The Joy Luck Club By: Jill Schmitt July 16, 2001 In the Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan's first novel, short-story-like vignettes alternate back and forth between the lives of four Chinese women in pre-1949 China and lives of their American-born daughters in California. "The novel is narrated horizontally as well as vertically; friendships and rivalries develop among the daughters as well as the mothers." (Matuz 92) The characters are generic, in the sense that, although they are from …showed first 75 words of 977 total…

…showed last 75 words of 977 total…character, but one must be chosen over the other to be free. "I think about two faces. I think about my intentions. Which one is American? Which one is Chinese? Which one is better? If you show one, you must always sacrifice the other." (Tan 304) Work's Cited Matuz, Roger. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Inc, 1989. Ling, Amy. Between Worlds. New York: Pergamon Press Inc, 1990. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.