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A review by _askthebookbug
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
5.0
The Joy Luck Club - #bookrecommendation
~
"And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way." - Amy Tan.
~
There was not a single moment when I drifted from the story. It truly is difficult to put together a review for a book as magnificent as this but I will try. The Joy Luck Club is the lives of eight Chinese women who now live in America. It's about mother-daughter relationships that sometimes appears jagged and sometimes seem as smooth as a pebble. This is the story of all mothers and the fate that they pass on to their daughters. This was Tan's first book and to come up with something as beautiful as this is truly magical.
~
The book is split into four parts with four stories each. Each story is narrated by a mother and her daughter respectively. The mothers who move to America either due to war or due to other circumstances, try hard to make their children a perfect mix of Chinese and American. Each story is brilliantly narrated with amusing Chinese quotes where all of them think back to how their mothers were. Mothers are irritated by the fact that their daughters are forgetting their Chinese roots while the daughters struggle to live upto their mothers' expectations. It speaks of what a generation gap can do these women.
~
It may prove a bit hard to remember all the names but you'll catch up soon. The stories brim with emotions which made me teary-eyed. There's warmth, pain and tragedy written all over the book. It makes me miss my mother when she's right next to me. I guess that's what counts when you read words that are as powerful as Tan's. The beliefs that are mentioned in the book are unique. Here's one example. When An-mei's mother cuts off a piece of chunk from her finger and drops it in the herbal soup that's to be served to her grandmother, it is believed that daughters must peel off a piece of them to pass on the love to their mothers. It's about connection that keeps them binded.
~
Rating - 5/5.
~
"And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way." - Amy Tan.
~
There was not a single moment when I drifted from the story. It truly is difficult to put together a review for a book as magnificent as this but I will try. The Joy Luck Club is the lives of eight Chinese women who now live in America. It's about mother-daughter relationships that sometimes appears jagged and sometimes seem as smooth as a pebble. This is the story of all mothers and the fate that they pass on to their daughters. This was Tan's first book and to come up with something as beautiful as this is truly magical.
~
The book is split into four parts with four stories each. Each story is narrated by a mother and her daughter respectively. The mothers who move to America either due to war or due to other circumstances, try hard to make their children a perfect mix of Chinese and American. Each story is brilliantly narrated with amusing Chinese quotes where all of them think back to how their mothers were. Mothers are irritated by the fact that their daughters are forgetting their Chinese roots while the daughters struggle to live upto their mothers' expectations. It speaks of what a generation gap can do these women.
~
It may prove a bit hard to remember all the names but you'll catch up soon. The stories brim with emotions which made me teary-eyed. There's warmth, pain and tragedy written all over the book. It makes me miss my mother when she's right next to me. I guess that's what counts when you read words that are as powerful as Tan's. The beliefs that are mentioned in the book are unique. Here's one example. When An-mei's mother cuts off a piece of chunk from her finger and drops it in the herbal soup that's to be served to her grandmother, it is believed that daughters must peel off a piece of them to pass on the love to their mothers. It's about connection that keeps them binded.
~
Rating - 5/5.