
a book
The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan · 2006 · 288 pages
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Amy Tan’s modern classic that examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters—now with a new preface “For me, [The Joy Luck Club] was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish forever. It inspired me as a writer and still remains hugely inspirational.”—Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians “Brilliant.”—The Washington Post Book World “A jewel of a book.”—The New York Times Book Review “Amy Tan [is] a writer of dazzling talent.”—Chicago Tribune In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to play mah jong, remember the past, and gossip into the night. United in unspeakable loss and new hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the memories that display these women’s strength, worries, and determination. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of the matriarchal ties that they believe have stymied their ability to face the uncertainties of the future. Intimate and moving, The Joy Luck Club shows us how the inheritance of pain and unspoken secrets can lead to misunderstanding—and yet how love can still offer the promise of reconciliation.
recommended by 5 people
sourced from public statements

Hillary Clinton
“This novel opened my eyes, not only to the distinct and special traditions of the Chinese-American culture but also to the ways in which immigrant women of different generations adapted and adjusted to life in this country.”↗

Lisa Ling
“This emotional journey compelled me to want to understand the past of my own Taiwanese mother better. It is the story of four Chinese American women in San Francisco and how their mothers’ struggles in the Chinese homeland made them who they were. It is a highly emotional and exceptionally beautiful story.”↗
Madeline Miller
“I loved the psychological realism… the relationships between the mothers and daughters were so beautifully drawn, so razor sharp… [Tan] isn’t afraid to show us the complexity of their difficulty, their trauma, but also this warmth and this real understanding and empathy for their life.”↗


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