Passage I

Amy Tan: The Secret of Her Success

[1]

In the home of Amy Tan's editor, a large blowup of a 1991 New York Times best-seller list was hung on the wall. The number one novel, Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife, is boldly circled. (3) For Tan, the reward of writing is not found in how many books she sells, but if she were to learn about herself from writing them.

[2]

(5) [1] After college, she spent many unsatisfying years writing business articles for a variety of American corporations. [2] Tan, finally realized that her discontent stemmed not from the writing itself, but with the subject matter——she didn't care about business.

[3]

[1] At first, Tan originally tried to write her stories from a non-Chinese perspective, assuming that work from a Chinese-American point of view would never be published. [2] But trying to write from a non-Chinese viewpoint proved unfulfilling. [3] Tan came to see that, for her, writing was a kind of exploration, a way to examine her life.

[4]

Tan also realized that, whether her work was published or not, one could only learn about oneself by writing in her own, Chinese-American, voice. That distinctive voice is part of what made her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, a best-seller.

[5]

In The Joy Luck Club, as in much of her writing, Tan explores the relationships between mothers and daughters. Her interest in this theme grew directly from her once difficult relationship with her mother and Tan describes her teen-aged self as "every mother's nightmare." Writing about those years was given Tan a way of understanding her past—and of coming closer to her mother.

[6]

Tan, who once felt she could never live up to her mother's, expectations now feels that her professional success has filled her mother with pride. On the other hand, Tan says that if she were asked what the most important thing she has done in her life was, she would answer, "I made my mother happy."