“The Joy Luck Club is one of my favorite books. From the moment I first started reading it, I knew it was going to be incredible. For me, it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish forever. It inspired me as a writer and still remains hugely inspirational.” —Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians

 

Amy Tan’s beloved, New York Times bestselling tale of mothers and daughters, now the focus of a new documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir on Netflix

Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

 

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.


喜福會由四個部分，每部分四章，共計十六章組成。以個人自敘回憶的方式鋪展故事，母親篇和女兒篇各佔全書篇幅二分之一，以「女兒篇—母親篇—女兒篇—母親篇」的方式交錯而成。四對母女的故事。每個母親都被她成長中的社會視為鴨子、不值一愛的被輕賤，但她們不甘於這被輕賤的命運，為自己的命運孤注一擲奮力一搏，終於給了她們女兒尊貴的身份 與地位。她們正像伸長脖子的鴨子，終能留給女兒天鵝的羽毛，與充滿愛與尊嚴的未來。但很奇怪的是，當她們到了美國社會，掙扎奮鬥出另一種人生，想給女兒另一種命運以後，卻發現女兒承襲著自己的過去，用另一種方式重蹈人生的悲劇，唯一自小反抗母親的女兒，又特別的會被母親「我不贊同」的沈默所干擾，徹底的失去了自信與自我。