The Valley of Amazement

Tan (The Joy Luck Club) is in familiar territory here as a mother and daughter must battle others—and sometimes each other—to survive and prosper. The story starts in 1897, and the setting shifts between San Francisco and Shanghai. Lucia was born in America and has a daughter, Violet, with a Chinese man. Later, she becomes the owner of a high-end establishment in Shanghai that supplies courtesans to wealthy Easterners and Westerners. Violet is abandoned by her mother and becomes a courtesan herself, though her quest for love seems doomed. The overly detailed descriptions of everything from furniture to clothing to sex acts bogs down the story. Unfortunately, character development is also poorly executed. The multiple narrators—Nancy Wu, Joyce Bean, and Tan—skillfully present the characters as they age and their situations change.