Too many books about Asian-Americans

I have read many books about Asians and Asian-Americans. I think I first became interested in reading about them and their cultures after reading Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Apparently, I have read so many since then that I can't keep them straight (not just books by Amy Tan b/c she's only written 6). I decided to re-read The Kitchen God's Wife (also by Amy Tan) and didn't remember a blessed word of it save for the beginning. I confused the entire book w/ Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses. So I'm writing this to help me remember just what happens in The Kitchen God's Wife.

So, this book has Pearl, the daughter, and Winnie, or Weili in her Chinese name, the mother. Pearl has MS, but hasn't told her mother yet. The woman Pearl calls Auntie Helen, but isn't really her Auntie at all, tells Pearl that she (Helen) has a brain tumor and is going to die soon so Pearl must tell her mother about the MS or she, Helen, will. Helen does the same thing to Winnie who must tell Pearl the truth about their lives in China or she, again Helen, will. In this way, Winnie tells Pearl about her life growing up first in Shanghai and then on an island not too far from Shanghai. About her marriage to an abusive man named Wen Fu and the 3 children Winnie, then Weili had before coming to the US. And about how she met Jimmy Louie, the man Pearl knew as her father. It is a good story, but it is very long and much of what happens to Weili is repetitive. That is to say many bad things happen in her life and every time things seem to get better they just get worse. I'm not giving a bad review b/c the writing is very good and the story is interesting, but I had to read something fun and a little brainless to even things up a bit.