The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

James McBride, author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, is one of the guests in this episode discussing the impact of The Joy Luck Club. Amy Tan’s canonical novel tells the stories of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters. In McBride’s words, “no one quite deals with magical realism and women characters like Amy Tan does. She's brilliant. She's an American original.” The Joy Luck Club has inspired many books and other works since it was first published in 1989, and this conversation illuminates why Tan’s witty and complex novel continues to resonate.