The Kitchen God's Wife

By: Amy Tan

Narrated by: Gwendoline Yeo

Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than 50 years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose all that has been concealed, when she decides to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of everybody's hidden truths - her own and Winnie's, as well as the dreadful news that Winnie's daughter, Pearl, has been keeping from her mother.

So begins a series of comic misunderstandings and heartbreaking realizations about luck, loss, and trust, about the things a mother cannot tell a daughter, the secrets a daughter keeps, and the miraculous resiliency of love.

©1991 Amy Tan (P)2008, 2016 Phoenix Books

Critic reviews

"Remarkable...mesmerizing...compelling.... An entire world unfolds in a Tolstoyan tide of event and detail." ( New York Times)

Wonderful book

First, I read the book then many years later I listen to it. Loved it each time.

Not Tan's best, but still very good.

Again, Tan starts off slow with this story. Once it gets moving though, it is hard to put down. I had some issues with the performance more than anything else. While in China, the narrator gave strange accents to people. One person had the voice of a California Valley Girl. Peanut, the Winny's cousin, sounded like she might have had a brain injury (but she didn't). At times the narrator's Chinese accent seemed to slip into a British-like accent. I think she was trying to show us that people in China have different dialects just like people in the U.S., but it distracted me more than anything else. As with Tan's other books, the women in this story are strong and determined - I loved them and didn't want the story to end.

Holds your attention through out

A great story. Riveting. Narrator does well except for "Peanut" in her "Valley Girl" style voice and the other snobbish characters, and the elderly aunt in the sing song style voice. Those voices were annoying and distracting.

Narrator valley girl???

During part of the story the narrator turned a 1920s young Chinese girl into a valley girl, I found it very lame

Thank you!

Finally after years of waiting, Audible brings The Kitchen God's Wife to us in an unabridged form. I listened with so much enthusiasm as I had forgotten the story completely. The only reason I have not given it 5 stars is because of the narrators sing-song treatment of Auntie Du. No person speaks in a chant-like manner and I found this narration to take away from the enjoyment of the story.

It is still one of my favorite stories. Still one of Amy Tan's best books. Worth a credit.

Slow starter

I read this right out of college along with several other Amy Tan books and I loved them all. The performance of this book is excellent, but I forgot it is a slow starter. The last third of the book is worth all the rest!!

ending gets me every time...

this is a great story and I get tears in my eyes everytime I reach the end.

The story was good

I did not like the narrator. The story was very interesting and well done. Enjoyed the book

love Amy Tan!

I love this novel by Amy Tan! The inspiring and touching transformational emotional work done by the main character and her mom makes this yet another one of Tan's awesome mother/daughter, self-identify, inter-cultural, and inter-generational works!

Narration unintentionally funny

The story is great and I always enjoy it. The narration is generally quite good. Some of the characters have a distinct California accent. In 1930's China : D. Also, Aunt Du speaks in a way that sounds -just- like monks doing Gregorian chants. Made me smile every time I heard it!