As with her last novel, Jen's voice in these stories is unique, intelligent, funny but not off-putting. She also takes amazing risks with racial material without stumbling - I find her characters to be complex & painfully authentic (you'll scream when you get to Duncan's mother). Jen seems to have a talent for treating weighty subject matters within the confines of "ordinary life" (nothing exotic here). This is a long story and I would not have minded it being a novel. The final story, "House, House, Home" goes far beyond the surface issues of a single mother in suburbia to provide insights into what attracts, and separates, men and women. "Chin", the darkest story of the collection, illustrates the broad variety in this collection. The two grandmother characters are forever memorable! Reading "Just Wait," I was on the floor laughing at the sibling dynamics, but found much to chew on later. In "Who's Irish," Jen subtly balances the humor and pathos of both intergenerational and interracial conflicts. My favorites, however, were the title story "Who's Irish?" and "Just Wait" (though I liked them all - not a dud in the collection). Her sense of irony is exquisite and her sense of humor wickedly funny.Jen's collection includes "Birthmates" which John Updike selected for his recent "Best American Short Stories of the Century." This is one of the few literary stories I've read with any insight into the business world and it shatters many a stereotype. Jen is a master of the well-placed telling detail and realistic dialogue. The reader knows their union is doomed from the start, but it is impossible to look away from this accident waiting to happen. "House, House, Home," at 75 pages more of a novella than a short story, really, follows the romantic relationship between art student Pammie and the much older art professor Sven. The story's O'Henrylike ending is a stunner. Below, the novelist Gish Jen (Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land and Whos Irish) discusses her feelings with Bill Moyers. When he checks into a welfare hotel to save money while attending a minicomputer conference, Woo and the reader are forced to confront the sorry state of his life. "Birthmates" (recently selected by John Updike for his "Best American Short Stories of the Century") is a heartbreaking story about Art Woo, a 49-year-old recently divorced minicomputer salesman trapped in a dying industry. Blaming the granddaughter's wildness on her "mixed" Irish blood, the grandmother is eventually forced to accept and embrace that same culture. In the opening story, "Who's Irish?" a Chinese-American mother and daughter clash over child rearing. A Chinese-American herself, Jen's prose and descriptions are equally deft whether she is writing about her own ancestors or the forebears of others. Knopf, $22), a collection of eight short stories, Jen explores the complicated existence of those hyphenated Americans who are caught between cultures.
In recent years, Gish Jen has explored the immigrant experience in the land of plenty with an accurate and knowing eye.
Since the publication of "The Great Gatsby" the notion of the American Dream has become a favorite theme in this country's literature. (Click on a book title or cover to order that book from )
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