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Amy Tan: A Literary Companion (Mcfarland Literary Companions)
Amy Tan A Literary Companion - Mcfarland Literary Companions Author:Mary Ellen Snodgrass In the mid1980s, Amy Tan was a successful but unhappy corporate speechwriter. By the end of the decade, she was perched firmly atop the best-seller lists with The Joy Luck Club, with more popular novels to follow. Tans workonce pigeonholed as ethnic literatureresonates with universal themes that cross cultural and ... more »ideological boundaries, and prove wildly successful with readers of all stripes. Tender, sincere, complex, honest and uncompromising in its portrayal of Chinese culture and its affect on women, Amy Tans work earned her both praise and excoriation from critics, adoration from fans, and a place as one of Americas most notable modern writers. This reference work introduces and summarizes Amy Tans life, her body of literature, and her characters. The main text is comprised of entries covering characters, dates, historical figures and events, allusions, motifs and themes from her works. The entries combine critical insights with generous citations from primary and secondary sources. Each entry concludes with a selected bibliography. There is also a chronology of Tans family history and her life. Appendices provide an overlapping timeline of historical and fictional events in Tans work; a glossary of foreign terms found in her writing; and a list of related writing and research topics. An extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index accompany the text.« less