Revisiting ‘The Joy Luck Club’

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The stories of mothers and daughters trying to connect with each other, across time, space and generations – this is the centerpiece of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. This week, Andrew Limboong and B. A. Parker are joined by NPR’s The Indicator’s Wailin Wong to discuss how the desperation to bridge the divide between parent and child continues to be present in stories of immigrant families today. We are also joined by Jessamine Chan to discuss parenting in this present moment.

Wailin’s Recommendation: ‘The Fox Wife’ by Yangsze Choo

Parker’s Recommendation: ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison

Andrew’s Recommendation: ‘Afterparties: Stories’ by Anthony Veasna So

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	what I was like as a teenager reading this book. I was not yet at a developmental stage of life
0:07.9	where I was ready to consider that my mother was a full human being with a complex inner life
0:16.5	and emotional baggage of her own and hopes and dreams.
0:21.8	You're listening to Books We've Loved from NPR.
0:24.5	The book show where we reread old favorites and tell you why they still matter today.
0:29.8	I'm Andrew Limbaugh.
0:31.0	And I'm Bea Parker.
0:33.0	What's going on, Parker? How are you doing?
0:34.3	I'm doing, all right? How you doing, Andrew?
0:37.3	Uh, good, good, good. I stayed up late
0:39.3	last night folding laundry and watching the movie version of the book we're about to talk about.
0:43.1	So it was a really productive, solid sesh of rolling up socks last night. We love a multitasking king.
0:49.5	Yeah. I'm also super excited about a book selection, but more importantly, I'm excited about our guest
0:55.4	today. Today, we have Whalen Wong, host of NPR's The Indicator. Hey. Hello, thrilled to be here.
1:06.3	How are you guys? Pretty good. I'm so glad to have you here with me because the book that we're reading for this
1:13.1	episode is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.
1:17.9	Published in 1989, the Joy Let Club is about these shaky relationships between four
1:22.9	Chinese immigrant mothers with their four American-born daughters.
1:26.5	And it's told through these interlocking vignettes that each story attempts to bridge the gap between generations.
1:34.5	And I'm curious of what the two of y'all thought of the book.
1:38.8	What was your relationship with the book, first of all?
1:40.6	I first read this novel as a teenager.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.