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BOOK REVIEW⁠
[The Joy Luck Club] Mothers and daughters attempt understanding across the vast plains of generational and cultural difference.⁠
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WHAT I LIKED⁠
The Joy Luck Club is one of my top 2019 reads. I will keep recommending this book for years. It was that amazing.⁠
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Amy Tan is a master of using every single sentence for a double purpose. There is always an obvious meaning and clever subtext. She uses beautiful metaphors for complex feelings. Furthermore, her metaphors showcase the generational and cultural differences between Chinese immigrant mothers and their Chinese American daughters. For some plot points, readers watch the same moment through each family member’s eyes. For others, it is too late. Her mother has already passed on, and now the daughter has to grapple with her history alone. ⁠
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This book is divided into four sections with titles corresponding to the themes of each narrative. I absolutely loved the section titles and short introductions. Tan uses these blocks and separate chapters to keep the mothers and daughters apart. They are literally and literar(ily?) isolated. These separations display the distance between each mother/daughter pair.⁠
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WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE⁠
I had to keep referencing who is who from a short list at the beginning of the book. However, I think the separation is worth a small inconvenience.⁠
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The Joy Luck Club (by Amy Tan) ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️5/5⁠
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Favorite Pages: There were too many. Here are the one I considered writing about for my posts! 19, 27, 31, 36, 68, 92, 94, 128, 140, 156, 201, 213, 223, 254, 257, 261, 272, 288-289⁠
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Recommended for Lovers of: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee⁠
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