THE JOY LUCK CLUB BOOK REVIEW - Julia N. The Joy Luck Club was first published in 1989, and is American author Amy Ruth Tan’s first novel. It is composed of a series of short stories she had written one after the other with no forethought, before she chose to bundle them up into a novel after her editor connected the dots: each story was about mothers and daughters. The anthology was later turned into a movie in 1993, directed by the “pioneer of AsianAmerican cinema”, Wayne Wang. Though The Joy Luck club has received criticism from many for spreading fallacious, untrue cultural stereotypes, I think it is a fantastic book. The first thing I thought when I saw The Joy Luck Club on the list of recommended books for my homeroom class was that the name was remarkable. The Joy Luck Club. The title alone made me smile and I'm glad that I picked it up. Despite some moments being a tad slow, this novel was a pleasure to read - a tapestry composed of different stories, each unique, yet intertwined. They all explore the sense of confusion young Asian-American girls feel and the inspiring mental strength the mothers express throughout the story.
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I won’t lie, I did — like many other readers — find that the stories sometimes got a little slow and weren’t always captivating but if you push past those moments and read on, I really do believe the book is worth the read. To address the issue of stereotypes, the novel is about women remembering their lives in China. It is based on memory and only memory. Something I have heard repeatedly in the past (and I think is very true) is that we remember negative experiences more than positive ones. This is because negative events usually generate more reflection and information is processed more thoroughly than for positive ones. Thus, despite the fact that Tan never lived in China, I believe she wished to show how certain aspects of Chinese culture might be overly violent and maybe even somewhat traumatizing for young children — particularly girls — who later remember these times vividly. Though I am definitely not an expert in Chinese culture, I don't think Amy Tan is spreading stereotypes since she herself has Chinese parents who would tell her stories of their time in China when she was a child. She explained in an interview that her mother left three daughters behind when leaving China, which
