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The Joy Luck Book Club

English, Literature, 1 season, 4 episodes, 1 hour, 37 minutes
About
Amy Tan's 1989 novel spans two generations of Chinese American mothers and daughters. In this series, a Chinese American mom and daughter trio discusses the novel's successes, failings and Asian American historical Legacy.
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Bad Pinyin Mothers of the Western Skies

On this final episode of The Joy Luck Book Club, we discuss Amy Chua (booooooo), multifaceted immigration stories, and the pacing issues in the last section of the novel.  A special thanks to our listeners for reading and following along with us! 
6/27/202224 minutes, 29 seconds
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American Divorces

This week, Rui, Ruibai and Amy look at the failing marriages of the daughters, why you can't eat crab that's been dead for too long, and Amy requested that we use the world's tiniest violin for outro music. Also, Amy Tan's views on autobiographical readings of her novel.
5/31/202224 minutes, 40 seconds
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Navigating the Malignant Gates

This episode of The Joy Luck Book Club, Rui, Ruibai and Amy discuss the second section of the Joy Luck Club, Chinese Churches and Amy Tan's rather confusing reusage of plot points.
5/23/202224 minutes, 40 seconds
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Sorrow, Feathers and Coca-Cola

Rui, Ruibai and Amy start off their readthrough of the Joy Luck Club by discussing Chinese history, Amy Tan's underedited Pinyin, and the stereotype of the evil mother-in-law.  The Joy Luck Book Club is a month (or so) length readthrough of Amy Tan's classic novel, discussed by (who else?) A Chinese mom and her daughters. We go through what she got right, what we have questions about, and the opportunities and limits of literary representation. Our references this episode: Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir  The Writings of Yilin Wang
5/2/202223 minutes, 11 seconds