The Joy Luck Book Club

Bad Pinyin Mothers of the Western Skies

On this final episode of The Joy Luck Book Club, we discuss Amy Chua (booooooo), multifaceted immigration stories, and the pacing issues in the last section of the novel.  A special thanks to our listeners for reading and following along with us!

American Divorces

This week, Rui, Ruibai and Amy look at the failing marriages of the daughters, why you can't eat crab that's been dead for too long, and Amy requested that we use the world's tiniest violin for outro music. Also, Amy Tan's views on autobiographical readings of her novel.

Navigating the Malignant Gates

This episode of The Joy Luck Book Club, Rui, Ruibai and Amy discuss the second section of the Joy Luck Club, Chinese Churches and Amy Tan's rather confusing reusage of plot points.

Sorrow, Feathers and Coca-Cola

Rui, Ruibai and Amy start off their readthrough of the Joy Luck Club by discussing Chinese history, Amy Tan's underedited Pinyin, and the stereotype of the evil mother-in-law.  The Joy Luck Book Club is a month (or so) length readthrough of Amy Tan's classic novel, discussed by (who else?) A Chinese mom and her daughters. We go through what she got right, what we have questions about, and the opportunities and limits of literary representation. Our references this episode: Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir  [https://www.netflix.com/title/81436586] The Writings of Yilin Wang [http://yilinwang.com/]