Sunday, October 07, 2012

52 in 52 Week 41: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan


Having lived in a Chinese neighborhood overseas for two years. This book was good to read. I have always had such a heart for what the Chinese people have had to go through in this oppressive country. This gives fictionalized stories of four women who left China and came to America for a better life. Moving and very good.

As the granddaughter of immigrants, it was also interesting for me to see how their culture was lost as the American-born daughters of the Joy Luck Club made their way into American culture raised by Chinese mothers.  Poignant and realistic. It is a well-written book.

I DON'T think it is appropriate for kids though. My friend's fourteen-year-old was forced to read it over the summer for his World Literature class in high school. He HATED it and was so glad to unload it on me when he heard I was reading it for pleasure reading! LOL!

It is not appropriate for him because

 1) It is a chick book. There are so many OTHER books that would have been more appropriate for a teenage boy

 2) The themes are too mature and sexual for teenagers, male or female.

Enough said.

Movie version: I am watching it on ClearPlay. It is pretty slow and not really well-acted, but it does seem to bring out the essence of the book. It has taken me two weeks to get through it, and it is due at the library tomorrow. So, I guess this is what I will be doing this Sunday.

Update: The ending was good. I have to say that June's father was my favorite actor. The rest were somewhat wooden.

2023 Update: Eleven years after posting this, it got "flagged" for breaking community standards on Google, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why, other than my comment that this was inappropriate for teenagers? So, I added the tag "adult," and Google reviewed it and approved it. Go figure! 

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