“I started reading everything I could about these courtesans. She used to think it was a photograph of her grandmother’s wedding or some other special occasion, but she discovered while doing research for the book that the clothing was a style popular for Shanghai courtesans of the day. It was inspired by a 1910 photograph of Tan’s grandmother that has long sat on her desk. The Valley of Amazement is set in a Shanghai courtesan house in 1913. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh about the novel, her writing, her life, and her belief in ghosts. In front of an audience of several hundred fans, she spoke with St. Louis as part of a tour for her new book, The Valley of Amazement.
Louis County Library.Īmy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and other novels centered on the mother-daughter relationship, visited St. This book is different because it tells the story of eight women who are so similar yet so different at the same time.Recorded Saturday, November 16 at the St.
Among the eight main characters, Jing-mei is my favorite, because she's really the only daughter that fully embraces her hyphenated identity. Although it's set back in the 80's, a lot of its themes regarding mother-daughter relationships and intergenerational conflicts are relevant amongst first-generation immigrants and families today.
I love this book! The book is structured like the traditional Chinese game mahjong, and each of the daughters and mother's stories are complex and thought-provoking. Ironically, their mothers feel they are losing their Chinese identity and became Americanized. They feel their mothers are overbearing and do not understand their desire for independence. The Joy Luck daughters, Jing-mei, Waverly, Rose, and Lena, are first generation Chinese-Americans living in San Francisco during the 1980's. The Joy Luck highlights mother-daughter relationships in the midst of generational conflicts.
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