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Title: Who's Irish? : Stories by Gish Jen ISBN: 0-375-70592-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 June, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.53 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The definitive East-coast Asian-American voice
Comment: I am a working mom with little time to read fiction. But the need exists. Amy Tam never did it for me. Maxine Kingston Wong was too ethereal. Finally, I found an Asian American writer with an East Coast sensibility! Gish Jen's new book of short stories is a delight. There are treasures in this volume. For me, she is the most down-to-earth and funny(!) Asian American woman writing today. "House, House, Home" is one of the best short stories that I have ready anywhere, anytime. The short story format (some are more polished than others, but all are worth the time) makes for good summer reading.
Rating: 3
Summary: Uneven Adventures in the New World
Comment: I was reading this book because I was considering using it in the high school class that I teach. Ms. Jen is a well regarded member of the Asian-American writers pantheon.
"Whose Irish?: Stories," is a collection of short stories about the Chinese-American experience. Several of the stories were interesting, well written and enjoyable. My favorites include "Who's Irish?," "Chin,"Just Wait" and " In the American Society." All showed some nuanced understanding of Chinese- Americans chasing the immigrant dream and the pitfalls of assimilation.
The problem with the book is a basic one-- the writing isn't terrible compelling. Many of the remaining stories are dull and listless. The last one in particular, "House, House, Home" was excruciating to get through, which is unfortunate because it is also the longest, clocking in at 65 pages.
I was disappointed overall, but would be interested in reading Ms. Jen's best known novel, "Typical American," to see if she has better luck with the longer format.
Rating: 3
Summary: It gets much better as it moves along....
Comment: I have truly enjoyed both of Miss Jen's novels--Typical American and Mona in the Promised Land--and I was really looking forward to this collection. I wasn't so thrilled by the time I was into the third story in this collection as I though this book was shaping up to stand as the classic example of someone who can write novels but can't write short stories. Then, suddenly, things improved dramatically. By the end I was convinced that Miss Jen can write short stories but, apparently, needs a much stronger hand in selecting what is working and what isn't, as this book is filled with good examples of both types of story.
Anyway, the second half of the book is much, much stronger than this first half.
The elements that make Miss Jen such a good writer are there throughout-a very gifted ability to render the immigrant experience, a strong writing "voice" and a potent sense of the drama that fills ordinary life combined with a gifted sense of timing. The problem with the first few stories is that they seem incomplete and disjointed. That dissipates quickly as the book moves along.
This is a book that's well worth the read but one has to stick with it and not let the early sections distract and irritate you to the point where you don't truly enjoy the really good parts.
Hopefully Miss Jen will manage any future collections more adroitly.
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Title: Mona in the Promised Land : A Novel by GISH JEN ISBN: 0679776508 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Typical American (Plume Contemporary Fiction) by Gish Jen ISBN: 0452267749 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: March, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie ISBN: 0802138004 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 09 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful by Alice Walker ISBN: 0156421739 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 28 March, 1986 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: China Men by MAXINE HONG KINGSTON ISBN: 0679723285 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 April, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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