Book Summary and Reviews of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Book Summary

Amy Tan's modern classic that examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters.

The Joy Luck Club explores the tender and tenacious bond between four daughters and their mothers. The daughters know one side of their mothers, but they don't know about their earlier never-spoken of lives in China. The mothers want love and obedience from their daughters, but they don't know the gifts that the daughters keep to themselves. Heartwarming and bittersweet, this is a novel for mother, daughters, and those that love them.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Although the women in The Joy Luck Club are Chinese or Chinese American, and their heritage plays an important part in their lives, they also have experiences that all of us face, regardless of culture, even today. They struggle with raising their children, contend with unhappy marriages, cope with difficult financial circumstances, and are disheartened by bad luck. Which of the eight main characters did you identify with the most? Why?
2. When Jing-mei's aunties tell her about her sisters, they insist that she travel to China to see them, to tell them about their mother. They are taken aback when Jing-mei responds. "What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don't know anything. She was my mother" (p. 36). Jing-mei ...