Zee JLF 2018 | I am a prolific dreamer, says Amy Tan

Amy Tan, the star speaker on day three of the 2018 edition of Zee JLF, is best known as the writer of 'The Joy Luck Club', published back in 1989, about a group of Chinese-American women — four pairs of mothers and daughters — and their complicated, painful histories. The book was adapted into a film in 1993, which cemented its popularity and that of its author, who went on to write six more novels, several books of non-fiction, and a memoir published late last year, Where the Past Begins, which has been very well received by the critics.

Her session attracted a full house, despite starting at the early hour, at 10 am, on a Saturday morning. It was a fun session, moderated by writer Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, in which Tan spoke about 'The Joy Luck Club', and how she came to write the novel, her inspirations, her writing schedule, her close collborations with her editors, how she handles feedback. "About the most useful comments were — I don't understand, I want to know more or I'm bored," she told the audience.

Dreams — Tan said she was a prolific dreamer — often were the source of some of her stories and plots, she confessed. "A couple of years ago, I dreamt an entire novel, including the setting, the main characters, the plot development. I now have the framework of the novel with some of the ideas I want to develop."

She also spoke about her complicated relationship with her mother, who had left behind three young daughters in China to follow the man she was having an affair with — Tan's father — to the US and not been in touch with them for 30 years.

She recalled the painful memory of her mother once trying to kill her — "My mother had gone a little crazy. I was a teenager and I was rebelling. I had a boyfriend who was 22, a German army deserter, the father of a child with a woman he was not married to... When I came home, she had a meat cleaver in her hand. She locked the door, backed me up to a wall with the cleaver to my throat, and said with these wild eyes, 'I'm going to kill you.'"

The story unfolds

• The Joy Luck Club was adapted into a film in 1993 
• Amy Tan spoke about how she came to write the novel, her inspiration, writing schedule, her close collaborations with her editors, and how she handles feedback. 
• Tan also recalled the painful memory of her mother trying to kill her, while talking about her relationship with her mother