The Joy Luck Club is about a group of mothers in a mahjongg club, their daughters, and the hardships, triumphs, tragedies, heartbreaks, comebacks, and ups and downs of life they experience. Each chapter is a story told by either one of the mothers or one of the daughters, in sort of a round-robin way. However, the first and last stories are the most important, as they deal with long-lost relatives.
Each story in The Joy Luck Club is not just a story or a vignette, because they also serve as lessons in history and Chinese culture. I've learned several things about Chinese culture in this book, such as the legend of Houyi and Chang'e (The Moon Lady story), how the wealthy Chinese lived during the 1920's and 1930's, and even what life was like for Chinese-Americans in the 1950's-1960s. These stories are also very, very well-done, because they are so interesting, you get pulled into the book and you want to keep reading to see what happens next. My favorite story in this book was "Magpies", with "The Red Candle", "The Moon Lady", and "Waiting Between the Trees" as the second, third, and fourth favorite stories in the book.
All in all, I give this book over nine thousand stars, because it was that good. By the time you finish the book, you will probably be like me and re-read it a second (and third, and fourth, and so on) time in the future.
A Book You'll Read Over and Over Again Without Tiring of it
The Joy Luck Club is about a group of mothers in a mahjongg club, their daughters, and the hardships, triumphs, tragedies, heartbreaks, comebacks, and ups and downs of life they experience. Each chapter is a story told by either one of the mothers or one of the daughters, in sort of a round-robin way. However, the first and last stories are the most important, as they deal with long-lost relatives.
Each story in The Joy Luck Club is not just a story or a vignette, because they also serve as lessons in history and Chinese culture. I've learned several things about Chinese culture in this book, such as the legend of Houyi and Chang'e (The Moon Lady story), how the wealthy Chinese lived during the 1920's and 1930's, and even what life was like for Chinese-Americans in the 1950's-1960s. These stories are also very, very well-done, because they are so interesting, you get pulled into the book and you want to keep reading to see what happens next. My favorite story in this book was "Magpies", with "The Red Candle", "The Moon Lady", and "Waiting Between the Trees" as the second, third, and fourth favorite stories in the book.
All in all, I give this book over nine thousand stars, because it was that good. By the time you finish the book, you will probably be like me and re-read it a second (and third, and fourth, and so on) time in the future.