I thought this book was good when I first read it, but reading it 20 years later, with an adult book discussion group, has really been a rich and spiritually-rewarding experience. This book is about women who tempered---out of necessity---the tragic stories of their pasts but realize that their own daughters will be swallowed-up by life if they cannot comprehend the fierce will to live that runs through their blood. Set in early-20th century China and late-20th century San Francisco, this weave of mother-daughter narratives gets its power from the mothers. Having kept their background lives hidden for decades, the time comes for them to talk about their relationships with their daughters, as well as reveal the pain of how their own innocence was brutally taken away. Amy Tan shows how the mothers’ singular joy has been in hoping that their daughters’ will know more happiness, more power, and more peace. As one of the characters---Ying-Ying St. Clair---says: “I will use this sharp pain to penetrate my daughter’s tough skin and cut her tiger spirit loose. She will fight me, because this is the nature of two tigers. But I will win and give her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter.”

That moment when you delay writing a review because you don't think your review will ever be satisfactory for such a piece of art!

Me momentarily:


I started reading the book. Then when I was almost a couple of chapters away from the ending I started watching the movie chapter by chapter. The movie was well directed to suit every single detail in the movie. Yet, nothing can be like the book. Especially when it is well written in such tremendous way!

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
It is a series of interrelated short stores about Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters

The novel spans from the 1920s through the 1980s, following two generations of women.
Mothers, born and raised in China, find themselves in San Francisco raising their own daughters.

Both mothers and daughters must navigate diverse worlds, with different languages, cultures, and habits.

It is the story of the mother, and yet the story of the daughter:


Characters:



Suyuan Woo—founder of the Joy Luck Club whose recent death has left a space at the Mah-Jong table.

Jing-mei Woo—daughter born in America who takes her mother’s place at the Mah-Jong table. She has difficulty understanding her mother. She is the protagonist.

Lindo Jong—cleverly opted out of an unfortunate arranged marriage in China. Came to the US on her own, married and had three children.

Waverly Jong—daughter who became a chess champion and an attorney. She has achieved much but still fears her mother’s disapproval.




Lessons to be taught:


Themes:
1- Sacrifices Made for Love.



2- The Relationships between Mothers and Daughters


3- The Immigrant Identity/ Cultural Identity


4- Misunderstandings and Reconciliation



5- Misleading cultures consequences


6- Giving up the least that you deserve


7-Unexplainable axioms:


8- Losing yourself in the process


"Don't be afraid of losing him .. it is you who will be found!"




All I know is, I have borrowed this book and now writing a review and giving it back to the library is such a farewell to a real good friend that I can't bear abandoning.

P.S.: I guess I will be updating this review as soon as I reread and rewatch such masterpiece but, unfortunately, in an epub format this time.

The Joy Luck Club is a tremendously well written book filled with passion, emotion, and love that arises from family interactions. This book is written in the form of eight vignettes, four from four different women (the mothers) and four from their daughters. This book concentrates on four Chinese American immigrant families that start this "club" for playing the traditional game of Mahjong. The story begins with June Woo who had just lost her mother to an aneurysm. She was chosen to replace her mothers seat in the club with the four other mothers. She always had a rocky and foreign relationship with her mother and through this club and her interactions with her mother's close friends, she unfolds the story that her mother had never had the opportunity to tell. Also, all the different narratives show the relationship between that of a mother and a daughter of the rest of the Joy Luck Club members. With these narratives unfold personal emotions and feelings that they have withheld from one another and gives all readers a inside depth understanding of the mindset of a parent and a child and sees the position of thought in both.

There were many themes throughout this book that I found to be interesting and personally touching. First of all, when I had first read the narratives of the mothers, I realized the difficulties of assimilation and adaptation to the "American Life". I had several flashbacks to what my childhood was like and what my parents had endured while immigrating the United States. Additionally, me being a first generation child in the US gave me an understanding of the daughters in Amy Tan's (the author) book. The daughters experienced a totally different life than their mothers and thus the drifting in connection between them begin to increase. But through June Woo and her listening to the women's stories about her mother and about themselves, she received an understanding of not only her mother, but of her own self and her identity.

I found this book to be an easy read and of importance to all those with immigrant families or had faced similar experiences because it is, in my perspective, one of the best written books surrounding the theme of cultural boundaries and immigration.

Read the full review at Elgee Writes

The plot

Following her mother’s death (Suyuan Woo), Jing-mei (June) Woo replaces her in the monthly Mah jong game. Suyuan and her friends started this tradition years ago when they moved into San Francisco as way to keep in touch with their Chinese culture and history. Through the years, the four mothers share their festivals, their daughters’ birthdays and achievements during the game.

While the mothers tried to preserve the culture, their daughters chase the American dream and lifestyle. They do not have the patience or interest in knowing their mother’s history and they scoff at the Chinese superstitions. Despite living under the same roof for years, the mothers and daughters live a life separated by their culture and life experiences.

The harder their mothers are on them, the harder the daughters rebel in their own way, without realizing unwittingly they are following their mothers’ path. They also are quick to leave behind their Chinese culture just like their mothers had.

During their game, Jing-mei finds out that just before her death Suyuan had traced her two other daughters that she had to leave behind during the World war II. And her mother’s friends urge her to take her mother’s journey to meet her long lost relatives who are still in China. Did she take that journey and find her sisters forms the rest of the story in The Joy luck club.

My initial thoughts

The Joy luck club is one of those classic cult hit when it was released in 1989. While it does feel a little bit dated, her major themes on mother- daughter relationship and generational gaps, especially between the first and second generational Chinese-Americans still holds good.

The Joy luck club contains sixteen short stories narrated by four Chinese born mothers and their respective daughters who make it a point not to learn Chinese over half a century! While it was fun to try to read this structure, the truth was it was a little difficult to remember all the secondary characters.

I loved how the daughters who scoffed at their mothers and their traditions in their childhood and well into their marriages, turn around as they mature and even get closer to them. And how their mothers in turn, learn to adapt into their new roles over the years. To be honest, The Joy luck club made me stop a moment and examine my own relationship with my mother.

Things that worked for me

I loved the friendship/co-dependency between the mothers.
The stories about the mothers before coming to the USA were haunting and so historically rich. I loved them.

Things that didn’t work for me

Did the author somehow help the strict, cold Asian mothers and absentee Asian fathers stereotypes? (UPDATE: upon reading other reviews -YES SHE DID, AND FACED A SEVERE BACKLASH)
I wish the book’s structure was a bit easier to follow through.

Bottom-line

The Joy Luck Club is culturally and historically rich, even though it plays a bit to the stereotypes or even went to setting those stereotypes in the first place. If you are looking for a literary / historical fiction The Joy luck club by Amy Tan is a good choice.


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What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said? I've read it twice. Told in a simple language from multiple points of view, this novel has stayed with me and inspired me to write about my own Indian culture. I loved learning about Chinese immigrant attitudes--white people are considered ghosts; fengshui and the Five Elements are key to a harmonious life; the tiger spirit that resides in every woman. Much has been debated about the authenticity of Tan's depiction of Chinese American attitudes, but the book stands on its own as a very enjoyable, compelling piece of literary fiction. What rang truest for me were the enormous differences in attitudes between the immigrant mothers and their American-born and -raised daughters. Coming from an eastern culture, the differences were similar between my mother and me. And as an Indian immigrant, I could totally relate :-)

Meh. I am Asian and can't relate. And think this book is pathetic. The writing is just meh, but the implied message irks me.
Trying to prove how Americanized they are? What a bunch of self-hating biscuits.
Having Chinese traditions = Low and not modern?
What?
Destroy your own culture in order to fit in to the society?
Is that what's wrong with the American society? You have to be Americanized to be accepted and respected?
You know what, screw your ideology. I am Asian. I am proud of my culture. I don't need to be Americanized to get myself married. To be Americanized doesn't mean you can't keep your cultural heritage.
The daughters are very pathetic. So are the mothers.
And where are the Asian male love interests?
Does the author really dislike Chinese culture that much?
Don't know...
But it is boring at best. Speaking from my point of view.
The mother-daughter relationship doesn't really speak to me at all. And it is repeated for god knows how many times. Four mothers and daughters. Boredom 4x.
And I can't remember who is who.
*sign*
That's it.

an easy read but she's the uncle tom of asians.

A truly beautiful book following short snippets of the lives of four mothers and four daughters. A must read!

me ha gustado pero para mi no ha sido un libro tan espectacular como esperaba después de escuchar hablar tantas alabanzas de él. No sé si por la forma narrativa de la autora o por como muestra a las protagonistas en diferentes capítulos no he llegado a empatizar con ninguna. Pero me ha gustado descubrir muchas cosas nuevas sobre la cultura china.

Más sobre mi opinión en la reseña del blog
https://almalectora.wordpress.com/201...

La primera vez que oí hablar de Amy Tan fue sobre su libro ‘El club de la buena estrella’ había algo en el cariño con el que todo el mundo hablaba de él que inmediatamente entró mi lista de pendientes. En el último año, me he hecho con varios libros suyos en librerías de segunda mano, pero siguen esperando su turno en la estantería porque yo quería estrenarme con con este. Ahora que lo he leído pienso si tal vez me he equivocado, ¿puede haber escrito algo mejor? Me ha gustado tantísimo que tengo mis dudas.

‘El club de la buena estrella’ esta formado por cuatro mujeres chinas que emigraron en su juventud a Estados Unidos. Allí han hecho su vida, sin olvidar nunca sus raíces y tradiciones. Sin embargo, sus hijas, ‘born and raised’ en Estados Unidos, han luchado gran parte de su vida por ser diferentes a sus madres, sentirse independientes y, al mismo tiempo, lograr su aprobación. Una magistral aproximación a la barrera entre madres e hijas, una separación en este caso no solo generacional, también cultural.

Una absoluta maravilla de libro centrado en las relaciones maternofiliales pero también, en la vida de estas ocho mujeres. Su lucha por sobrevivir, salir adelante, ser felices, sobreponerse a los golpes … y es que ¡cuántas cosas de la vida dependen de agentes externos y no de una misma!

Escrito con un estilo directo, sin florituras, pero logrando un retrato emocional de sus personajes tan profundo que te cala hasta los huesos. Amy Tan estructura la novela en torno a pequeñas historias sobre cada una de las mujeres. Son tan buenas que cualquiera funciona como relato independiente pero todas juntas se convierten en un libro que jamás olvidaré.

Costumbres, tradiciones, supersticiones y misticismo son parte intrínseca de la vida de estas mujeres. Algo en la narración te hace esperar constantemente que la magia suceda, cuando en realidad, no podemos estar ante una trama más realista.

No sabéis lo que he sufrido, me he emocionado y he sentido leyendo este libro que va directo a mis favoritos. Lleno de reflexiones y enseñanzas a las que volver una y otra vez.

Una historia de historias, de darnos cuenta de lo poco que sabemos del pasado de nuestras familias, de lo difícil que es enternder el choque de culturas en un mismo órgano familiar.
Me encanta cómo la autora va hilvanando pasado y presente,cómo nos adentra en las distintas personalidades de estas ocho mujeres y el mndo en que viven o han vivido.
Muy recomendable.

I read this book some 15 years ago, and had no memory of reading it, which I found unusual, and was actually quite glad when I found I would have to reread it for a student's project. And how hard that was!

I know, I KNOW I should have liked this book more. I know it was - and is - important, and it IS exceedingly well-written, and it does present the issues of immigration, identity, language, family relations, changes in life very well, from what I can say from my (more than meagre, less than extensive) life experience.

My biggest problem with the book was - obviously - having to struggle with the narration. I admit this is my weakness; I could not handle Dangerous Laisons until I saw a movie adaptation and finally could place the characters in the storyline. I honestly think I would have to make tables while reading to remember which of the younger women was responsible for what, and which of the mothers went through what hardships, precisely. Having no time to draft tables, I found myself caring little about the characters, at least most of the time.

There also is a certain - intended, probably - imbalance in the book, which both creates a tremendous impact on the reader and leaves a sense of imperfection. Whatever the daughters went or go through seems just bland compared to their mothers' past. Consider the following fragment - a story of a woman speaking of the abortion of her would-be firstborn upon learning her husband left her for another:

So I will tell Lena of my shame. That I was rich and pretty. I was too good for any one man. That I became abandoned goods. I will tell her that at eighteen the prettiness drained from my cheeks. That I thought of throwing myself in the lake like the other ladies of shame. And I will tell her of the baby I killed because I came to hate this man so much.
I took this baby from my womb before it could be born. This was not a bad thing to do in China back then, to kill a baby before it is born. But even then, I thought it was bad, because my body flowed with terrible revenge as the juices of this man's firstborn son poured from me.
When the nurses asked what they should do with the lifeless baby, I hurled a newspaper at them and said to wrap it like a fish and throw it in the lake. My daughter thinks I do not know what it means to not want a baby.
When my daughter looks at me, she sees a small old lady. That is because she sees only with her outside eyes. She has no chuming, no inside knowing of things. If she had chuming, she would see a tiger lady. And she would have careful fear.

And the style, the style is excellent. 'Magpies' chapter is perfect in every possible way, and made me want to own a copy of this book. The book ends in a perfect moment. Aww, really, I'm so conflicted. Can we say it's 3,5?