Born in 1952 in Oakland, California to Chinese immigrant parents, Amy Tan followed her own path. Over the objectionsof her mother, she majored in college in writing and linguistics and pursued a career in business writing.
A stunning literary achievement, The Joy Luck Club explores the tender and tenacious bond between four daughters and their mothers. The daughters know one side of their mothers, but they dont know about their earlier never-spoken of lives in China. The mothers want love and obedience from their daughters, but they dont know the gifts that the daughters keepto themselves. Heartwarming and bittersweet, this is a novel for mother, daughters, and those that love them.
Amy Tans first fiction efforts were short stories. These attracted an agent, Sandra Dijkstra, who sold what became The Joy Luck Club to Putnams. When published in 1986 The Joy Luck Club spent 40 weeks on The New York Times Bestsellerlist. It was nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a recipient of the Commonwealth Gold Award and the Bay Area Book Award. The Joy Luck Club was adapted into a feature film in 1994, for which Amy Tan was a co-screenwriter with Ron Bass and a co-producer with Bass and Wayne Wang.
Any Tans relationship with her mother was very difficult. An opportunity to travel with her mother back to China brought a new perspective.
