The Joy Luck Club
From Wiki
Article in Adult Fiction and Big Read categories.
About the Author
- Read a New York Times article about Amy Tan at the heart of the San Francisco writing scene.
- Amy Tan is a backup singer for the Rock Bottom Remainders, an all-author rock band. Their occasional shows raise money for literary organizations. Author/band members include Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Mitch Albom, Scott Turow, Matt Groening, James McBride, Greg Iles, Ridley Pearson, Roy Blount, Jr, Kathi Goldmark and Sam Barry. Stephen King has also performed with the band.
Other works by Amy Tan
Fiction:
- The Bonesetter's Daughter
- The Hundred Secret Senses
- The Kitchen's God's Wife
- Saving Fish from Drowning
Nonfiction:
For Children:
- The Chinese Siamese Cat (adapted into the television series Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat)
Novels featuring Chinese Culture and History
- The Red Chamber by Pauline Chen - An epic reimagining of the Chinese classic "Dream of the Red Chamber" is set against a backdrop of eighteenth-century Beijing and follows the intersecting lives of three women, including orphaned Daiyu, who becomes tangled in a web of intrigue with ties to the Emperor's Palace.
- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - The story of friendship across class and distance follows two women throughout their lives in 19th century China.
Novels and memoirs featuring Chinese-American Families
- Mona In the Promised Land by Gish Jen
- The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston. Kingston uses a combination of family stories and legend to give voice to her ancestors. Try also her novel Tripmaster Monkey, and "China Men", elsewhere on this list.
- Girl from Purple Mountain : Love, Honor, War, and One Family's Journey from China to America by May-Lee Chai and Winberg Chai - A father and daughter collaborated to reconstruct the life of his mother (her grandmother), one of the first women to attend a Chinese university, and her experiences with the Chinese civil war and the Japanese attack on Nanking in 1937.
- Falling Leaves : The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter, by Adeline Yen Mah. This book is also available in a version written for younger readers: Chinese Cinderella
- Bone, by Fae Myenne Ng
- Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates
- Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Tradition, and Spiritual Wisdom by Adeline Yen Mah
First-Generation, Second-Generation and other Immigrant Stories
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- A Step From Heaven by An Na
- Still Life with Rice: A Young American Woman Discovers the Life and Legacy of Her Korean Grandmother by Helie Lee
- China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston - Kingston combines family history and legend to relate the stories of her male ancestors and their experiences as Chinese men and Chinese-American immigrants in various settings.
- On Golden Mountain, by Lisa See - See's great-grandfather came to California in the 1860's. See uses interviews with her relatives and her own research to relate the experiences of Chinese immigrants of several generations, including the discrimination and other hardships they faced.
- China Boy, by Gus Lee
- Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
Novels featuring Mothers and Daughters
There are hundreds of novels about mothers and daughters, but the ones we list below have a similar reading experience or feel to The Joy Luck Club: they tell the stories of several generations, depict difference across cultures, and/or feature groups of women within generations.
- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
- Empress of Weehawken by Irene Disch
- Everything Will Be All Right by Tessa Hadley
- Inventing Memory by Erica Jong
- How to Make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto
- Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Nonfiction featuring Chinese Culture and History
- Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang - The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, describing the life of the author's grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother, a member of the Communist elite, and the family's experiences during the Cultural Revolution.
San Francisco
- Amy Tan herself took the Washington Post on a tour of San Francisco in 2007.
Authors who are connected to San Francisco:
- Dashiell Hammett (his [ The Maltese Falcon] was a Big Read book for JMRL in 2011.
- Dave Eggers - bases his literary empire here - including McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Believer magazine, and 826 Valencia, a tutoring center focusing on strengthening writing skills, which has spawned a national foundation.
- Armistead Maupin - Amy Tan credits his [ Tales of the City] with teaching her about city life.
Porchlight San Francisco Writer's Grotto
Feature Films
For Children
- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord.
- Child of the Owl, by Laurence Yep
- The Lost Garden, by Laurence Yep
External Links
- The NEA's Big Read website has a Reader's Guide and more information about the book and the author.
- The Chinese in California: San Francisco's Chinatown An introduction to San Francisco's Chinatown on the Library of Congress website
