It's hard to believe that The Joy Luck Club (#1,308) was Amy Tan's debut novel back in 1989. She has since become a doyenne of American literature, so that it's hard to imagine the pantheon of American authors without her. Somehow, I've never gotten around to reading this seminal work until now! I have to admit, it wasn't at all what I was expecting.
The novel is essentially the interwoven stories of four Chinese women fleeing World War II China and its aftermath, and their American-born daughters in San Francisco. I always felt as I was reading it that it was a series of related short stories more than an integrated novel. Each chapter stood on its own and was compelling in its own way. It made sense to me when I looked up the CopyRite that a number of the stories in this book were in fact originally published as short stories across a number of publications.
Clashes of customs and generations, misunderstandings common between children and parents and decisions made with life-changing consequences make the stories here relatable, no matter the language spoken. Trauma and coping, love and hope are universal themes.
The book when first published was so successful that a movie version was made. I guess just from the few clips I saw from the movie's trailer that I was expecting women sitting around playing mah jong with a much more structured social dynamic. It just goes to show that the book is always better than the movie! This is a great time to read The Joy Luck Club for the first time or re-visit an old friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment