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Amy Tan Daughter Nearly Collapsed When but Just As Her New Career Path Writer (1952-) Amy Left the Baptist College Her Seemed Bright, Her Mother Fell Ill

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Amy Tan Daughter Nearly Collapsed When but Just As Her New Career Path Writer (1952-) Amy Left the Baptist College Her Seemed Bright, Her Mother Fell Ill Amy Tan daughter nearly collapsed when but just as her new career path Writer (1952-) Amy left the Baptist college her seemed bright, her mother fell ill. mother had chosen to follow her During this time, Amy made a Born in Oakland California two and boyfriend, Louis DeMattei, to San promise that if her mother a half years after her parents Jose. In 1974, the two were recovered she would take her to immigrated to the United States, married and settled in San China to see the daughter she had Amy Tan has emerged as a powerful Francisco. left behind. The trip to China literary voice. Amy’s father, John turned out to be a revelation for Tan, was a Baptist minister and While working toward her PhD in Amy, shining new light on her electrical engineer who came to the linguistics, Amy became fascinated relationship with her mother as United States to escape the horrors with the myriad problems sur- well as supplying her with the of the Chinese Civil War. The early rounding the developmentally dis- inspiration needed to finish her life of her mother, Daisy, inspired abled. In 1976 she left her doctoral collection of stories that would Amy’s novel The Kitchen God’s Wife. program in order to become a become The Joy Luck Club. The language development counselor. Joy Luck Club garnered Amy Tan When she was fourteen years old first the L.A. Book Award and then both her father and brother died of With a business partner, Amy the National Book Award; her novel brain tumors; it was also at this time started a writing company, The Kitchen God’s Wife solidified that Amy learned her mother had preparing speeches for salesmen her reputation as a powerful lit- been married to a man in China and and executives. Eventually she left erary voice. had three other daughters. After the the partnership to become a full- deaths of her father and brother, time freelance writer and though Some thoughts from Amy Tan: Amy moved to Switzerland with she prospered economically, she Daisy and her other brother. found the work unfulfilling and “How can you say luck and chance sought creative relief in many are the same thing? Chance is the After graduating from high school in different forms including jazz piano first step you take, luck is what Switzerland, Amy studied at eight lessons and fiction writing. comes afterwards.” different colleges, eventually earn- - Amy Tan, The Kitchen ing a master’s degree in Linguistics Her first short story ‘Endgame’ God’s Wife (1991) from San Jose State University. The gained her admittance into the relationship between mother and Squaw Valley writer’s workshop, “She said that if I listened to her, Amy Tan’s works include: later I would know what she knew: The Joy Luck Club where true words came from, always The Kitchen God’s Wife from up high, above everything else. The Bonesetter’s Daughter And if I didn’t listen to her, she said The Moon Lady Amy my ear would bend too easily to The Chinese Siamese Cat other people, all saying words that had no lasting meaning, because they came from the bottom of their hearts, where their own desires lived, a place where I could not Tan belong.” Writer - Amy Tan, The Joy Luck (1952-) Club (1989) “I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water.” - Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (1989) “I always thought it mattered, to know what is the worst possible thing that can happen to you, to know how you can avoid it, to not be drawn by the magic of the “You see what power is---holding unspeakable.” someone else’s fear in your hand - Amy Tan, The Joy Luck and showing it to them!” Club (1989) .
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