A review by leer_amor
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

4.0

This book reminded me a lot of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. It’s told in a series of vignettes following 4 women who immigrated to America from China in the wake of WWII and their daughters. It talks about generational trauma, the racism and the pressue 1st generation Chinese-American girls faced to “fit in” and be “American enough.” At the heart of this novel is intricate familial relationships and Mother-Daughter bonds. Shared culture can be a binding force, but due to their differing circumstances and experiences, culture and language ended up being more of a division between the mothers and their daughters. They had to fight to understand each other, and not just because they have different first languages. They had to sift through the things left unsaid. It reminded me a bit of Crying in H Mart in that way. Definitelt worth the read and a modern classic that should be talked about a lot more.