Janis K. (scrapbooklady) reviewed on 7/25/2007 + 472 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

"The Joy Luck Club" shows the universal yet distinctive everyday conflicts of ethnic parents raising American children. The reader begin a journey with four Chinese mothers and daughters through series of storytelling in which all the woman take a flashback to their childhood or some previous memory. The novel, also extracts how the American lifestyle which is different from the lifestyle the mother's were accustomed to. This creates a gap between the mother and daughters. The Joy Luck Club itself is a club where one mother, Suyuan Woo, created with three other Chinese woman in order to save and collect money as a group and bring up the spirits during World War II. After Suyuan dies, her daughter, Jing-mei, takes her spot in the club and in the process finds out more about her mother, such as, Jing-mei has two half-sisters. The discoveries allow not only Jing-mei but the readers to leave the book with hope as a closer bond with her mother is formed. Jing-mei creates closure with her mother's death as the readers and along with Jing-mei learn the sacrifices and loyalties for all mothers when raising their daughters.
Since the novel is divided into four major parts, in which the mothers speak out in the first section, readers are never bored, for there is a new exciting adventure that begins as each mother and daughter tells their individual story. Even though the structure contributes to keeping the readers attention, readers may find it hard to collect and remember all the stories together.

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