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Summary: GO AWAY AMY TAN
Review: WE NEED FEWER BOOKS THAT CENTER AROUND SEXUAL AWAKENING IN CHINA!!!!
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Summary: This book is good but often drousy.
Review: I read this book and personally I thought it was pretty boring. They writing part of the book was well put together but the families never flowed from one to the other. It often through me off track. It is pretty hard to understand.
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Summary: Great Book, Must Read
Review: I thought it was fascinating the way this book shows what happened in people's lifetimes and then how that affects how they act. Seeing what happened to the mothers, and then how they treated their daughters because of that, and then how their daughters turned out was so interesting. If it's too confusing for you to follow the story switching back and forth, maybe you could read just one mother and daughter's set at a time. That's what I did the 4th time I read it!
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Summary: The Joy Luck Club is a great book!!
Review: The Joy Luck club by Amy Tan is truly a remarkable book. It is a novel that deals with the relationships between mothers and daghters. It also deals with the conflicts between Chinese and American cultures. A delight to read, this novel involves the reader as it progresses through the stories of these four mothers and four daughters. These characters deal with issues such as rape, divorice, failure, abandonment, and many more. Throughout this novel, by dealing with these issues, the daughters learn to understand their mothers' views on life. Our group of five all read and enjoyed this book. We highly recommend it to any reader interested in Chinese Culture and/or the relationship between mothers and daughters.
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Summary: It was the worst book I ever read!
Review: This book is so confusing. It goes back and forth way to much. She should of just kept talking about one of the characters instead of switching around and confusing people. I don't recomend this book to anyone who has to do a project over this writer. Pick any other author. The movie was even terrible.
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Summary: An exciting journey through the Chinese life.
Review: I enjoyed reading this story very much. Amy Tan put a lot of detail and emotion into this story, making me feel as if she had been in each of the women's lives. She gave vivid descriptions of situations, like when a mother, thinking she was dying, left her twins and jewelry on the side of the road. Amy Tan also knows how to manipulate your feelings, making me dislike a mother for parading her daughter around and showing her as if she was a trophy. This is a very well written book. Although I am not sure it shows true Chinese life, I was intrigued by how the stories intertwined and came to life. It is a great book I would recommend to anyone.
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Summary: Realism beutifully intertwined with folk-tale.
Review: As an american born asian woman, I personally identified with the struggles between the americanized daughters and their traditional asian mothers. Many reviewers complain that this book shows a stereotypical, old fashioned view of Chinese women (passive women, superstitions, etc...) Actually, the mother characters in this novel portray a very common mentality and personallity for that time period; a way of thinking that slightly seeps subconsciously into the minds of generations that follow, even in this modern day. The prominence of proverbs and folk-tales are exaggerated, but creates a beautiful atmosphere for which this story to take place. "The Joy Luck Club" is by far the best of the Amy Tan collection.
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Summary: Read it 5 times in a week
Review: To put it simply, you MUST read this book. I am a junior in HS, and even though I love to read, I don't recall ever feeling as tied to any other book as I do to this one. I am a second-generation immigrant, and even though I'm not Chinese (I'm Dominican), the cultural conflicts and misunderstandings that were described in this book really hit home. After reading it the first time, I was so flooded with feelings, roots, and meaning that I had to, well, read it again. I recommend this book to anyone who has an/or appreciates strong cultural bonds and background, or anyone in search of a honest and rather probing treat for the soul.
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Summary: Mothers and daughters understanding one another
Review: Amy Tan published The Joy Luck Club in 1988 and it remained a best-seller for seven months. The novel contains a mixture of fact and fiction. The book bases itself on a problem many mothers and daughters face today, lack of communication. The lack of communication sets the main theme of the book. The Joy Luck Club consist of four Asian women who fled to America in hopes to make a better life for themselves, their children, and their future children. In a rude awakening they come to realize that there daughters became so Americanized they forgot about their Chinese heritage causing the lack of communication. For example, Suyuann Woo came to America so her daughter JIng-mei Woo would not have to face the hardships that she had to. Suyuann neverdid learn the American language very well and Jing-Mei woo never did learn very much Chinese which literally caused them not to communicate. The lack of communication caused the daughter to be afraid of opening up to their mothers and the other way around. The lack of communcation also caused the daughters to be able to deal with their lives uneffectively. The author used sources from her personal life that she used to create the characters. Amy's parents moved to America in hopes to find a better life for their children. Her mother had hopes for her to become a neurosurgeon and a part tiem pianist. When Amy decided she wanted to write her and her mother did not speak for six months. When Amy's mother had a heart attack she mad a turning point in her life. She dicided to go to her home town China and reunite wiht her half sister. She used these events and created characters. Amy Tan uses many techniques in her writing. She uses a great deal of of symbolism and she intertwines fairy tales in to the novel. She uses phases such as "she died just like a rabbit." This means she died quickly. She also uses the classic fairy tale of the Ugly Duckling. The mothers describe their children as ducks and they bring them to America in hope they will become gooses. They become more than just gooses they become swans. In most cases this would be a good thing but this causes the lack of communication between the mothers and daughters. More is not always better. The novel is told between two points of view, the mother and the daughter. This allows the reader to read and understand both sides of the story and help them understand where the other person is coming from. This novel is easy to follow and readers will enjoy it. The novel shows excellent view points from both sides making the reader think as they read. The novel is very down to earth. THe stories are not exgarated and or far fectched and they are stories people can relate to. This novel entertains while informs. Everyone should have the oppurtunity in reading it,it may help them understand the mother-daughter relationship better.
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Summary: The best book I have read in my entire life
Review: I'm now a sophomore in high school but I read this Amy Tan book when I was in the 7th grade. The book The Joy Luck Club was the first thing I ever read that had touched me straight to the heart. The stories are influential and touching and the writing is superb. The whole book has inspired me to be kinder to my own mother and to share in her memories of the past. The book illistrates mother daughter relationships as the best thing on this earth. Tan also gives an excellent picture of China in both past and present. The Joy Luck Club inspired me to go and buy all of Amy Tan's other books(The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses),all of which are equally as beautiful.
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