Amy Tan: A Literary CompanionMcFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2004 M09 9 - 240 pages In the mid-1980s, Amy Tan was a successful but unhappy corporate speechwriter. By the end of the decade, she was perched firmly atop the best-seller lists with The Joy Luck Club, with more popular novels to follow. Tan's work--once pigeonholed as ethnic literature--resonates with universal themes that cross cultural and ideological boundaries, and prove wildly successful with readers of all stripes. Tender, sincere, complex, honest and uncompromising in its portrayal of Chinese culture and its affect on women, Amy Tan's work earned her both praise and excoriation from critics, adoration from fans, and a place as one of America's most notable modern writers. This reference work introduces and summarizes Amy Tan's life, her body of literature, and her characters. The main text is comprised of entries covering characters, dates, historical figures and events, allusions, motifs and themes from her works. The entries combine critical insights with generous citations from primary and secondary sources. Each entry concludes with a selected bibliography. There is also a chronology of Tan's family history and her life. Appendices provide an overlapping timeline of historical and fictional events in Tan's work; a glossary of foreign terms found in her writing; and a list of related writing and research topics. An extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index accompany the text. |
From inside the book
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... Writers workshop , taught by Oakley Maxwell Hall , author of The Art and Craft of Novel Writing ( 1989 ) and How Fiction Works ( 2000 ) . Tan and other participants expected either to " be torn to pieces or ... be discovered " ( Bennett ...
... writing and life . She intro- duces the work by explaining that her writer's voice is perpetually attuned to fate and hope . As in previous publications , she acknowledges a debt to Daisy Tan , " who taught me the many permutations of ...
... Writers on Writing : Family Ghosts Hoard Secrets That Bewitch the Living . " New York Times , February 26 , 2001 ; reprinted in The Opposite of Fate ( 2003 ) . Mother ( contributor ) . New York : Pocket Books , 2002 . Classic Chinese ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 1 |
Chronology of Tans Family History Life and Works | 7 |
Tans Genealogy | 31 |
Copyright | |
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