The Kitchen God’s Wife (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Amy Tan
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Plot: Family
- Time of Work: The 1980’s (in the United States) and the 1920’s to the 1940’s (in China)
- Setting: Northern California and China, particularly Shanghai
- Principal Characters: Jiang Weili (Winnie), Wen Fu, Jimmie Louis, Pearl, Hulan (Helen), Peanut
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Family literature
- Subjects: Memory, Mothers, Parents and children, Prisoners, Abused persons, Twentieth century, Marriage, Abandoned children, Domestic violence, Rape, Ministry or ministers, Immigration or emigration, War, Multiculturalism, Divorce, Remarriage, Abandonment, China or Chinese people, Chinese Americans, Women’s rights, Multiple sclerosis
- Locales: San Francisco, CA, China
The Novel
The Kitchen God’s Wife is about a mother and daughter who have mutually reinforcing secrets. Their inability to communicate is based partially on their different backgrounds. The mother was reared in China and emigrated to California later in life, while her daughter was born and reared in the United States. In the beginning, the story is told by the daughter, Pearl, who has informed everyone but her mother that she has multiple sclerosis. Pearl is afraid that her mother, Winnie, will get overexcited by the news. Pearl feels especially guilty about covering...
[The entire page is 3222 words long]
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