Book Review: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having never heard of Amy Tan or her work meant I did not hold any expectations from the Joy Luck Club. All I knew about the book was what the blurb on the back cover had to tell me; but what got me ticking was that it had received a quote from Alice Walker - an author I admire and love to read.

Joy Luck Club is a group of four Chinese women who in the year 1949 are recent immigrants to San Francisco and meet regularly to play mah-jong and relive stories of the world they have left behind. Each having a history of their own, they unite in their loss and hope for their daughter’s to have a brighter future than they could ever have. Their daughters, oblivious to their mother’s experiences find little to revere in their advice and set out to build American lives of their own only to discover that their Chinese roots are deeply entrenched into their very existence.

To me, the stories of Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying St. Claire gave a much needed peek into the Chinese history, culture and traditions that existed during those times. Not only did their stories bring to life the folk tales that I have heard from the region but they also stood testimony to the Chinese culture we know of today. While on one hand Amy gives words to the tragedies the mothers faced through their life time, on the other she strings together the discord the lives of their daughters spell. Having never been exposed to their Chinese background except through the stories their mothers had to tell, the daughters sing a different tune much to the dismay of the Joy Luck Club.

The folk lore and the beliefs, none seem to make sense until you read the stories of the daughters and how each value their mother’s believed in starts making its presence felt. Through the tales that she weaves, Amy displays an in depth knowledge of the Chinese culture and the disconnect it has with the western way of living.

And that sums up Joy Luck Club for me. Other than the journey it took me through the Chinese way of life and the trauma people went through during the war, this book did not hold much substance for me. The book begins with a narration of the stories of the lives of the mothers and daughters and ends with just that. The impact the mother’s past has on their daughter’s present is dealt with but not in as much detail as the buildup has been. The plot ends just as it had begun.

As far as the narration goes, what works are the stories and superstitions Amy tells from China. For the uninitiated, they are truly an eye opener and tend to hold your attention as long as they last.

Take for example

“One was about a greedy girl whose belly grew fatter and fatter. This girl poisoned herself after saying whose child she carried. When the monks cut open her body they found inside a large white winter melon.”

“When you lose your face, An-mei,” Popo often said, it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The only way you get it back is to fall in after it”

Anecdotes such as these, charm you throughout the book but the dryness you sense in the stories of the children leave you feeling ambivalent about the whole novel. What does get left with you is the deep sense of attachment the Chinese mother’s feel to their country of birth despite the agonizing trauma it had let them suffer.

The Joy Luck Club opened a door into a world I didn't know to exist, but it stopped at that. Do pick it up, for all you know it might make you venture further into it.

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