Reviews - Il circolo della fortuna e della felicità

5.19k reviews for:

Il circolo della fortuna e della felicità

Amy Tan

3.92 AVERAGE

caitlin192's review against another edition

3.5

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mandyist's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Huh, I didn't realise my mum read this and that she rated it 4 stars. I wonder what her experience was like reading it and if, as a baby boomer, it helped her understand her own relationships with her immigrant parents?

I honestly expected to like this book more but ultimately, I think the experience was a little ruined by the audiobook. I listened to the version narrated by Gwendoline Yeo and it felt like she was rushing through it. I had to check that I hadn't accidentally turned the speed up. Her pronunciation was hackneyed in parts and some of the voices and accents were awful. (Some voices sounded like caricatures or parodies and others, for example the American men, were just weird). I sampled the version written by the author and it didn't sound any better.

I was really interested in the first part of the book, in the stories about the mothers, but I could not relate to the daughters at all. They were spoiled, judgmental, competitive and gossipy. I considered that the issue might be the generation of the daughters but I don't think that's the issue.

I have to think it's this book. I grew up reading authors like Margaret Atwood and Milan Kundera. I've never had such a strong feeling of not relating to a book on a generational level before.

At the back of my mind though, I wonder if I wouldn't have related to this more if I'd read it back in the 90s when I saw it on my aunt's bookshelf and when the film was all the rage.

I'm currently reading Margaret Atwood's <em>Cat's Eye</em> for the first time in decades, so watch this space to see if I just can't relate to late modern literature* on the same level as I did 30 years ago.

*and by this I mean literature written between 1960 and 1995

ericadavis's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

emmiet777's review against another edition

5.0

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

simisage's review against another edition

4.0

dark sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

there's no point in living, horrible things are bound to keep happening to you forever. noone can ever escape the cycle of abuse. you are doomed to always be like your parents the harder you try. lets all give up and die

emmalong's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

so beautiful and i cannot believe this one has been on my TBR for so long. i really love the way Amy Tan writes, it feels methodical and concise but also emotionally charged, which i really loved. i found every single character's story intriguing, engaging, and heart-wrenching for one reason or another. Tan does such a great job portraying the Chinese diaspora through so many different lenses. i love that it mainly focused on the fraught relationship between mother and daughter. it is something that can exist in any culture, but it is something that frequently comes up specifically with Chinese parents. focusing more on the mother-daughter lens was heartbreaking but also beautiful to see each character come to terms with their situations, who they are, and their relationship to their families and to their mothers. really a stunning book and i understand why it is so widely beloved.