The Joy Luck Club

I read this amazing book by Amy Tan a while ago. This book is about 4 Chinese women, who migrated to America in 1940s and their daughters. It's a collection of 16 stories divided into 4 parts, which deal with different aspects of the mother-daughter relationships.

As a daughter of immigrant Chinese parents herself, it seemed to me that the author has put her soul into the book. It's no surprise to find that one of her daughter-characters, Jing-mei Woo, falls short of her mother's expectations and fails to be a pianist and/or a child prodigy. Amy herself had failed her mother's expectations of her that she become a doctor and a concert pianist.

Getting inside the book,

The Joy Luck Club was first formed by Suyuan Woo in China during war time, grouping together 3 other free-thinking women, one for each corner of the Mahjong table. The main purpose was to meet once a week and spend time feasting and playing mahjong. The idea was to forget all the misery around for just that day and keep their dreams of freedom and happiness alive. Even after immigrating to America, the leader Suyuan Woo, forms another Joy Club with three other immigrant Chinese women.

While these stories are mainly about the immigrant Chinese mothers and their American daughters, they also explore the relationship of those mothers with their own mothers. Each generation has different tales to tell and different circumstances to deal with. There is also combat between Chinese and American ways of thinking.