The Joy Luck Club review

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. 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

is exactly what Suyuan Woo (Jing-mei’s mother) does in one of the stories. I believe that through her writing Amy Tan transcribed her mother’s past life onto a page and that is what the novel is truly about.

For those who haven’t read the book yet, The Joy Luck Club is about a group of four Chinese women who immigrated to San Francisco and meet regularly to cook traditional Chinese food and play mahjong. The story begins from Jing-mei’s point of view. Her mother has recently passed and she must take her place at the mahjong table and play with her mother’s friends who she calls aunties: Lindo, Ying-ying, and An-mei. They let Jing-mei in on a secret her mother had never told her: the story of her past.

The novel goes on from there, weaving together sixteen stories, each from a different perspective. The book is cut into 4 parts, potentially symbolizing mahjong, which requires 4 players, but also balance, customs and traditions. We meet all these incredible women who struggle with various issues and throughout the novel we watch them grow and eventually succeed in overcoming them.

Tan discusses many themes including, living up to your parents’ expectations, being lost between two cultures, sacrifice, sexism and power and finally, mother daughter relationships . It might not seem like it but I think the theme of harassment/antiharassment ties into this novel quite well since the generation of daughters who are exposed to American culture push their Chinese side away, ashamed of it in front of their American acquaintances.

This often occurs among young Asian-Americans who are bullied for their different looks, habits, traditions and customs. They are afraid of being judged or even harassed by others and, desperate to fit in, suppress their Asian side in order to do so. I have many Asian friends who have told me they felt this way as children and are now shocked by their past actions, both towards themselves or their parents. Something I particularly appreciated and I think is worth noting is how the novel addresses the topic of love. It does so in a very different manner than most books do: it speaks of the difficulties that come with it.

The older women often had arranged marriages and from their stories we learn how back in China love and marriage were not considered to be their choice. They were merely financial affairs, ways to bond two families, sometimes decided before they had even been born.

The younger generation shows us that overtime, love fades, that the opinion of their mother on their significant other hugely impacted them and that love is not just about being passionately enamored with your significant other. Throughout the story a recurring idea that the mothers try to make their daughters understand is that love is not just about liking a person, it is about fighting for the relationship even when things are going badly. It is about accepting the person for all their flaws and not giving up when difficulties arise. This topic is so often glazed over and seeing something so often ignored talked about like this was refreshing.

To finish up, the thing I love the most about this book is when the mothers speak about their lives in China, their childhoods, the traditions. The stories are each so poetic and while some are joyful, most are heart-wrenching and painful. However, they are all symbolic and have a lesson that the women learn through their experience and try desperately to pass on to their daughters. I believe that this bond the mothers and daughters have is so intricate and special.

Yes, on the surface, the daughters repeatedly make us readers understand that their relationship with their mothers is knotted and horribly complicated: they are afraid of them and never know how to please them. But when it comes down to it, it is clear everything the mothers do for the daughters is done out of love. Tough love. And that is quite possibly the greatest reason to do anything.