Reviews for La Esposa del dios del fuego (The Kitchen God's Wife)

The average rating for La Esposa del dios del fuego (The Kitchen God's Wife) based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-03-18 00:00:00 Cor Enfa Amy Tan writes about women (complex women!) and I think that's one of the things I love about her books. The men in her stories are shadows, almost undeveloped, with little presence except when they are cruel and threatening. I found this closed women's world wonderfully refreshing, especially after reading so many books where men are the main focus. In The Godfather, Mario Puzo jumped into Mama Corleone's point of view for just one small bit; just long enough to reveal that the wife of the mafia godfather did not concern herself with her husband's violent world. She didn't care. After all, men never concerned themselves with women's problems. They were from two different worlds, and this separate view reminded me of Winnie, the main protagonist in The Kitchen God's Wife. Winnie is so distant from her cruel husband that she doesn't even know if Wen Fu is a gangster, and Tan never confirms it either. After all, it's not important. The main focus is all about women. And the women are vivid too. Winnie and Helen come alive. By the end of the book I felt I knew them… quite well. Both their personalities and voices are so strong. I can still imagine them bickering with each other. And they are friends too -- true friends, who resent and care about each other. They even talk trash, yet they still stick together. I found this push and pull so real. There's always a bit of one-upmanship with friends, and Tan knows this. You want good things for your friends, but you never want them to be too successful or too happy. It's like sibling rivalry. LOL Another great character was Auntie Du, who is an older woman with no husband (he died) and no money. She can't even write. But she turns out to be this lovely hero, whom I just wanted to hug. In a society that undervalues widows and spinsters, I loved that she saved the day, and she didn't even ask for credit. What a great character! As with all of Tan's books, I love her simple but lyrical prose, and I love all the details she adds about China before and after the war. Tan takes you a different world and a different culture, but makes it familiar simply by introducing you to these fascinating and flawed women. The love and pain they feel is universal, and I found myself quite choked up at the end, thinking about the friends and family that are in my own women's world. Problems I had with this book were the slow parts. Winnie's daughter Pearl is definitely not as interesting as her mom (although I found her relationship with her mother poignant.) Wen Fu (Winnie's husband) is almost too cruel, too inhuman. He's such a monster. I really hated him, which is good for a villain. But like all Tan's men, he was a shadow, very evil, but a shadow nevertheless. I think Tan revealed way too much of the ending in the beginning when Pearl is telling her story. Having Winnie go back and explain how things led up to where she was in the present, when you already know the outcome, kills a lot of the suspense. But all in all, I enjoyed this a lot. If you've never read a Tan book, you'll be instantly transported to a new world. But if you've read her other books, you'll definitely recognize many of the same themes and character types that she usually writes about. I give The Kitchen's God's Wife **** ½. It's a great book!

Review # 2 was written on 2019-04-11 00:00:00 Joe Garica I read this when it came out -- I thought I had written a review --no? It's holding -(all these years later) -a lasting wonderful reading impression. The culture -the relationships: struggles and love -the foods - it was all delicious.