Rating: 
Summary: The most boring book I have ever read
Review: I read The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan because I read some of the reviews for it and it sounded like it was going to be a good book. However, I was very disappointed after I read it because I didn't think so at all. The book was dull, boring, and hard to follow. The main reason that it was hard to follow was because it was hard to keep all of the names straight and remember who was who, and who did what, or whose mother they were, there were too many characters. Another reason I didn't like it is because it skips around between eight different women. I would have found it more enjoyable if Tan could have found a way to incorporate all of the women's stories into one story. This book took me longer to read than any other book I've read in a long time. It is way too long for how boring it is. I had no desire to read this book. The only reason I finished it was because it was an assignment for my Modern Fiction class. I do not recommend reading The Joy Luck Club. Watch the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Joy is Luck Sometimes
Review: Family is one of the most important things in a persons life, and each of the ddaughter's of these four women found that out, and they may have found it out the hard way but they knew they were loved. They knew that the way they were brought up was tp protect them from the evils of their pasts, so their daughters wouldn't turn out like they did. I was moved by this brilliant and astounding story, I hope that when I have kids they know they are loved as muh as these daughters in the story knew!~Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and the movie...I was moved to tears, and I think that if you want a nice chick book to read this is it for you! Also if you like to cry sometimes~
Rating:
Summary: Hardships and Ways of Life
Review: I found Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club extremely easy to relate to because of the fact that mostly every story told by the women had to do with mother daughter relationships and hardships. Being a daughter myself, I understand how normal it is to be pushed into things because of tradition, as were the four daughters written about. Like your average American or Chinese family, the daughters fight their mothers every step of the way under the pretense of independence from overpowering father and father figures. However, this brings to the fact that the book is directed more towards the female audience possibly making it harder for a male to relate as easily and decreasing overall appreciation of the book. Because a male will, unfortunately, never know the relationship a mother can have with her daughter it is impossible for him to understand this book as I, or any other woman will. The appreciation is narrowed because it cuts the possible audience in half. Still, the incentive that the book is easy to follow is because of the extremely well rounded, developed and dynamic characters. These women that Tan has created are extremely well developed and extraordinarily believable. Her men characters of the book, however, are vapid, flat, and there merely as supporting characters. Every aspect that Amy Tan writes about is vastly easy to relate to that it draws in almost any type of audience, some more than others. The central idea of generations holding the same cultures and traditions throughout change is often brought about. Any family or family member will realize that change is hard to deal with, and will most of the time lead to a break in convention. Adding to this is the idea that each story builds up to the next to create a central idea Tan has set to achieve. The central idea, initially set by Tan, is accumulated by following the path drawn out by each narrator and each story. This can also support that she has very little "fluff", meaning 99% of the text has significance and helps tie together the stories. In contrast, there was no real resolution, meaning the stories didn't follow a pattern of rising action - climax - falling action, thus not giving the book a final resolution of an overall conflict. The Joy Luck Club had the same structure throughout, giving way for much repetition. The structure consisted of sixteen small pieces that were muchly outweighed by the final product. As said earlier, I believe an adult female reader will probably appreciate and benefit the most by reading this book, yet I would honestly recommend it to anyone who is interested in relating to other family tales and hardships.
Rating:
Summary: I'll give "The Joy Luck Club" 10 Stars !!
Review: The Joy Luck Club is one of my favorite books. They are like little stories but they connect to each other. There is the Jong family, the Woo family, the Hsu family and the St. Clair family. Each family is represented by the mother and the daughter because each member has their own story to tell. It's like the past and present in each story; the mother represents the past and the daughter represents the present. Even though the time is different with the mother and daughter, their stories are similar. In each chapter of the story, the mother and daughter of each family discovers more about themselves and about their daughters. This book is unbelievable, because each time I read it there seems to be more than it is. I think this is a live maze because you think you have solved it but you really don't. What this book has that most books don't is the on going mystery. The other books I read, their ending is wrapped up in a nice little package but this book has more to it. I wondered what would happen afterwards but it's really hard because these characters are like real life. I think this book is really fabulous and Amy Tan is a really great writer because of her writing and skills. Amy Tan is able to enter in some psychological complex and a little bit of everything else into her writing and that is really great. I love this book. I so recommend this book to all readers!!
Rating: 
Summary: Magical, memorable and mesmerizing
Review: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, although very perplexing at times, is one of the most gratifying and heartwarming books I have ever read. This book explores mother-daughter relationships of four Chinese families, as these women share their struggles and triumphs, their miseries and ecstasies and their regrets and hopes. This story begins in China where these four families, although diverse in class and stature, share the same fear of the indefinite outcome the war against the Japanese would bring upon their families. Trying desperately not to lose hope in America after escaping that war, Suyuan, along with the four other Chinese women, create the Joy Luck Club. Here, the daughters of these women learn of their mothers' painful pasts, as each women tells their story, which reflects great themes and morals. These themes vary from quitting to coping with men in arranged or tough marriages to gaining repect from elders. Along with Tan's mesmerizing themes, her juxtapositions and ironies between the stories told by each mother and daughter bring out the many conflicts and regrets each character lives through. For instance, all stories share one specific theme that can only be uncovered by the juxtapositions and ironies used in each story: mothers want their daughters to live happier and more successful lives than themselves, however, although the mothers try to do so, the daughters always wind up becoming more or less like them. Yet, what remains the same is that all mothers have good intentions towards their daughters. Similarly, Tan's addition of culture into her novel also helps the reader to experience how difficult it is to live by the "rules" and customs of their culture without losing the repects of their parents and loved ones. Many of the characters suffer from arranged marriages or disrespecting their parents and by custom, are banished from the family, yet they must learn to live with it. Equally, her writing techniques for each story can put the reader inside the shoes of that character making each story more memorable than the last. All these themes, juxtapositions, ironies and culture, along with her unique writing style come together and result in a very powerful book for all readers with open hearts to enjoy. However, this novel is quite lengthy and can also be very confusing if the reader does not keep track of the many characters involved in each of these stories. Any reader who is willing to take the time to read this novel will realize that it is worth it!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This book is absolutely wonderful! I read The Joy Luck Club in my English Honors class my junior year in high school. All throughout my school life, whenever I have had to read a book for school, I have never liked it. However, with The Joy Luck Club, I enjoyed the book from the very first page. I learned a lot from Amy Tan's book, including things like how Chinese mother/daughter relationships work and how much Chinese families place on honor and tradition. I suggest this book to anyone wishing to expand their cultural knowledge. All around, this book is absolutey great!
Rating:
Summary: A REALLY GREAT BOOK
Review: I read this book this month and i absolutely loved it! It was like such a good book, and i learned more about chinese culture, and the relationship between mothers and daughters. i now appreciate my mom more than ever!
Rating:
Summary: Joy Luck Club
Review: Amy Tan's JOY LUCK CLUB is a collection of vignettes from two generations of Chinese-American women, the mothers who have dealt with struggles during World War II in China and their daughters who deal with lingering ghosts from their childhood and their marriage problems of today. Open-mindedly showing the differences between a generation gap and strengthening the bond between mother and daughter, JOY LUCK CLUB is a magical book, it casts a spell and enchants you until the very last word.
Rating:
Summary: Enter Amy Tan!
Review: The Joy Luck Club is not really a novel, but a collection of 16 short stories told by four friends and their daughters. I've read this collection three times and I can never get tired of them! So real, so human, Tan's voice reaches out to your spirit. The love daughters have for their mothers, and the hatred, not hatred really just, I don't know, whatever it is that makes the mother-daughter relationship magical. This book will change your life if you let it. Read about Suyuan, An-Mei, Ying-Ying and Lindo, the lives, the spirits they left back in China, the spirits they try to impart to and exorcise from their daughters, the longing, the hope that all immigrants have that maybe where they're going is a better place, that maybe they can forget, but they can't; they must stand up and tell their story, shout it, let everyone know that they're human. We will get better, if we listen.
Rating:
Summary: A rarely seen perspective on two different generations
Review: I know this book is about mothers and daughters...But I had to read it for English this summer and I had my doubts. I am one of two brothers, and I still found this book amazing. It is not often that a book describes 8 different points of view so vividly and realistically. Finally, insight on what my parents are thinking when they tell me what I can and can't do. It dawned on me that parents feel pain too and that no matter how much I try to deny it, I am them, and they are me. I'd recommend this book (along with "A Cathcher in the Rye")for all you adolescents out there having trouble with the world around you.
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