Essays on Amy Tan

February 19, 1952

Writer

• The Joy Luck Club (1989)
• The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001)

• “If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.”
• “Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.”
• “Chance is the first step you take, luck is what comes afterward.”

February 19, 1952 (age 70)

Amy Ruth Tan is an American author known for the novel The Joy Luck Club, which was adapted into a film of the same name, as well as multiple other novels, short story collections, and children’s books.

"Two Kinds", "Mother Tongue", “Saving Fish from Drowning”, “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”, “The Hundred Secret Senses”, “The Joy Luck Club”, “The Kitchen God’s Wife”, “The Valley of Amazement”

Along with common relationships that parallel her own life, Amy Tan also uses common literary themes that are universal in all of her works. Her main themes are sexism, identity, and fate. The sexism in her stories relates to readers as all females and males are aware of the "gender gap" between them.

As Amy Tan became a literary celebrity, the success of her debut “The Joy Luck Club” ignited a defining legacy for Asian American representation. To this day, it is the most commercially praised and book-clubbed novel written by an Asian American writer.

“If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.”
“Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.”
“Chance is the first step you take, luck is what comes afterward.”
“Isn't hate merely the result of wounded love?”