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Summary: One Of My Most Favorite Books
Review: This is one of the most beautiful and remarkable novels that I have ever read. Almost anyone can somehow their own family relationships to those depicted in this novel. Whether it be the ungrateful child, the overbearing mother, or the feuding friends, some part of each of these characters are in each and every one of us.There is just so much about this book that is amazing that it is difficult to cover everything in one sitting. One of my favorite chapters, "Best Quality" is rich with emotion and symbolism which even now stand out distinctly in my mind. Sit down in a comfy chair and plan on reading this beautiful story all night.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely amazing novel
Review: I felt that the main theme of the Joy Luck Club had little to do with "Americans don't understand Asian Americans and the chinese culture" and was really about the experience of being an immigrant and the struggle to balance both parts of who you are.
Having grown up in a family with two immigrant parents from two different both non-asian countries, I still felt as though I could really relate to this book.
The novel holds immense literary value and I have fallen in love with every single one of Tan's novel's thusfar!
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Summary: Mothers and Daughters
Review: What man among us has not at one point or another said that they did not understand a woman? What home grown American can honestly say they know what it is like to be an immigrant? How many of us know what real tragedy is? In fact, most of us live in comfortable circumstances. We live in warm homes, in well fed families. Sure, we all have inter-family tension, but few of us can imagine what is like to be a woman who has come from another, very foreign, country. We would have a hard time imagining what hopes she would try to bring to her offspring, and how she would live her own life. In fact, even if we did meet someone with these experiences, or read their memoirs, we would have a hard time relating to their often one-dimensional story. Here, Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, succeeded by not only putting us in the position of a single person with these amazing experiences, we have a multitude of points of views from many different women.
These women who immigrated from China, Suyan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Yin-ying St. Clair, all have unique stories to tell. Not only this, but we also get to hear from their daughters. This presents an excellent means of having us relate to the Chinese ways of thinking. As the daughters think as Americans, but are brought up in a Chinese environment and therefore can relate the situations to us and have them make sense.
Situations that would otherwise seem so foreign to us are made clear with commentary from the daughters. One of the clearest examples is with Rose Hsu Jordan. Her mother, An-mei Hsu, tried to bring her up in the American way, strong and free willed. While An-mei is thinking of her daughter, "I was raised in the Chinese way: I was taught to desire nothing, swallow other people's misery, to east my own bitterness." Jordan is thinking, "There were too many choices." In the end, she married and lost herself to her husband Ted who is a Caucasian. Being what Ted's American set of values were, he then rejected her after years of marriage. This shows us the intricate relationship between a mother and her daughter, the cultural differences between the American norm and the Chinese norm, and the conflict that can arise from there. This is a situation most men would never understand to begin with, and Tan eloquently describes, almost as an extension of her own experiences.
Another situation where we are given a woman's insight into her relationship with her mother is with Jing-Mei Woo and her mother. Jing-Mei's mother was of the opinion that you could be anything you wanted to be if you tried hard enough. When Jing-mei was very young, she learned to resent all the pressure placed on her by her mother. She got to the point where she became sp paranoid of success by trying, that she learned to fail in everything in life from college to love. She felt everything her mother did was to make her miserable because she could not meet her mother's expectations, not to mention Suyuan Woo's expectations being raised because of the success of one of the other daughters of a Joy Luck club member named Waverley who was a chess prodigy. In reality, all her mother wanted was the best for her daughter. Suyuan just did not know the right way to communicate this when she was young and forever scared her daughter. To be able to look into Jing-mei's troubled life from both her view and her mother' we can piece together a complete picture of what was going through each one of their lives to bring them to that point.
In conclusion, this story portrays so many points of view on how life can be for a woman immigrating into the United States. You are forced to start relating to them in ways that Tan's writing easily makes possible. To truly understand all the possibilities, you must read the book, and this book is indeed worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: FIVE STARS
Review: THose that say that this book is confusing, it is. But Amy Tan makes this novel confusing to illustrate the main theme in this book: Americans don't understand Asian Americans and the chinese culture. I've read this book several times in and out of the classroom and enjoyed it throughly. It tells of morals that can apply to anyone, such as the strained relationship between mother and daughter. I highly recommend this amazing novel to anyone.
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Summary: Joy Luck Club Review
Review: The Joy Luck Club is a highly enjoyable and interesting book about a group of Chinese mothers and their daughters. The women form a club when they move from China to San Francisco. They hold weekly mahjong parties where they share insight and tales with one another.
The novel tells the stories of oppositions in their lives and differences between the generations. The author Amy Tan uses many symbols and themes to relate the relationships of the family members and friends. Her uses of vivid descriptions help the reader to better understand the diversities between the Chinese and American cultures.
One major theme in the book is the translation from the cultures. It is portrayed as being quite difficult and challenging.
"A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you," she said..."A psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong.
Back at home, I thought about what she said...These were words I had never thought about in English terms. I suppose the closest in meaning would be "confused" and "dark fog." But really, the words mean much more than that. Maybe they can't be easily translated because they refer to a sensation that only Chinese people have."
This quotation is from a conversation Rose Hsu Jordan and her mother An-mei have about Rose seeing a psychiatrist about her problems, but refuses to confide in her own mother. The incomplete understandings of the mothers and daughters cultures are due to the fact that they have an incomplete knowledge of language. This act as a barrier between the mothers and daughters.
The daughters know some Chinese words and the mothers speak some English. This is not enough to accurately translate intended meanings. Throughout the book, the characters bring up Chinese concepts. The frustrating fact, however, is that an understanding of the Chinese culture is required to understanding its meaning.
The motif of sexism was also prominent in Tan's novel. Most of the characters in the novel encounter sexism, as it is a common problem to both Chinese and American cultures. The women experience rape, feminine submission, and stereotypes. The author makes the distinction between a respect for tradition and a disrespect for ones self as an individual. One of the main characters Lindo Jong speaks of this submissiveness in her narrative "The Red Candle."
"I...looked in the mirror...I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind.
...And then I draped the large embroidered red scarf over my face and covered these thoughts up."
The problems Tan discusses are important concerns facing our society. Cultural translation and sexism are two issues I displayed; however, the book also speaks of immigrant identity, communication, destiny, and sacrifices for love. The author accurately portrays the feelings and emotions of women, their children, and immigrants from other countries. The book can relate to everyone regardless of their gender, race, or culture.
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Summary: Joy Luck Club
Review: Be Better Than Me
Joy Luck Club
Faith Blythe The Joy Luck Club is a book composed of four different women who grew up in China. It is a story about the relationship between mothers and daughters. In China, the four women went through a lot of painful events. All of their daughters grew up in America. America is thought to be the land of freedom and the land of unlimited amounts of opportunity. Even though this book is about the relationship between mother's born in China and daughters born in American. Their relationships still resemble the relationships between American mothers and daughters. Both ethnic groups want the same thing for their children, which is something better than they had. Mothers try to tell their daughter know when something is wrong, give them advise, teach them what they are worth, respect, and that sometimes life is going to be challenging.
Most mothers see things that their children just cannot see. "All around this house I see the signs. My daughter looks but does not see. This is a house that will break into pieces. How do I know? I have always known a thing before it happens."(Amy Tan 275) Mother's often see things that their daughters don't. They try to tell them but they do not listen, until it is too late. In today's society daughters still don't listen, until it is too late. Lindo told her daughter Rose that her husband was sleeping with someone else. She did not believe her. Later in the book she found out that he was having affair. If she had of listened to her mother maybe she could have prevent the situation but at least she could have prepared herself emotionally for it.
"I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength. It was a strategy of winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually, though neither us knew it at the time, the chess game."(Amy Tan 89) Her mother taught her not the cry and the strongest wind cannot be seen. She showed her how not to show people when she was hurt. Many times, in many cultures, mothers teach their daughters not to show their pain. The reason my mother taught me this is because people will too often attempt to play on your feelings. If they know how to hurt you, they will continue to hurt you, whenever they feel like it. She did not want me to be vulnerable.
My mother's expectations are so high of me. Sometimes I don't think I can live up to them. I don't want to let my mother down. I now know, as long as I try my best my mother will be proud of me. What happens if I fail!? June's mother believes her daughter could be anything she wanted to be in America. She could open a restaurant. June could buy a house with almost no money down or become rich. Suyuan, June's mother wanted her to become a prodigy. Suyuan wanted June to become a famous pianist. June never tried to play the piano. June wanted her mother to love her for her, unconditionally. Even though her mother paid for piano lessons. She never got better because she did not practice. 'You want me to be someone that I'm not. I'll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be.'(Amy Tan 153) Suyuan finally explained that all she wanted her to do was try. So that she could have a better life than her. "But you never tried. That is what disappointed me." Suyuan gave up on her daughter becoming a child prodigy.
Lindo wanted Waverly to know her worth and polish it. An-mei was "taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way!"(Amy Tan 241) An-mei asked her daughter why she would not speak up for her- self. Rose and her husband were going through a divorce. Rose did not know what to do. Ted, her husband was estranged. He told her over the phone that he wanted a divorce. Afterwards, Rose did not call him, all she did was to sit and think. Her mother An-mei asked: "Why don't you talk to your husband?" After that conversation Rose stood up for herself. She told Ted that she was not moving out of their house. Mothers show their daughters how to respect themselves, let them know how much they are worth and not just except anything less than the best. If you settle for anything less than the best, then you compromise the quality of life expected for you by those who want the best for you. My mother still tells me: "Life is a sum total of our choices and that what we receive is in direct proportion to what we expect."
Mothers pass a lot of themselves down to their children, especially their daughters. They pass down behaviors, spirit, pain, love, and strength. An-mei's mother ate sticky sweet dumplings filled with a kind of bitter poison. "When the poison broke into her body, she whispered to me that she would rather kill her own weak spirit so she could give me a stronger one."(Amy Tan 271) Mothers can't tell their children how to act, but they can teach them how. An-mei's mother did not know how to teach her. So, she taught her the best way she knew how. By killing herself, she did teach her daughter how to have a strong spirit. Sometimes mothers use very hard tactics to get points across to their children. But they get their point across.
The book was excellent reading. The only thing I didn't like was the way the book kept switching between characters. The way the four women raised their daughters, is the same way mothers of today's society, raise their children.. Mothers want their daughters to be better than them.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Novel
Review: I thought Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club was a very moving novel. I thought the story of four Chinese mothers and their four Chinese-American daughters was very interesting. It was amazing how Amy Tan could shift from one story to another all throughout the book without missing a beat. I would recommend the Joy Luck Club to anybody looking to read a story about a different culture, and overcoming the different culture barrier.
Rating:
Summary: it was alright
Review: the book was alright it had a good concept to it it shows americans didnt only have problems so did chinese people i thought it was a great book and people who enjoy reading books thats take you back in time will enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth reading
Review: I didnt like the book when I read it, I found it to be confusing more then it was interesting. But if you have to do a report on the book .. I would suggest watching the movie before reading the book.
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Summary: The Worst Luck Club
Review: The Joy Luck Club is perhaps the worst book I have ever read. The plot, focusing on four Asian women and their children, is an utmost disappointment. The book has no particular plot-line, and each of the small stories is as bad as the one before it. Don't waste your money on this book!
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