"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.
