Helpful Score: 4
The best book in Any Tan's collection and sorely over looked. A deep look into a life hard live by the main charactor, the mother, as she explains her life before her second marriage. A story that speaks of the charm tradition superstition and hardships in China during the second world war that not only gives insight into a culture but into a cast of charactores who are so deep and rich in personality that one could forget that they do not know them personaly.
Helpful Score: 3
This is the best Amy Tan book I have read so far. Amy Tan's writing is, as always, impecable and readable. There were moments where I hated the villian in this story so much I literally wanted to throw the book across the room .... but I couldn't bear to part with the book until I found out how the main character got away! I ended up getting so caught up in the story that I was literally crying at some points (which rarely happens), and laughing at others. It's a book about strong women in their relationships with each other. This book is a keeper for me.
Helpful Score: 3
- I loved the rich history and the way the story unfolded I was very surprised how the ending wrapped up the whole story in a way I hadn't expected but I wish it had gone just one more chapter longer all in all it was such a fantastic story!
I just had to add something - if you get a chance you should listen to the audio books written & narrated by Amy Tan - "The Opposite of Fate" because she talks in more detail about the writing of this book and many other things. It gives you even more appreciation for the book... and it did give me the last chapter I so desperately wanted but having her describe it was even better than reading it.
I just had to add something - if you get a chance you should listen to the audio books written & narrated by Amy Tan - "The Opposite of Fate" because she talks in more detail about the writing of this book and many other things. It gives you even more appreciation for the book... and it did give me the last chapter I so desperately wanted but having her describe it was even better than reading it.
Helpful Score: 1
Story telling at it's best, this book not only reveals so much about the details of Chinese life and traditions in China during WWII up until the People's Revolution, but also the dynamics of the modern Chinese American mother-daughter relationship. It's a worthwhile "read".
Helpful Score: 1
The Kitchen God's Wife is a triumph, a solid indication of a mature talent for magically
involving storytelling, beguiling use of language and deeply textured and nuanced character
development. And while this second novel is again a story that a Chinese mother tells her
daughter, it surpasses its predecessor as a fully integrated and developed narrative,
immensely readable, perceptive, humorous, poignant and wise. Pearl Louie Brandt deplores her
mother Winnie's captious criticism and cranky bossiness, her myriad superstitious rituals to
ward off bad luck, and her fearful, negative outlook, which has created an emotional abyss
between them. Dreading her mother's reaction, Pearl has kept secret the fact that she is
suffering from MS. But as she learns during the course of the narrative, Winnie herself has
concealed some astonishing facts about her early life in China, abetted by her friend and
fellow emigree Helen Kwong. The story Winnie unfolds to Pearl is a series of secrets, each
in turn giving way to yet another surprising revelation. Winnie's understated
account--during which she goes from a young woman "full of innocence and hope and dreams"
through marriage to a sadistic bully, the loss of three babies, and the horror and
privations of the Japanese war on China--is compelling and heartrending. As Winnie gains
insights into the motivations for other peoples' actions, she herself grows strong enough to
conceal her past while building a new life in America, never admitting her deadly hidden
fears. Integrated into this mesmerizing story is a view of prewar and wartime China--both
the living conditions and the mind-set. Tan draws a vivid picture of the male-dominated
culture, the chasm between different classes of society, and the profusion of rules for
maintaining respect and dignity. But the novel's immediacy resides in its depiction of human
nature, exposing foibles and frailties, dreams and hopes, universal to us all.
involving storytelling, beguiling use of language and deeply textured and nuanced character
development. And while this second novel is again a story that a Chinese mother tells her
daughter, it surpasses its predecessor as a fully integrated and developed narrative,
immensely readable, perceptive, humorous, poignant and wise. Pearl Louie Brandt deplores her
mother Winnie's captious criticism and cranky bossiness, her myriad superstitious rituals to
ward off bad luck, and her fearful, negative outlook, which has created an emotional abyss
between them. Dreading her mother's reaction, Pearl has kept secret the fact that she is
suffering from MS. But as she learns during the course of the narrative, Winnie herself has
concealed some astonishing facts about her early life in China, abetted by her friend and
fellow emigree Helen Kwong. The story Winnie unfolds to Pearl is a series of secrets, each
in turn giving way to yet another surprising revelation. Winnie's understated
account--during which she goes from a young woman "full of innocence and hope and dreams"
through marriage to a sadistic bully, the loss of three babies, and the horror and
privations of the Japanese war on China--is compelling and heartrending. As Winnie gains
insights into the motivations for other peoples' actions, she herself grows strong enough to
conceal her past while building a new life in America, never admitting her deadly hidden
fears. Integrated into this mesmerizing story is a view of prewar and wartime China--both
the living conditions and the mind-set. Tan draws a vivid picture of the male-dominated
culture, the chasm between different classes of society, and the profusion of rules for
maintaining respect and dignity. But the novel's immediacy resides in its depiction of human
nature, exposing foibles and frailties, dreams and hopes, universal to us all.
Helpful Score: 1
My favorite of her books. Heartwrenching, but also uplifting. A wonderful look not only into the Chinese immigrant experience, but also just the relationship of mothers and daughters in general.
Helpful Score: 1
One of my favorites. Amy Tan has a way of making you live the story, feel every bit of it.
Helpful Score: 1
I've always enjoyed a peek into different cultures. As always, Amy Tan does a good job of portraying in flashback, China before communism.
Helpful Score: 1
Another fun and fabulous book by Amy Tan. I LOVED this one!! A must read.
Helpful Score: 1
I usually love Amy Tan's writings, but after the first few chapters, I fell out of love with this book. It was full of rich tradition, but I could not completely get into Winnie's past. I found the story of her present to be much more enjoyable.
Helpful Score: 1
I thought this was better than the Joy Luck Club. I like Tan's mother daughter relationships. An easy read.
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of my favorite books of all time, and I have read it over and over.
Tan has this amazing ability to welcome you into the life of her characters, expose to you their secrets, their insecurities, their flaws, their joys, and their strengths.
Each character in this novel has been given her own rich back story that reveals her true magic self throughout the course of generations. Piece by piece, the reader is given parts of a puzzle, and the pieces comes together at the end of the story to reveal a beautiful tapestry of love, resilience, and self-sacrifice.
Tan has this amazing ability to welcome you into the life of her characters, expose to you their secrets, their insecurities, their flaws, their joys, and their strengths.
Each character in this novel has been given her own rich back story that reveals her true magic self throughout the course of generations. Piece by piece, the reader is given parts of a puzzle, and the pieces comes together at the end of the story to reveal a beautiful tapestry of love, resilience, and self-sacrifice.
Excellent read!
WOW! An awesome book...coulnd't put it down.
This is an excellent story about a mother revealing herself to her daughter, and the daughter actually starting to understand her mother. A wonderful read!
Mom/daughter relationships are so sharp and funny via Amy Tan. And sad and moving.
This is a GREAT book. I absolutly loved reading it. Very interesting, unique, and just an all-around great read. I would recommend this book to anyone, serious reader or just casual readers.
AMY TAN IS A GREAT WRITER. ANOTHER WONDERFUL STORY.
Moving story of a modern Chinese-American immigrant family in California.
Good book! Would definitely recommend, although character development not as good as some books.
One of her best books, focuses more on her mother's story in China, a dark and fascinating tale. Great story and compelling writing as always.
really well written. The mother is quite entertaining to "listen" to- as you read her narrative. I did find it slow at times, but overall the story was very interesting.
This book told the story of an older Chinese immigrant and her tale of coming to America. Made me quite aware of goings-on outside my own little world, as it did her own daughter.
One of my favorite writers, this was the book that got me hooked.
I enjoyed this second book by Amy Tan. I different view of life from a Chinese perspective.
Beautiful story of family and hardship. Loved it.
The author is great. The book is better.
This was another fantastic book by Amy Tan. She writes so that you feel that you're right there with the characters, laughing and crying along with her. A great read!
I thought this book might be tough to understand culturally but it was not! A really good book, I highly recommend it.
depressing
Brilliant writer, moving and funny and poignant.
As good, if not better than her first novel, The Joy Luck Club. Wonderful characters and a return to the author's Chinese immigrant experience.
Amy Tan's novel is well-written and thoroughly engaging. In excellent prose and conversations, she paints a vivid portrait of immigrant Chinese people in America.
Such a lovely complex story linking past with present, secrets with truth, and a sorrowful and endearing tale. Tan manages to tie it all together and give the reader a real sense of completion without being too contrived. An interesting look into Chinese culture and thinking, also.
Another great book from Amy Tan. Loved it. Though not quite as much as I loved 100 Secret Senses, and The Joy Luck Club.
Enjoyed this...was the first Tan book that I've read. Loved how the mother was able to tell her daughter all about her past and how she came to be the woman that she is today.
Very entertaining and touching. Can relate to the mother and daughter relationship.
I love Amy Tan and I loved this book almost as much as Joy Luck Club. Great characters, humor, tears, as well as insight into Chinese culture and history. Excellent!!
The Kitchen God's Wife is said to "be bigger, bolder and better" (Washington Post)than her first novel, The Joy Luck Club. Once the reader gets into the mind of the real narrator of the story, the world of Chinese society and thought is revealed. A good read.
I loved this book! It's both funny and heartbreaking.
Winnie is a powerhouse who has fought, laughed at, and struggled with life; Pearl is the daughter who grew up in Winnie's shadow. Pearl has a secret she doesn't want her mother to know because Winnie will blame herself, worry, be mad she wasn't told right away. Winnie has secrets she doesn't want to tell Pearl: she's afraid she won't understand, that she'll be hurt. Auntie Helen knows their secrets and thinks it is time for each of them to tell. Winnie was born in China seventy years ago and experienced her mother's desertion, a cultural revolution, and a very bad marriage. How can she explain these things to her American-born daughter, the one who keeps to herself and wouldn't even allow herself to cry when her father died? But as Winnie lets Pearl in, Pearl learns more than just her mother's story. She learns about herself, about the costs she and her mother pay to keep their secrets, and she learns to share her own secrets. Mothers can both support our roots so we can stand on our own and remove the top soil that nurtures us - this is a story of mothers doing both. --
An excellent book. It is a interesting picture of Chinese culture during the 1940's.
This is a great book...just riveting!
From Publishers Weekly
Tan's ( The Joy Luck Club ) mesmerizing second novel, again a story that a Chinese émigré mother tells her daughter, received a PW boxed review, spent 18 weeks on PW 's hardcover bestseller list and was a Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection in cloth.
From School Library Journal
YA-- Fans of Tan's Joy Luck Club (Putnam, 1989) will love her powerful second novel. Here she creates an absorbing story about the lives of a Chinese mother and her adult American-born daughter. Pressured to reveal to the young woman her secret past in war-torn China in the 1940s, Winnie weaves an unbelievable account of a childhood of loneliness and abandonment and a young adulthood marred by a nightmarish arranged marriage. Winnie survives her many ordeals because of the friendship and strength of her female friends, the love of her second husband, and her own steadfast courage and endurance. At the conclusion, her secrets are uncovered and she shares a trust/love relationship with her daughter, Pearl, that was missing from both their lives. Some YAs may find the beginning a bit slow, but this beautifully written, heartrending, sometimes violent story with strong characterization will captivate their interest to the very last page. --Nancy Bard, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Tan's ( The Joy Luck Club ) mesmerizing second novel, again a story that a Chinese émigré mother tells her daughter, received a PW boxed review, spent 18 weeks on PW 's hardcover bestseller list and was a Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection in cloth.
From School Library Journal
YA-- Fans of Tan's Joy Luck Club (Putnam, 1989) will love her powerful second novel. Here she creates an absorbing story about the lives of a Chinese mother and her adult American-born daughter. Pressured to reveal to the young woman her secret past in war-torn China in the 1940s, Winnie weaves an unbelievable account of a childhood of loneliness and abandonment and a young adulthood marred by a nightmarish arranged marriage. Winnie survives her many ordeals because of the friendship and strength of her female friends, the love of her second husband, and her own steadfast courage and endurance. At the conclusion, her secrets are uncovered and she shares a trust/love relationship with her daughter, Pearl, that was missing from both their lives. Some YAs may find the beginning a bit slow, but this beautifully written, heartrending, sometimes violent story with strong characterization will captivate their interest to the very last page. --Nancy Bard, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Amy Chan at her best!
Intelligent chick lit
An native-born Chinese woman shares her life struggles and triumphs with her American-born daughter. This is an amazing story, I loved the cultural details shown of Chinese life during and after WWII, it gave many perspectives that I had not considered before, observations from outside the American culture. I highly recommend this.
classic!
Chinese history, customs and society told throughout a story that weaves a plot to help you understand a culture foreign to many
a charming story
The main character, Pearl, narrates the interesting and terrifying story of her mother's life and tries to intertwine her observations into the context of her own life. This novel would have been amazing had the main character not been a stuck-up, narcissictic harpy, letting her bored and naieve ruminations unhappily influence the flavor of the story, which was unhappy enough as it was. However, the chapters that Pearl's mother narrated were really quite breathtaking.
No one tells a story like Amy Tan; she weaves an engrossing tapestry of charachters in the world of Chinese immigrants living in California that is both touching and complex. I was sorry to get to the end of the book and was left wanting more.
This is the first of Amy Tan that I have read, tho I have a read a handful of amazing books in this genre and I really have to say how eye opening and thought provoking they are. The first I read was about a mother and her terrible temper with her two teenagers, the second was about a daughter growing up with a mean step mother, and this one was mostly about a wife, tho there were a few memories of when she was a child. I guess I just live in a beautiful bubble where the birds always sing, and the men are always charming. I have more blessings than I could ever count. (I'd have been dead a long time before this character!!)
I loved this book. It was so sad, so real and so engaging. It is truly amazing how oppressed the women were in China, not very long ago. I know that this was just a novel, but it came to life for me and made me think. Which, imo, is what a great book does.
I loved this book. It was so sad, so real and so engaging. It is truly amazing how oppressed the women were in China, not very long ago. I know that this was just a novel, but it came to life for me and made me think. Which, imo, is what a great book does.
This is the third book I have read by Amy Tan and each one is better than the last. I loved this book and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about the human character.
Leah G.
Leah G.
Moving recounting of the secrets a Chinese mother keeps from the daughter she has in America - and the secret her daughter's been keeping from her. Engrossing.
International bestseller
I have enjoyed all of Tan's books that I've read, especially this one with its life in wartime China and backstory of her lost sisters
Beautifully written and compelling!
Powerful, upsetting.
My favorite Amy Tan book so far. Well written and she does a wonderful job tranporting the reader to China during WWII.
author of The Joy Luck Club
