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The Joy Luck Club: A Novel Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 10,123 ratings

The Joy Luck Club is one of my favorite books. From the moment I first started reading it, I knew it was going to be incredible. For me, it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish forever. It inspired me as a writer and still remains hugely inspirational.” —Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians

Amy Tan’s beloved,
New York Times bestselling tale of mothers and daughters, now the focus of a new documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir on Netflix

Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.
Popular Highlights in this book

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Powerful as myth." —The Washington Post Book World

"Beautifully written...a jewel of a book." —The New York Times Book Review

"Powerful...full of magic...you won't be doing anything of importance until you have finished this book." —Los Angeles Times

"Wonderful...a significant lesson in what storytelling has to do with memory and inheritance." —San Francisco Chronicle

“Reading it really changed the way I thought about Asian-American history. Our heritage has a lot of difficult stuff in it — a lot of misogyny, a lot of fear and rage and death. It showed me a past that reached beyond borders and languages and cultures to bring together these disparate elements of who we are. I hadn’t seen our history like that before. At that time, we hadn’t seen a lot of Asian-American representations anywhere, so it was a big deal that it even existed. It made me feel validated and seen. That’s what’s so important about books like that. You feel like, Oh my god, I exist here. I exist in this landscape of literature and memoir. I’m here, and I have a story to tell, and it’s among the canon of Asian-American stories that are feminist and that are true to our being. It’s a book that has stayed with me and lived in me.” Margaret Cho

About the Author

Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, Saving Fish from Drowning, The Valley of Amazement, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, and two children’s books, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat, which was adapted into a PBS television series. Tan was also a coproducer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club. Her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives with her husband in San Francisco and New York.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004IYISSK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; 1st edition (September 21, 2006)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 21, 2006
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1277 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 343 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 10,123 ratings

About the author

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Amy Tan
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Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, and two children's books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, which has now been adapted as a PBS production. Tan was also a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club, and her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives with her husband in San Francisco and New York.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0pwe4vaQo

www.amytan.net

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmyTan

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,123 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and enjoyable. They praise the well-written, descriptive, and thoughtful narratives that weave together as a complete literary piece. The storyline explores the lives of Chinese mothers and their children living in modern China. Readers find the book insightful and open to new perspectives. They describe it as a charming, heartwarming, and moving piece of literature that inspires emotional content.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

284 customers mention "Readability"279 positive5 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. They say it covers complex topics and is well worth the wait.

"...It was well worth the wait...." Read more

"...Just finished it again and such a great novel! Maybe I will try another Amy Tan book now?..." Read more

"Everything about this story is just so beautiful, it was a JoY to read...." Read more

"...It's definitely worth reading again." Read more

193 customers mention "Story quality"189 positive4 negative

Customers enjoy the engaging stories in the book. They find the stories interesting, enlightening, and sensitive. The book explores emotions between generations and provides an insightful view of real people's lives. Readers appreciate the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. Overall, it's a well-written story that readers enjoy reading.

"...There's so much about this book I loved: the complex lives with rich backstory, the complicated relationships, the quirky personalities..." Read more

"...have found... Jing-mei's journey is so awesome, and the stories are so engrossing and interesting...." Read more

"...Amy Tan tells wonderful stories of the friends. She tells all about their days in China. She tells of their transitions to being Americans...." Read more

"...This series is probably the best of it's series, diasecting the mother daughter relationship on such a delicate and complicated subject, a Chinese..." Read more

83 customers mention "Writing quality"71 positive12 negative

Customers appreciate the writing quality of the book. They find it descriptive, emotional, warm, and intelligent. The book is described as well-crafted and a delight to read. Readers praise the character development and language used.

"This book is almost like a collection of short stories, but they weave together and tell about the lives of four women, Chinese immigrants who came..." Read more

"...Their stories are richly told, in their own distinct voices, and you can't help but be carried away with them as you read...." Read more

"...engage a book but the books written by Amy Tan are so colorful and descriptive, it just draws me in and I can't stop reading...." Read more

"...And the language used is beautiful to read. Amy Tan manages to evoke an entire milieu with her words. But the movie was what I was used to...." Read more

77 customers mention "Storyline"66 positive11 negative

Customers enjoy the storyline. They find it an interesting exploration of Chinese culture and women. The book is described as a heartwarming tale that follows generations of women and their struggles with life, family, and fortune. Readers appreciate the glimpses into these women's lives, the heartache and happiness, and the cultural differences between the four mothers and their Americanized perspectives.

"...They live in San Francisco. The book is rich in Chinese culture. It’s insightful and heartwarming." Read more

"...I loved it, the glimpses into these women's lives, the heartache and happiness of it all, the realness of the characters...." Read more

"...I mean that there is more background, more history, and much more Chinese culture(s). And the language used is beautiful to read...." Read more

"...weaves together four poignant international, intercultural, intergenerational tales into a heartwarming novel that beautifully captures the Chinese-..." Read more

38 customers mention "Insight"30 positive8 negative

Customers find the book insightful and moving. They say it opens their eyes to a world they'd never seen before. The stories inspire introspection and are relatable. Readers appreciate the different perspectives, attitudes, and cultural differences of the four mothers. The prose is poetic, full of symbolism, and precise. Overall, customers find the book an eye-opener that changes their views on life.

"...It will touch you personally in ways you won't expect, and open your eyes to a world that's probably been invisible to you...." Read more

"...The transitions between the mothers’ and daughters’ voices were so honest and true. She captured the mother-daughter relationship perfectly...." Read more

"...It's an amazing, heartfelt book that covers the complexities of not just mother/daughter relationships but what happens when cultures clash." Read more

"I very much enjoyed reading this book. I found it hard to follow the chapters at first, since they were always from a new perspective and time, but..." Read more

33 customers mention "Emotional content"25 positive8 negative

Customers find the book's emotional content engaging. They describe it as heartbreaking, powerful, and bringing tears to their eyes. The stories show life as it is lived, with complex relationships and quirky characters.

"...book I loved: the complex lives with rich backstory, the complicated relationships, the quirky personalities (especially of the mothers), and the..." Read more

"...I loved it, the glimpses into these women's lives, the heartache and happiness of it all, the realness of the characters...." Read more

"So emotionally invested in this novel...." Read more

"Great book, much more complex than critics contend. Sure, it is emotional but deals intelligently with issues related to immigration and the issues..." Read more

32 customers mention "Beauty"32 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They appreciate its portrayal of Asian culture and history, as well as its unique structure. The writing style is described as charming, humorous, and heartfelt.

"Everything about this story is just so beautiful, it was a JoY to read...." Read more

"...hard for me to engage a book but the books written by Amy Tan are so colorful and descriptive, it just draws me in and I can't stop reading...." Read more

"...Does a wonderful job of displaying how the struggles faced by the mothers affected their behavior toward their daughters and why they raised them as..." Read more

"...moire endpapers, satin page-marker, and makes a beautiful addition to any collector's library...." Read more

31 customers mention "Character development"25 positive6 negative

Customers enjoy the book's character development. They appreciate the connections between the characters and their quirky personalities. The author has eight main characters from which the story is told.

"...lives with rich backstory, the complicated relationships, the quirky personalities (especially of the mothers), and the wonderful way Tan used those..." Read more

"...I like her pacing and her characters very much. Side note: the movie that was made from this book is pretty good as well...." Read more

"...women's lives, the heartache and happiness of it all, the realness of the characters...." Read more

"...The characters and stories are all relatable in some ways, and confounding in others...." Read more

Missing Pages.
3 out of 5 stars
Missing Pages.
Good book and read but….book came without pages. There should be over 300 pages in this book and mine came with 298 pages. The book ends mid-sentence and I am very disappointed in this. I got this book for school and now I don’t know what to do about annotations because I have to order another book and carry two to my classes.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2023
    Despite being aware of this book when it came out and all the acclaim it immediately garnered, I've been about twenty years late to this book. It was well worth the wait. And I'm sure I got more from it now than I would have then, as my own relationship with my mother has evolved over the years.

    Because that's what this book is about: mothers who don't understand their daughters, and daughters who only very gradually begin to understand their mothers. Add to this a cultural shift from Chinese-born mothers to American-born daughters, and those relationships take on yet another distortion that challenges even the best of intentions to connect.

    There's so much about this book I loved: the complex lives with rich backstory, the complicated relationships, the quirky personalities (especially of the mothers), and the wonderful way Tan used those characters to flip my view of the USA. "So-so security" rather than "social security" is one phrasing I'll always remember.

    Perhaps because I was so eager to see what was happening with these characters that I read more quickly than I should have, or perhaps because the cultural differences between me and the characters were deep, but the characters were often blurred for me. I was grateful for the little cheat sheet, the character list, to help me keep everyone straight.

    The Joy Luck club is everything wonderful you've heard it is -- but you'll get more than a good read out of it. Much more. It will touch you personally in ways you won't expect, and open your eyes to a world that's probably been invisible to you. This is a rare gift from a book, and one you won't want to pass by.
    26 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2019
    This book is almost like a collection of short stories, but they weave together and tell about the lives of four women, Chinese immigrants who came to San Francisco around about 1949/1950-ish, met through Church meetings, English classes, work. It is also the stories of their daughters and how different their lives are to their Chinese mothers, but also the similarities. How grief in one land still hurts the same in another, in another life pain is still pain. Joy is still joy. And family can make anywhere feel like home, can help you find answers to questions your whole life may have been prodding you to answer. Jing-mei, the main character, and her mother seem like they are not close in life, Jing-mei's memories of her mother do not paint a close mother-daughter relationship the way that Americans would see it, but the love and reverence Jing-mei has for her mother and her worries that she was not enough, not enough to make her mother happy when what she had left behind in China was so wonderful and yet such a loss and gave her so much pain for the rest of her life, until right before her death she found a little hope that maybe she just might have found... Jing-mei's journey is so awesome, and the stories are so engrossing and interesting. I've read this book probably three or four times in 15 years and each time I come back I'm very happy I did. Just finished it again and such a great novel! Maybe I will try another Amy Tan book now? I like her pacing and her characters very much. Side note: the movie that was made from this book is pretty good as well. Good editing and it doesn't chop the stories up and take away from them like a lot of book to film adaptations do.
    8 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2024
    Everything about this story is just so beautiful, it was a JoY to read. It has been in my queue for several years and I am so happy I finally got to it.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2024
    The Joy Luck Club is a club where old friends meet to play mahjong. The friends form 4 corners of the table. One of the friends has died and her daughter will take her place. Amy Tan tells wonderful stories of the friends. She tells all about their days in China. She tells of their transitions to being Americans. They live in San Francisco. The book is rich in Chinese culture. It’s insightful and heartwarming.
    6 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2022
    As usually happens with me and older books, I watched the movie first, many years ago now. I loved it, the glimpses into these women's lives, the heartache and happiness of it all, the realness of the characters. I watched it often as a teenager, and it's stuck with me, in the back of my mind. I'm bummed that it took me so long to read the book itself.

    I love the book as much as I love the movie. The ending still made me cry. I look at the various mother-daughter relationships much differently now that I'm in my 40s and a mother of teenage girls myself, rather than the teenager I was when I watched it with my own mother, only able to really relate to the daughters at that time. Now, I understand certain things better and recognize pieces of myself in all of the mothers and all of their daughters now. Their stories are richly told, in their own distinct voices, and you can't help but be carried away with them as you read.

    It's definitely worth reading again.
    8 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2023
    Good book and read but….book came without pages. There should be over 300 pages in this book and mine came with 298 pages. The book ends mid-sentence and I am very disappointed in this. I got this book for school and now I don’t know what to do about annotations because I have to order another book and carry two to my classes.
    Customer image
    3.0 out of 5 stars Missing Pages.
    Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2023
    Good book and read but….book came without pages. There should be over 300 pages in this book and mine came with 298 pages. The book ends mid-sentence and I am very disappointed in this. I got this book for school and now I don’t know what to do about annotations because I have to order another book and carry two to my classes.
    Images in this review
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    Customer imageCustomer image
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amei
    Reviewed in Brazil on November 19, 2024
    Posso dizer que foi um dos melhores livros que li neste ano. Pretendo ler outros da autora
    Recomendo muito a sua leitura.
  • Gabriella
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing story
    Reviewed in Canada on August 21, 2024
    Read this in high school but never got a chance to finish it. Finished it as an adult, to this day it's been one of my favorite books of all time. Amazing story, such a unique story telling technique, such a hard one to put down and so easy to read. If you've been debating reading this, and are interested in Asian history/culture, this is your sign to read it.
  • Moumita Roy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Multi-Generational Fiction
    Reviewed in India on November 25, 2024
    There are some books, you read and you can't say you loved them. Because it made you feel so many things.

    While reading you relate with the nuisance.
    While reading some incidents made you sob.
    While reading you badly wanted to rescue someone.

    Most of all, while reading you realize the struggle of being a woman is everywhere the same.

    Be it Kim Jiyong, Ammu or Jing-mei.

    There is a pattern, common in Asian literature written by women, especially in historical fiction, the women broke the pattern.

    That is why I love Asian Literature.

    In The Joy Luck Club, stories of 4 mothers and 4 daughters are knitted. This book is more like a collection of moments. Not much of a character-driven one. ( I'm not complaining).

    The mothers lived their early-lives in China, around 1920-40s. But they wants to leave no room their children to be proper American kids.

    And there's the battle. They want to keep alive their culture, but they want their kids to gobble the American culture.

    They both fights. With families. With the world. But the biggest of all- with themselves.

    If you are looking for a book that's a mixture of historical and contemporary ficture, women written by women and about connections, this is the book you should read,!
  • Elizabeth O
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and thought-provoking
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2022
    This book has been sitting on my to-read list for a while now, so glad I finally managed to read it - it’s brilliant.

    This novel explores the deep, complicated and strong bond between mothers and daughters. We daughters perceive so much of our mothers’ faults, our manner and tone often condescending at their ‘outdated, foreign ways’, yet, we have so much of our mothers in us. Their strength, selflessness and unconditional love for us is a huge anchor for us, yet we so often take them for granted.

    Nevertheless, this story doesn’t paint a simple narrative that glosses over how this same strength and depth of a mother’s love can be tainted by their own imperfections too.

    I also loved how this story also sheds light on both Chinese and American history.

    I’d highly recommend this!
  • Na Go
    5.0 out of 5 stars Me encantó
    Reviewed in Spain on October 21, 2021
    Es un libro que recomiendo a menudo, de los que te deja poso tras leerlo.

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