The Joy Luck Club
by Amy Tan
The group members all agreed that Amy Tan is a good writer, providing us with good dialogue and well-drawn characters although it was suggested that her 2 other books were a better read.
The issue here was the structure of this book; being based, as it was, around the multi-facetted and seemingly complicated game of
Mahjong
and with this in mind, it is a book that is worth a second read.
The novel was a series of linked stories and we agreed that that each one was good enough to be a stand-alone short story.
The themes were around relationships and misunderstandings and we agreed on the universality of generational differences -
particularly between mothers and daughters which in this instance were underpinned by cultural differences as the ‘girls’ looked forward…. and the mothers looked back.
The daughters spoke both metaphorically and literally a different language from that of their mothers.
Bearing in mind that this book is now 30 years old, we acknowledged its use as a learning tool around other cultures, their changes, personal development back when this book was written and now.
The book had good examples of mothers’ advice to daughters still relevant today – and of the daughters’ views of their mothers…. ditto!
The stories were honest and real with humour and poignancy – so in spite of being a complicated book the clever structure could actually be ignored because the stories were very much enjoyed
SB, ****
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