Critical Insights: Amy Tan

This volume discusses some of Tan’s key themes: communication across generations of a family when those generations have grown up in different cultures, the immigrant experience, mother/daughter relationships, the intersection of gender roles and an Asian or Asian American experience, and depression and the artist, among others.

Amy Tan has called writing an extreme privilege, but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone. It seems Amy Tan will always be most associated with her highly successful debut novel, The Joy Luck Club. Yet she has also published five other bestselling novels, two memoirs, two children’s books, and has participated in adapting her writing into many other forms of media, including film, television, and opera. This volume offers insights into the full range of her creative work.