people can cope with. Events happened to these women that nobody would expect, from killing them selves for their daughters sake, to leaving behind your two baby daughters on the road side so their mother could save them from her sickness. All Chinese women were supposed to be quiet and obedient all the time and not have their own opinions. Just do what they were told to do. When they were young they were forced into things they didn't want to do or have, like arranged marriage or playing the piano. It was not like that because they were women but because they were Chinese women and that's how they were expected to act. This book was great even though it was a little slow and hard to understand in places, it was excellent and I encourage you to read it.
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Summary: Joy Luck Club
Review: Overall I think this was a good book. This book is a collection of short stories arranged into chapters with individual themes. The stories are all different but they all relate to each other, which keeps the book interesting. The book is divided into four parts; each part has four chapters, one chapter per part from either the mothers or daughters. They all have various perspectives on life, which they express in their chapter. It had great ideas and showed Chinese and American culture very well. However, the wording could have been better by making it less complex. All four mothers' stories blended together because of their daughters' age and common background, this was shown in a simple way. This made it easier to understand their relationships and stories. The contrast between Chinese suffering and strength and American ease and unhappiness was vividly illustrated in this book. Almost anyone can relate to this book but not everyone can understand it, so I recommend that you should read this book but you should wait until you can understand it. You will get a lot more out of this book that way.
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Summary: "Joy Luck Club"
Review: i thought the "Joy Luck Club" was a very good book. i really didn't think there was anything bad about the book at all.
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Summary: Amy Tan's best...
Review: This is a story of 4 Chinese women who had immegrated to San Francisco. Each has a daughter whome she hopes to raise as a perfect American, while holding on to what they see as valuable Chinese values. Their daughters, in turn, have to dela with their mothers' demand, which sometimes seem totally foreign to the American environment they're growing in. Both mothers and daughter seem to be trapped between the Chinese and American cultures, and many of their dilemas deal with the need to find a compromise between the two almsot opposite cultures. This cultural strain is just another burden in the already heavy burden of mother daughter relationships. Both mothers and daughters try to talk, or show their love by trying to help the other out, but both actions and words are misiterrepted by the other as something negative. One of the strongest points of this book is that all 4 pairs of mother / daughter know each other, and this gives the reader a few points of view of each relationship, and how the older women treat the younger generation, and visa versa.
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