The Joy Luck Club
As promised, Novel Ideas returns with episode number two for this week: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. This is a book that is not easily summarized, as its narrative follows eight different women through various episodes in their life, not particularly linked by any continuous plot threads. Listen to the episode to hear us talk about genre vagueness, embarrassing parents, marriage, and character authenticity. We also discuss losing your mojo, baby hatin’, murder by anorexia, and what really defines your “second best bed.” And of course, feminism, though through a very positive lens this time.
The music bump is “Mah-Jong” by Chicago (yes, that Chicago).
The Joy Luck Club – China Is Not America
Recommendations:
Ben: 8/10 One point for each cotagonist.
Gabs: 9/10 Just as enjoyable as Ender’s Game, but in a very different way. Also gets a gold star for being full of interesting, complicated women.
This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged "women's" fiction, Amy Tan, authenticity, baby hatin', character complexity, communication barriers, cultural divides, disappointing children, east v. west, embarrassing parents, family, feminism, gender balance, generational divides, genre vagueness, historical perspective, losing your mojo, luck, mother-daughter relationships, murder by anorexia, second best bed, septagonists, The Joy Luck Club, Tiger moms, types of marriages, unequal equality, visiting the dark farm, we are not Chinese.
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