The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

The book is divided into four sections. Four Chinese mothers; four American-born daughters; two stories for each woman. The first tells a story from each mother's childhood, and the second section tells an episode from the relationship between each mother and her daughter. The next two sections reveal a bit more of the mothers' pasts and of the mother-daughter relationships. It is a very interesting concept and method of story-telling. I find myself frequently flipping back and forth, to review what I had read before of each mother and daughter. We get a very poignant glimpse into the Chinese psyche, not that there's just one for all!

The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan

Read and reviewed in May, 2015

A very powerful book, and distrubing. It begins very simply and seemingly ordinary, with a family reunion and wedding. However, as the mother reveals more and more of her past to her daughter, it became very hard to read, especially about Weili's first marriage, the abuse and the heartaches she endured. The story line begins in California, and takes us back to war-torn China, facing first the Japanese and then the Communists. War and politics are only a background for Weili's troubles, though.