The Joy Luck Club

Rating:
Summary: Intricate detail about chinese women
Review: A review by Caleb

This powerful story is about a club started in China many years ago during the Sino - Japanese War. It was formed by a group of four women who came together in a time of need, when people and families were being torn apart. The book follows sixteen stories of themselves, their daughters and future generations all molded together. The club was like a social event were they would play games, socialize or just eat; anything to bring hope and joy. The book jumps from one woman to the next, detailing very intricately the amazing stories on each Chinese woman and Chinese American women. This book deals with controversies about how the Native Chinese mothers want to raise the daughters in the Chinese customs and cultures. The only problem is the daughters were born American and they are stuck in the ways of the American culture. This story has many stories filled with drama and adventure that take place in past China to present day America.

The thing I really enjoyed about this work of art was the great amount of detail Amy Tan designed in my mind. The form of sentences and types of vocabulary she used was amazing. It's like Amy Tan created a blanket full of detail and wonder. Each story is woven into the next, a panorama of distinctive voices that all have a similar goal. There were a lot of different stories, and sometimes I was confused with all of the different names, but it wasn't to bad. This book really shows the constant struggles of cultures dying in America, the sadness of a mother not returning, the hope in friends and the love of family.

Overall, this book was excellent. What more can I say, it was on the New York Times best selling list for nine months in a row. I recommend this book for anyone who wants more wisdom and more knowledge on Asian or Chinese American cultures.

Rating:
Summary: From a 17 year old's perspective...
Review: This was a great book. Although at times it may seem kind of random and challenging to follow, if you stick with it, it will all come together in the end. Amy Tan does a wonderful job of narration for all of the different characters in the book. From this book you learn many things about the Chinese culture that you cannot learn anywhere else. You also see how mothers from one country raising children in another cope with all of the changes. Overall this was a fantastic book.

Rating:
Summary: The Real Joy Luck Club
Review: I did not like this book that much. The book it skipped around a lot. It has a lot of short stories. This book is so instering it talks about the moms ,dads and daughters. The book is not real it has to many stories. The book was fun to read but it was hard to under stand sometimes. I hope you like the book and that you can under stand the book. I give it one thumb up.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: I had never read anything by Amy Tan and I wondered whether her popularity was based on our society's interest in diversity or whether she is the "real deal." I had seen this book listed on a suggested reading list for high school students, so I decided that this was the Amy Tan book I would initially read. After just the first few pages, my qestion was answered ... this book is destined to go down as a 20th century classic. This is a wonderful book on many different levels. It is a collection of interconnected vignettes of four women from China who, during hard times, formed he "Joy Luck Club," for joy and the luck they needed to get through those times. The four ended up in San Francisco and the club continued, as they would get together monthly. One member died and her daughter took her place in the club. At her first meeting, she discovers a secret, that her recently deceased mother left behind children in China, twin girls. The mother had been fleeing the Japanese during WWII and she had to leave her baby daughters behind. The group presented a ticket to China for June (the club's newest member) to reunite with her recently discovered half sisters.

This book, on one level, is about Chinese culture and values. On another level, it is about the more univeral topic of the relationship between mothers and daughters, since, in addition to June, the other three mothers also had daughters. On yet another level, it is about the immigrant experience and how the values of the children of immigrants change and also, how there are nontheless, ties that bind. It is as true of the Jewish immigrant experience a few generations ago as it is about the experiences of the families depicted in this book. The interconnected stories are compelling and Tan's writing is flawless. Many bestselling novels are successful because of the appeal to the pop culture of the time. A minute fraction of bestsellers are successful because they are works of great literature. This wonderful novel is in the latter category.

Rating:
Summary: The problem I had with this novel is that...
Review: ...it makes up stories about Asian culture. For instance, Tan describes how a women's worth is measured by the "loudness of her husband's belch." Where in Chinese history or Chinese literature or Chinese culture do you have Chinese men measuring the worth of women by how well they feed them? Speaking of food, Tan describes a story about a duck that wants to be a swan [this is obviously the Ugly Duckling influence (a Western influence)]. Chinese people eat ducks. If you go around San Fran Chinatown and look through some of the restaurants, you'll notice cooked ducks on display for food. Swans signify romantic love because the Chinese admire how they mate for life. Sure, the novel is good (structurally) and it does help feminist causes and such, but why do it in spite of my culture? To me, it's not fair.

Rating:
Summary: Recomend this book to women!
Review: I sympathized with this book. Because the story is the mother and daughter's conflict and I heve had this one at once. Everyone thinks like me, if you are a daughter that have Mother.
Read this book and you understand your mother's feeling deeply!

Rating:
Summary: Capturing the Essence
Review: While the coventional appeal of Tan's "The Joy Luck Club" has mainly focused on its entertainment value, the element which places her novel indefinately in the "modern classics" genre, is its profound depth. The book alludes fiery femaninity and exists as a commanding vessel containing the enigmas of matriarchal beauties. Thematically timeless, "Joy Luck.." sifts past the typical "female" qualities of nurture, patience and emotional endurance to expose the realities of the innate, instictual bond between women, and the definitively female capability to reach beyond self-absorbed ambition to enlighten oneself with their role in relation to others. Emotionally disturbing at times, the story bounces from depression, haunting regret, anxiety and metal numbness to surface the Essence of a woman's life. Life has no known goal, purpose or point. All that one can learn is that life is nothing more than yourself, and the people who contribute to your evolvement; and that love can only be channeled through the network of female bonds. Simply written, yet profound, this was the one required literary work that I actually read-- and enjoyed.

Rating:
Summary: Fine writing that will last
Review: A series of short stories woven into a continuous narrative, rather than a novel -- but superbly written all the same. Very human, and to my mind as durable as Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth." A successful autobiography of the contemporary American Chinese experience and its evolution through multiple generations in Chinese and Chinese-American families.

Rating:
Summary: OnE oF Da BeSt BoOkS!
Review: As I wAs ReAdInG tHiS bOoK, I rEaLiZeD hOw MuCh I wAs GeTtInG iNtO iT...iT's AlMoSt As If YoU aRe ThErE eXpErIeNcInG wHaT tHeY wErE. I sTaRtEd ThInKiNg AbOuT mY gRaNdMa WhO wAs AlSo In A wAr, aNd It ReAlLy GoT mE tHiNkInG...So, I wOuLd ReCoMmEnD tHiS bOoK tO eVeRyOnE...

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I thought it would be.
Review: I just found the writing to have the typical style that many best selling books are written in. I was surprized that it received such good praise from critics.