Rules of the Game Meet the Writer Amy Tan (1952– ) Amy Tan had not planned to become a fiction writer. In fact, for years she worked as a freelance writer for high-technology companies, a career in which flights of imagination are not permitted. To ease the pressures of her job, she decided to take jazz piano lessons—and she began writing fiction. The result was the emergence of a dazzling new storyteller. Uprooted Childhood Tan’s parents had fled Communist China and come to the United States shortly before she was born in Oakland, California. Her mother, a nurse, was originally from Shanghai; her father, an engineer and Baptist minister, came from Beijing. After Tan’s father and younger brother both died of brain tumors when she was just fifteen, her mother took her away from their house to Switzerland, where she “diseased” finished high school. Her mother expected her talented daughter to become a neurosurgeon, as well as a pianist in her spare time. Instead, after returning to the United States, Tan enrolled at San Jose University and majored in English. Mother as Muse Amy Tan’s mother had a gift for narrative, and though the two were sometimes at odds, Tan’s mother came to be an inspiration for many of Tan’s writings. Tan’s first story, “Rules of the Game,” was included in The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989. In this highly popular collection, which later became a movie, four Chinese American women tell stories about their Chinese-born mothers, who all belong to a mah-jongg club in San Francisco. Other novels involving familial relationships are The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991) and The Hundred Secret Senses (1995). Tan’s mother died in 1999, and the final days of her life helped shape Tan’s fourth bestseller, The Bonesetter’s Daughter(2001). Tan says that her mother will continue to serve as her muse. is a voice . . . She’ll insist that she has a role in the next book. “She She’s not done with me yet.” Preparing to Read Rules of the Game 5 LINES: Tan makes good use of local color, including vivid details that convey the setting of of the Game.” If you “Rules were writing about a particular neighborhood in your town or city, what details would describe it best?
Rules of the Game Meet the Writer Amy Tan (1952– ) Amy Tan had not planned to become a fiction writer. In fact, for years she worked as a freelance writer for high-technology companies, a career in which flights of imagination are not permitted. To ease the pressures of her job, she decided to take jazz piano lessons—and she began writing fiction. The result was the emergence of a dazzling new storyteller. Uprooted Childhood Tan’s parents had fled Communist China and come to the United States shortly before she was born in Oakland, California. Her mother, a nurse, was originally from Shanghai; her father, an engineer and Baptist minister, came from Beijing. After Tan’s father and younger brother both died of brain tumors when she was just fifteen, her mother took her away from their “diseased” house to Switzerland, where she finished high school. Her mother expected her talented daughter to become a neurosurgeon, as well as a pianist in her spare time. Instead, after returning to the United States, Tan enrolled at San Jose University and majored in English. Mother as Muse Amy Tan’s mother had a gift for narrative, and though the two were sometimes at odds, Tan’s mother came to be an inspiration for many of Tan’s writings. Tan’s first story, “Rules of the Game,” was included in The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989. In this highly popular collection, which later became a movie, four Chinese American women tell stories about their Chinese-born mothers, who all belong to a mah-jongg club in San Francisco. Other novels involving familial relationships are The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991) and The Hundred Secret Senses (1995). Tan’s mother died in 1999, and the final days of her life helped shape Tan’s fourth bestseller, The Bonesetter’s Daughter(2001). Tan says that her mother will continue to serve as her muse. “She is a voice . . . She’ll insist that she has a role in the next book. She’s not done with me yet.” Preparing to Read Rules of the Game 5 LINES: Tan makes good use of local color, including vivid details that convey the setting of “Rules of the Game.” If you were writing about a particular neighborhood in your town or city, what details would describe it best?