Four mothers, fourdaughters, four families whose histories shift with the four windsdepending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinesewomen, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dimsum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss andhope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink intotragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money."To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or toprolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the storiesand history continue.
With wit and sensitivity,Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and alwaysdeep connection between mothers and daughters. As each womanreveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life,the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast ordespair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as theyfeel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan isan astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves intothese lives of complexity and mystery.