Rating: 
Summary: My favorite Amy Tan
Review: This is my favorite Tan novel--I have read the Joy Luck Club and the Bonesetter's Daughter. As usual, Amy Tan explores the mother daughter relationship which is further complicate dby the cultural diffenrences and generational gaps. What makes this book better than the rest is the believability of the mother and daugher characters. Compared to her other novels, the mother here is a more complete and understandable character. Since the majority of the book contains her story, we get to know her motives better--something that is usually not so well explored in the otehr novels. Similarly, while the antagonism between Peral and her mother is still there, it is not as sharp and as unreasonable. This is what makes The Kitchen God's Wife not only a good read (all of Tan's novels are) but also a more realistic story that sticks with you long after you finish the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty close to the 'Joy Luck Club' stories...
Review: I've had a hard time finishing this book, because Winnie's tragic life has been so alike to the stories of the mothers of the "Joy Luck Club because the basic settings of both books are an unresolved communication problem between an Asian American daughter and her Chinese mother. In this book, Pearl is afraid to tell Winnie about being, and Winnie is afraid to tell Pearl of her own secret - a bad marriage in China. "Auntie" Helen, Winnie's long time friend and foe, threatens both to reveal their secrets if they don't do that themselves until the Chinese New Year. In the next part of her book, Winnie narrates her long, "tragic" marriage to a man named Wen Fu back in China during WW2, which is supposed to be somehow connected to the Chinese myth of the Kitchen God's wife - which was a VERY good wife to a very bad man herself. Winnie did not stir any sympathy from me. At first, being a very young and innocent girl, I can inderstand why Winnie does not run away. But after a while, it seems all Winnie wants to do is complain about Wen Fu and show to the whole world how bad he is. She can't understand why his friends don't realize who he really is - what she sometimes sees as him being mean to them, they see as a joke. Even when she does try to escape from him, it seems those tries are doomed from the start because she manages to choose the best ways to annoy Wen Fu and damage his pride.The story also seemed to repeat itself a few times (Wen /Fu is mean, Winnie tries to escape but can't), and none of the characters seemed to change much each time, except for maybe Wen Fu, who get meaner by the page, and turns into a less credible character. We're also exposed to Winnie's vain and jealous side - in the way she treats Helen... Almost everything Helen does is bad or wrong - from Winnie's high class point of view, of course. Never mind that Helen got the better, more understanding and more superior husband... The only thing about this book which raised its mark from 1 start to 3 is Amy Tan's superb writing. Many people who liked the "Joy Luck Club" would probably like this book too, as long as they don't expect it too be THAT different. People who didn't like the latter would probably won't like this one either.
Rating: 
Summary: 532-page bitchfest
Review: I'm reading the other reviews and shaking my head. Did I just read the same novel as everyone else? The novel I read was a very boring and whiny book with a very boring and whiny protagonist. In fact, I could summarize the plot in a few words: 1. Winnie tells her story about her life in China 2. Winnie meets and marries Wen Fu 3. Wen Fu beats Winnie 4. Winnie cries with self-pity--"Woe is me!"--but does nothing to change her situation--"Why doesn't anyone help me?" 5. Repeat steps 3-4 50 times, with minor variations. 6. End story. C'mon, ladies, open your eyes and stop finding books to justify your own self-pity and sense of victimhood. Wen Fu has to be the most 2-dimensionally evil character since Superman's Lex Luther or Batman's Joker. He is a flat character from beginning to end. And Winnie? Ohh, please, she is hardly sympathetic; in fact, she is a bitter, unhappy woman like all of Amy Tan's mother characters. In the end, the novel's a comic book, albeit one that's 532 pages long. Watching the latest Jackie Chan movie, you'll get more of a sense of Chinese culture and people than this cliched and tedious pseudo-feminist tract.
Rating:
Summary: Amy Tan's Best Novel
Review: I have read all of Amy Tan's novels and this is truely the best she has written. The captivating story will draw you in. Amy Tan's villians and heros are so deep and multi-dimensional! This book is like a painting, look at it one way and you see the colorful story of a young woman trapped in a bad marriage during World War II, look at it another way and you see the beautiful relationship between a mother and daughter and their efforts to understand and love each other.
Rating: 
Summary: Heartbreaking family story
Review: Just when you thought that nothing can match 'Lucky Joy Club's' powerful story plot, Amy Tam comes and suprises you with beautiful and sad story about woman with a lot of courage and determination. Do not miss this wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Intruiging
Review: Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife is an intruiging book... Pearl's Chinese mother, Winnie, is rooted in life, and in her past. The story tells of Winnie revealing her secretive, unknown past to her daughter who didn't seem to care ~ in an attempt to bring them closer together. Tan's words are earthy, and have a way of wrapping themselves around her readers like whispering winds. Her prose continues to echo in my ears even weeks after I closed the last pages. The book was glued to my fingers for hours at a time, while I enjoyed the fact that I was learning more about Winnie's life, but at the same time dreading that the book was coming to an end. This book seems to have many oxymorons... but they tie in together in an endearing way. Tan's talent is enviable: her words paint out scenes in her reader's minds, and she is able to bring out tastes, scents, touch from paper. And there is an explanation for it all: she is a magician with her words. Maybe you have a misconception that the only people who enjoy Tan's books are Asians... but that's just what it is. A misconception. I am not Chinese, but I found Winnie's Chinese background to be very interesting, alluring, romantic, and mysterious. Anyone who is interested in reading a great book would enjoy this... it transcends all culture differences and it makes a person feel that in the end, we are all the same.
Rating:
Summary: Great story that left me sad and mad
Review: I like this book (not as much as the Joy Luck Club), but it had to much sadness and tragedy for my taste. I felt angry at the author by the end.
Rating:
Summary: TO READ AND TO CHERISH!
Review: The Kitchen God's wife is one of the most delightful pieces of literature I have ever read. I do not have one drop of Chinese blood in me, but I could relate because (and I am certain of this) I have in the past immersed myself in Pearl Buck's books about China and the Chinese mind. Of course, most of Buck's books are heart breaking; nevertheless, I became addicted to reading about China and the Chinese people because of Pearl Buck. So, when I picked up The Kitchen God's Wife, I was psychologically ready for Amy Tan. The book was touching, but at the same time so much of the dialogue was hilarious, and I laughed out loud. Amy Tan is a very gifted writer, and it is evident as one reads The Kitchen God's Wife that she loves and cherishes her Chinese ancestry.
Rating:
Summary: melodramatic & unreal
Review: As a native Chinese, as I read it, I find the story could not have been written by a native Chinese cause she made blatant mistakes about languages, customs. if they were minor, i could overlook them. I also get an impression that she really does not like Chinese male. in all her books i've read, there's no single positive Chinese male characters. they're either abusive or kind but wimpy fools. most of her heroines just passive accept their fate & do not fight. they just until some Chinese American to rescue them. I also think she gave a wrong impression that Chinese family really do not cherish their daughters & like to marry them as concubines. Well, this was somewhat true that most Chinese did (a lot still do) prefer sons to daughters. But even in the old days when polygamy (multiple wives) was legal, _good_ families would rarely marry daughters as concubines except in extreme condition like poverty. I'm also bothered by her political view. she seems more pro-Communist than Nationalists (KMT), from her description on KMT vs Communists. But this, in my opionion, does not add to the story at all cause it's irrelevant to the story she wants to tell.
Rating:
Summary: Even a die-hard fan finds fault with this one.
Review: I liked this book, but in comparison to her other works, this book suggests that Tan maybe needed a few more revisions. There were some parts where I felt I'd seen this all before, and I don't mind variations on a theme but if I want to read one of her other books over again, I'll get that book and re-read it. I also didn't feel like Pearl's disability was very realistic, the portrayal of that. It doesn't get picked up and carried throughout the book well enough. Despite these criticisms, I liked it. However, if you've never read Tan before or if you have but you want something different from Joy Luck, try 100 Secret Senses. It's much better.
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