Amy Tan Over-rated.

[Chooky]

Ruined minority/ethnic fiction by pouncing upon a made-for-success formula of family secrets wrapped in the multigenerational saga--East and South Asian writers have been doing little else for 20 years. Bears the same relationship to John Okada or Carlos Bulosan in Asian-American literature as J.K. Rowling does to Jonathan Swift in speculative writing. Helped deflect Asian-American writing's oppositional energies by promoting convenient multicultural myths. Her facile multicultural template has had vast implications for the entire culture industry. Flattened politics and history to private angst in depiction of minority assimilation. Empowered other immigrant writers to make mountains out of the molehills of their minor adjustment struggles.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/the-15-most-overrated-con_b_672974.html#s123718

Ouch! I don't know enough about Amy Tan to agree or disagree with this assessment, but I agree that there seems to be a tendency in the Asian-American arts to inflate and perhaps over-dramatize "minor adjustment struggles" to a level that they don't deserve.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

The guy who wrote these criticisms, Anis Shivani, apparently also writes fiction in a similar genre. Here's the blurb promoting his book "Anatolia and other stories":
http://anisshivani.com/

In these stories of novelistic breadth, Shivani takes the measure of the fallout from globalization as well as its advantages, exploring cultures old and new to gauge their ultimate resiliencies. An undocumented Indian worker in Dubai, an Issei man in a California internment camp, a persecuted minority novelist in contemporary Tehran, and a loyal-to-the-core Jewish trader in the Ottoman empire are the kinds of sympathetic characters who bridge place and individuality in this powerful collection. These stories make us confront the hardest intellectual challenges of the emerging world, without losing narrative urgency, concision, and lyrical power.

He hits Jhumpa Lahiri at #10 too (much more mildly than he savaged Tan, though):

Utterly unwilling (though probably fully capable, since she's the only readable writer on this list) to write about anything other than privileged Bengali immigrants with PhDs living in Cambridge's Central and Inman Squares, and making easy adjustments to the top of the American meritocratic pyramid. Determined to shun any stylistic influences besides Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant. Has staked out a very marketable niche territory and is never going to venture beyond it. Never a good sign when the movie based on a writer's only novel (The Namesake) is better than the book (there's no character in The Namesake that generates as much sympathy as Irfan Khan or Kal Penn in the movie). The protagonist's whole circle of immigrant elders moves from MIT to Harvard, but he's traumatized by whether his nickname (or given name) brands him an outsider! Invariably maintains coy persona of a modest writer in whose lap everything just happened to drop because of luck--come to think of it, this may not be far from the truth. There is such a thing as New Yorker fiction, even today--just read one of her upcoming stories about Central Square PhD Bengali immigrants effortlessly shedding their native ways. Possesses the talent to be so much more adventurous in theme and style--but remorseless caution stops her.

[sandra]

i disagree. what does he even know about chinese culture?

[SunWuKong]

Amy Tan is overrated. she doesn't push the envelope and acts as a literary gateway for white people into Chinese culture. i especially like this that he said:

Empowered other immigrant writers to make mountains out of the molehills of their minor adjustment struggles.

[AngryABCGirl]

Amy Tan is very overrated. I understand the perspective she's coming from a little bit more now and am even a little sympathetic to her world having lived in her hometown. The adjustment struggles in her books have a lot to do with coming from a community, many of whom live in an anachronism of a small sect of Chinese culture. And white people love to eat that shit up. I assumed she wrote for white people explicitly for a long time, but I've met more and more people who can actually relate to some of her books, so who I am to judge that experience itself. I still think her books and writing are overrated at best though.

I actually like Jhumpa Lahiri's books. His criticism of what characters she writes about is a little problematic. Writers tend to write about what they know and the people theyk now, I'm not sure if she would criticize Ernest Hemingway for writing about a specific class of white men. Her books aren't all about upper class Bengalis either, which makes me think he maybe just skimmed the Namesake. He seems to kind of have misinterpreted that book too, the main character and themes of the book and focus is on the mother and grief, rather than just Gogol's acculturation issues and his father. The book has a much more rich narrative.

Kinda also have to point out- Amy Tan and Jhumpa Lahiri are well known household names. He kind of just sounds bitter as shit about his books not making it in the genre as much if he's writing in that same space. The article was almost unreadable, even forgiving its academic language. Can't help but think he's not very good and lashing out a bit.

[Paradox]

Why would anyone defend Amy Tan? She's created new stereotypes about asians in particular and her multicultural mythos is trite nonsense used to sell books to middle class white people. Not to mention she's even supported the asian-american gender divide in more ways than one.

[applehead]

I guess the content of her books are worth noting but why hasn't anyone mentioned her writing writing? They're a step above those twilght books. Her writing skills aren't impressive. Does she teach?

At least Lahiri's writing skills are actually not that bad.

[Zdrav]

Amy Tan is multiculturalism gone wrong. A noble idea implemented by dumb people results in denigrating foreign cultures by handpicking the least threatening and most white-placating representatives from said cultures possible.

It's an absolute disgrace that Amy Tan is apparently a regular on high school reading lists. IMHO, it's better that some white male imperialist like Rudyard Kipling get read than some false representative of Chinese culture. At least you know what you're getting.

[Paradox]

Amy Tan is multiculturalism gone wrong. A noble idea implemented by dumb people results in denigrating foreign cultures by handpicking the least threatening and most white-placating representatives from said cultures possible.

The most egregious example is probably Lisa See. Maybe one of her distant relatives was Chinese but she has turned out a whole profitable career based on this. Co-opting culture is something that has been happening for a long time now. At least African-Americans have a large number of scholars and authors who are able to combat this. Whereas it seems that in more cases than not Asian-Americans take it or in some cases (Amy Tan) even celebrate the odious individuals capitalizing on it.

[SunWuKong]

i have not read Lisa See's other books, and from their descriptions, i don't really need to read them to know what they're all about. but the book that made her famous, On Gold Mountain, is actually really good. it's got a lot of Chinese American history in it. and i'm sure it would be well-received by the Asian boys that love stories about Asian men scoring white chicks, because there's plenty of that in her book.

[haplesshobo]

i have not read Lisa See's other books, and from their descriptions, i don't really need to read them to know what they're all about. but the book that made her famous, On Gold Mountain, is actually really good. it's got a lot of Chinese American history in it. and i'm sure it would be well-received by the Asian boys that love stories about Asian men scoring white chicks, because there's plenty of that in her book.

I liked the book too, but from the pictures in the book, they were real ugly, fat american women marrying the fit asian guys.

I'd probably give Lisa See the benefit of the doubt about how much she really identifies herself as Chinese if she had ended up marrying some Asian guy instead of some white dude.

[monkeygone2]

I liked the book too, but from the pictures in the book....

Dude lol.

Gold Mountain was well written/researched, but her bad Red Princess mysteries are her bread and butter.