Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan tells the stories of three Chinese-American women and their daughters. The Joy Luck Club is an idea thought up by one of them, Suyuan Woo, in her youth, when the Japanese were invading China and threatening to reach Kweilin, her hometown. Once a week, the Club gathers; four women who play mah jong, eat foods that bring good fortune and most importantly, tell each other joyful and amusing stories in order to forget the war and its victims.
As Suyuan emigrates to San Francisco years later, she resumes the Joy Luck Club, welcoming other women of Chinese origins. After Suyuan dies, her daughter Jing-Mei, raised in America, takes her place at the mah jong table, feeling that she does not belong. And she certainly does not expect what the three old women will ask of her that night…
The Joy Luck Club is composed four parts, each made of four chapters. The first and the last parts present the perspectives of the four mothers while the second and third reveal their daughters’ points of view. Throughout the book eight different voices, these of the women of the Joy Luck Club, progressively unravel the stories of their lives. All narrators focus on significant events, not happy events like the stories meant to be told in the Joy Luck Club, but defining moments, stories of courage or sacrifice, of resilience and acceptance, stories in which the narrators lost and found themselves or others.
In most stories the relationship between mothers and daughters is explored in all its complexities. For the daughters, born and raised in America, it is a journey from rejection to acceptance, of mothers who embarrass and annoy them with their matriarchal ways and Chinese superstitions. For the mothers, a struggle to understand a little better an alien culture in which their daughters feel at ease.
The characterization is excellent, Amy Tan managed to create lifelike and powerful women. I particularly liked Lindo Jong, who found a way to escape from her arranged marriage without bringing shame on her parents, and Jing-Mei Woo, who was never able to live up to her mother’s unreasonable expectations…
The Joy Luck Club is a compelling, very enjoyable book. Amy Tan is a very good storyteller and I will certainly read more of her novels…
Rating: 4/5
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment