Tan's first novel, The Joy Luck Club, which includes Waverly Jong's childhood story in "Rules of the Game," was a smash success with both popular and critical readers. In her review in the The Nation, Valerie Miner called the book "a stunningly auspicious debut," and called Tan "a gifted storyteller who reaches across cultures and generations." Orville Schell of The New York Times Review of Books called it "a jewel of a book," while Scarlet Cheng, in Belles Lettres, commended it for its "clarity of voice and lucidity of vision."

Of course, it is rare to find a book that is wholly and universally loved by all, and The Joy Luck Club is no exception. The majority of the negative criticism has been about the book's structure. As David Gates noted in his Newsweek review, "Waverly is just one of eight main characters—four Chineseborn...