Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Tan's debut novel is arguably one of the most famous works of Asian-American writing. It is one of the few works with an explicitly Asian theme to find mainstream popularity. The novel remained on the New York Times best-seller list for nine months and was later adapted into a hit movie.

To date, no other Asian-American novel has matched the critical and popular success of The Joy Luck Club, not even by Tan's later works.

My interest in The Joy Luck Club stems from the 16 interlocking tales detailing the lives and struggles of four Chinese mothers and their four American daughters. The novel finds resonance with Chinese- and Asian-American families because of Tan's lyrical reconstructions of the immigrant experience, of poverty/fear/persecution in the homeland and of alienation in America. The parts of the novel set in China, in particular, give The Joy Luck...
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