The Kitchen God's Wife

By: Amy Tan

Narrated by: Amy Tan

Length: 3 hrs

Publisher's summary

Winnie Louie and Helen Kwong have always shared secrets, but now Helen wants to reveal them. Helen is convinced she is dying and decides to celebrate what might be her last Chinese New Year by telling all the secrets of her life, as well as Winnie Louie's and those of Winnie's daughter Pearl. There are some things, however, that Pearl would rather her mother didn't know. The result of Helen's tell-all mood is a series of comic misunderstandings and heartbreaking realizations about luck, loss, and trust. In this funny and touching novel Amy Tan reveals important truths about the effect of secrets kept and revealed, and the miraculous, resilient nature of love among mothers, daughters, and friends.

©1991 by Amy Tan (P)1991 by Dove Audio

Poor audio quality; Worth a listen

The poor audio quality of this audiobook almost made me foresake it. I'm so glad I didn't!

Days later, I find myself thinking about the story and the characters and their lives...

Amy Tan is such a good writer, and to hear the book read by her, gives clear voice (ha-ha) to her words, just as she imagined them. I could hear the mother rushing through her story, telling her adult daughter the truth about her life, story spilling out, words tripping over each other. I would have read it differently. It's a rare treat to hear what was in the author's mind!

Great story, but bad audio quality.

The story was great, and very memorable. I found the characters rather well developed and I most definitely was able to understand their plight.
Though my only issue is that the audio quality wasn't very good. But that's rather understandable considering that this is probably a very old recording.

Great except for recording quality

This is a beautiful though devastating story. It's a shame the recording quality is really bad and in need of remastering. The author is also a good reader - always a treat.

Good but could be better

What made the experience of listening to The Kitchen God's Wife the most enjoyable?

It was a good story and very entertaining.

What three words best describe Amy Tan’s voice?

I didn't like the voice because sometimes she spoke too quickly.

Any additional comments?

I wish there had been chapter breaks.

Great book crummy recording

This was a really well-written book. The story was captivating and a great example of historical fiction. However, the recording itself was really hard to listen to. The quality wasn't very high and I had to turn the volume up to be able to hear and understand what was being said.

Sorrowful story

Very nice follow up to my reading of The Opposite of Fate. I usually only read nonfiction but this was pretty close. All of us think we have it hard, but it always can be worse. Such resilience this story shows. Wish it were longer

Classic

This is one of my favorite endurance and triumph stories. Amy Tan does justice to the narration of her novel. Only four stars for this selection, though, because the sound quality was tinny and hard to hear.

Bad audio

Any additional comments?

The audio is terrible. It is a recording that puts a strain on the listener as it is recorded like through the telephone, not a studio, and the listener can tell. The author is excellent, but not as a reader: she reads too fast. Thoroughly enjoyable, but can be hard to hear.

Warning

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, the story is good and if you must listen to the story it is a good one. Amy Tan isn't reading the whole story she is skipping a lot of material of her own book which is really confusing to me. why would she skip her own material?

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would have read the whole book. I would also get much better audio quality.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Amy Tan?

Jim Dale

Was The Kitchen God's Wife worth the listening time?

Yes more so if the whole book was read.

Any additional comments?

any particular reason why she didn't read the whole book?

POOR AUDIO QUALITY

It sounds like Amy Tan left a 3-hour message on my answering machine... The poor audio quality was too distracting to even get through the first chapter