the valley of amazement by amy tan summary

To reclaim their lives, they take separate journeys - to a backwater hamlet in China, the wealthy environs of the Hudson River Valley, and, ultimately, the unknown areas of their hearts, where they discover what remains after their many failings to love and be loved. Shocked by her lover's adherence to Chinese traditions, she is unable to change him, despite her unending American ingenuity.įueled by betrayals, both women refuse to submit to fate and societal expectations, persisting in their quests to recover what was taken from them: respect a secure future and, most poignantly, love from their parents, lovers, and children. Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West - until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.īack in 1897 San Francisco, Violet's mother, Lucia, chooses a disastrous course as a sixteen-year-old, when her infatuation with a Chinese painter compels her to leave her home for Shanghai. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a 'virgin courtesan.'

Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house.

The valley of amazement by amy tan summary