Amy Tan Summary

Biography EssayAmy Tan's roots are in a sorrowful family history and painful personal traumas. Her father, John Tan, immigrated to the United States in 1947. He worked as an engineer and served as a B... Read more

Amy Tan's novels concerning the bonds between Chinese-American mothers and daughters have earned her a worldwide audience. Although immersed in the rich lore of Chinese myth and history, Tan's works t... Read more

In the following essay, Caesar states, "By making us question the validity of American knowledge and the 'otherness' of what Americans consider foreign [in The Kitchen God'... Read more

In the following review, Mesic praises Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses stating, "She provides what is most irresistible in popular fiction: a feeling of abundance, an account so circumst... Read more

In the following review, Pavey considers Tan's unifying device in The Hundred Secret Senses unconvincing, but asserts that, "this does not detract from the great appeal of her character,... Read more

In the following review, Gillespie discusses the problem of a second novel and asserts that Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife is both different from her first novel and successful in its own ... Read more

In the following review, Cheng lauds Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife stating, "The ending, with its extraordinary convergence of all that has gone on before, is a marvel." Yes... Read more

Described as the cofounder, with writer Maxine Hong Kingston, of an emerging tradition of Chinese-American women's writing, Tan is known for her lyrically written tales of emotional conflict between ... Read more