Reading Amy Tan

This essential discussion of Amy Tan’s life and works is a necessity for high school students and an enriching supplement for book club members.

A tour-de-force in Asian American writing, Amy Tan has created works that are essential to high school and undergraduate literature classes and are often book club selections. Reading Amy Tan is a handy resource that offers both groups plot summaries of five of Tan’s novels, as well as character and thematic analysis. The handbook also provides an overview of Tan’s life and discusses how she emerged onto the scene as a novelist.

Tan’s typical themes, including Asian American issues and mother-daughter relationships, are examined in relation to today’s current events and pop culture. Readers will also discover how and where they can find Tan on the Internet, and how the media has received her works. The What Do I Read Next chapter will help readers find other authors and works that deal with similar subjects. This handbook is an indispensable tool for both high school and public libraries.

Summarizes each of Tan’s novels, offering a plot summary and a discussion of themes, settings, and characters

Provides questions that can be used to generate classroom and book club discussion

Includes sidebars to highlight interesting information about the author and her work

Offers a selected, general bibliography of print and electronic resources to facilitate further study