From Time Magazine, an article on Amy Chua's parenting style and book here Personally, I find the reaction to her quite revealing in and of itself.
I have not read the book, but did hear her on a radio interview. She described the book as more of a memoir than a How To book. She stated that her parenting style changed over time from the completely authoritarian style of her parents to a somewhat more relaxed blend of traditional Chinese and Western methods. Found the interview at NPR. From the transcript: "Well, I was raised, myself, by extremely strict but also extremely loving Chinese immigrant parents. To this day, I believe that their having high expectations for me, coupled with love, was the greatest gift that anyone's ever given me. And so that's why, even though my husband is not Chinese, I try to raise my own two daughters the same way. And so the book is about many of the strengths that I see, and that kind of tough immigrant parenting, but also about my mistakes. It's about making fun of myself - a lot of people miss this - and ultimately, about my decision to sort of pull back when really confronted in a moment of crisis. So the book is absolutely not a how-to book. I do not think the Chinese way is superior. It's a memoir. It's really a sort of - a story of my own journey and transformation as a mother, and it does explore these issues. You know, what's the right balance?" Her husband thoughts are interesting, also. Worth a listen.
her husband was on GMA today. George Stepanopolous tried to get him to say provocative stuff, but got stiff armed.
Saw her today (March 3rd). She wrote the book in part for grievance relief. She's certainly serious in believing that strict parenting is better than lenient parenting but he meant for the book to be comic, people were supposed to laugh at her character for being over the top. She had no idea as to the chord it would strike ... she didn't expect many readers, in fact the book gives her email address so that people can contact her. She's had a lot of hate mail since, by people citing material that's not actually in the book. She says that most Internet accounts of the lurid details are wrong, that those things are not described in the book ... that was the scariest part of her talk to me, how bloggers and reviewers and reporters just keep writing the same wrong things, without feeling the need to check the facts.