Summer Reads...

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan- 3 stars ***

I must admit, that this book took a little getting into. On an aesthetic point, the font was small and the chapters were quite long, so it wasn't one you could easily delve in and out of. The story however, was one that kept you hooked.

It is split into three parts. The first is from the perspective of Pearl, a middle aged woman with MS, who is feeling increasingly guilty about not telling her mother about her illness.The middle section is from the perspective of Pearl's mother, Winnie, and the third and final section goes back to Pearl.

The middle segment is the main part of the plot, where Winnie reveals the story of her childhood in China and the troubles she had to endure. It tells of her first marriage, to the abusive Wen Fu, and the harrowing tale of the loss of her three children. Living in China during the Second World War, Winnie had to leave her family home and move around the country in order to escape the troubles it brought, before finding happiness with her second husband, American Jimmy Louie.

Amy Tan, the author, is a Chinese American, whose books often feature mother daughter relationships. I think that the way Pearl and Winnie's was described was relatable, and the worries that each had were things that seemed relevant to the respective characters. It was interesting to compare the westernised lifetyle of Pearl to Winnie's more traditional Chinese upbringing, as at the beginning it was not apparent that Winnie had been through so much hardship in her younger years.

I particularly found it unusual that my opinions of certain characters changed throughout the book. Winnie initially is portrayed as being overbearing and fussy, one could say a typical 'mother' charicature. However, hearing her back story it is almost like being given the key into her head, and my view of her was completely overridden after understanding why she behaves as she does. I think that this was expertly done, as I am normally very judgemental when it comes to characters, so it takes a lot for me to change my thoughts on people!

I would recommend this book, as it had a different subject topic to that which I would normally read, yet I found it accessible and it provided an interesting insight into a culture that I am not very familiar with. After reading 'The Kitchen God's Wife' I would not hesistate to pick up another of Amy Tan's novels.