Just finished reading Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife. This classic contemporary novel follows a mise en abyme conceit of a Chinese immigrant mother opening up the proverbial closet door and sharing all the skeletons that hides within to her American born and raised daughter who, now an adult with a family of her own, has a secret herself about which she hasn't informed her mother. The mother's narrative primarily takes the reader and her daughter back to the old country, the setting of China in the early half of the tumultuous 20th century. I'm mildly embarrassed that I haven't explored this book until now, but in a way I think I processed the novel more dynamically having it read now as opposed to when I was still in college or high school. I possess a compass if you will today that I lacked back then that helped inform me as I was reading and enjoying this novel.
My biggest critique is Tan's portrayal of the men in the novel, many of whom seem awfully archetypical and regressive that at times took me away from the story. Anyone else feel this way? Over all however, it's a "good read." I give it a shining 3.5 stars out of 5 and I recommend you definitely pick this up for a read.