SOURCE: "Chinese-American 'Bridge' Club," in Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 81, No. 102, April 21, 1989, p. 13.

In the following review, Rubin asserts, "In Tan's hands, these linked stories [of The Joy Luck Club—diverse as they are—fit almost magically into a powerfully coherent novel."]

Amy Tan's first novel, The Joy Luck Club, is a touching, funny, sad, insightful, and artfully constructed group portrait of four mother-daughter relationships that endure not only a generation gap, but the more unbridgeable gap between two cultures.

The Joy Luck Club is an informal "institution" started by Suyuan Woo upon her arrival in San Francisco in 1949. Suyuan finds three other Chinese immigrant women to play mah jongg, cook and consume special foods, tell stories, gossip, invest in stocks, and plan for joy and luck. In the years that follow, the club links the four families, enabling them to pool resources and keeping them in touch with...