Typical American

by Gish Jen

From the beloved author of Mona in the Promised Land and The Love Wife comes this comic masterpiece, an insightful novel of immigrants experiencing the triumphs and trials of American life. Gish Jen reinvents the American immigrant story through the Chang family, who first come to the United States with no intention of staying. When the Communists assume control of China in 1949, though, Ralph Chang, his sister Theresa, and his wife Helen, find themselves in a crisis. At first, they cling to their old-world ideas of themselves. But as they begin to dream the American dream of self-invention, they move poignantly and ironically from people who disparage all that is “typical American” to people who might be seen as typically American themselves. With droll humor and a deep empathy for her characters, Gish Jen creates here a superbly engrossing story that resonates with wit and wisdom even as it challenges the reader to reconsider what a typical American might be today.

Genres: Fiction, Asian American, China, Novels, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Gish Jen grew up in New York, where she spoke more Yiddish than Chinese. She has been featured in a PBS American Masters program on the American novel. Her distinctions also include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship, and a Radcliffe Institute fellowship. She was awarded a Lannan Literary Prize in 1999 and received a Harold and Mildred Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2003. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009, she has published in the New Yorker and other magazines.

John Updike selected a story of Jen's for The Best American Short Stories of The Century. Her newest book, Tiger Writing, is based on the Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization, which she delivered at Harvard University in 2012.

Reviews

[Cassy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a shrewd, understated read about an immigrant trying to assimilate (for better or worse) into American culture. There is much showing and little telling. It is readable and well-paced, while the humor takes place on a deeper, ironic level. And the plot takes a few unexpected dark turns. My husband and I were actually debating if we thought that the ending would be hopeful or depressing. And as you would expect, there is considerable commentary on American culture.

If I had cool shelves like other GoodReaders, I would put this book on a “for-me-maybe-not-for-you” shelf. The book hits on some major components of my life (namely immigration and academia), which made the book particularly interesting to me. I also identify too much with the main character's awkwardness and list-making obsession.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I didn’t technically finish the book, but I did get up to page 90. And although I had break time to finish it—or at least get halfway through, as that’s how I’ve always judged books—I didn’t feel like it at all.

Usually, I love stories about Chinese Americans—because that’s me. I can totally relate to that. Anyway, that’s what this book is about: a boy called Ralph Chang who makes his way to America to study and get a degree. He later marries Helen and his sister Theresa comes to live with him. And that’s all I know as I haven’t read so far.

I probably shouldn’t even do a review for this, or keep it in the “Read” shelf, but I’d already added it to my list so might as well write something. The thing about this book is that it’s all very confusing to me. From what I’ve read so far, it has never dug deeply into Ralph and Helen’s relationship, how they met, how they got married, and whatever else that happened between those two periods of time. I’m just not sure how they became lovers or whether they had chemistry with each other in the first place. It’s like the characters pop in so suddenly—as if from thin air—without an explanation, a brief one, or one that’s way too unnecessary. So Reason Number One: lack of character development or depth in relationships. It’s not supposed to be a cliché or a stereotypical world and I failed to see that between Ralph and Helen and Theresa.

As well, the writing is kind of weird. I won’t say it is bad writing but the sentences and words don’t make me understand how this book can be described as an “engrossing story that resonates with wit and wisdom”. Really, I don’t. Part of the reason might be because I left the book unfinished but 90 pages is nearly halfway into the book and should’ve developed into some sort of importance. But all I got was a struggle as I tried to let the words sink into my brain and keep an open-mind. I want to like the story, because obviously, praises must count for something, but I ended up being completely bored. So Reason Number Two: lack of engaging and easy to follow storyline.

And I really didn’t like Ralph. Especially the way he treated Helen, and that particular part that really made me want to punch the dude—when he said he wished he could solve his marriage problems by just taking a concubine. I’m just like, what the heck? How can I feel sympathy for a protagonist like that? Granted, he might have changed towards the second half of the story, but clearly, the character developments of the novel weren’t compelling enough for me to want to read any further. So Reason Number Three: uninteresting characters that were written to represent something “good” on paper but actually turned out to be selfish and utterly annoying to even like.

[James Chung · Rating 1 out of 5]

-lack character development
-forgettable characters
-lack cohesiveness
-no true connection with immigration story

Was a drag to read. Dissatisfied

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gish Jen's Typical American surveys a broad range of immigrant Chinese American experience, and is populated by round, psychologically complex characters interacting in believable and striking ways. Jen's flaw as an author might only be a flaw of the Chinese American community itself, a tendency to presume "too much democracy" and too much equality in a country that has a bit more complex melding of Western tradition, class division and attachment to its roots than appears at first sight. Various friends of various world backgrounds have commented that Chinese Americans while neither racist, overly educated, not criminal nor intellectual, not too aggressive nor far passive, seem to assume that everyone in America has jumped off a boat into New York Harbor and built up their lives from absolute zero beginnings. I had the opportunity to go see the author speak at a public reading, but what's the point when in nobody in my family in three generations has majored in either economics or pre-med?



I'm not sure my impressions of the supposed "model minority" are universally positive. there are good things about Chinese culture, the traditional medicine, the knowledge of herbs and spiritual balance, but what of the negative features of the Chinatowns, the crowding, the lack of hygiene, the materialism?

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a joy to read. Up until the last 12 pages it all just kept plodding along heavily, the characters didn't make me laugh and I usually find Asian immigrants HILARIOUS.

Yifeng (Ralph) Chang comes to the US from China to study engineering. He starts out proud of his virtuous ethical ideals and then they disappear. Same thing happens to his sister Theresa and eventual wife Helen. Ralph befriends a Chinese-American named Grover Ding, a millionaire with questionable morals of his own, and it bothers me that all these Chinese people are depicted as such cheaters on so many levels. It is an interesting take on the American Dream, but very harsh and ugly.

Without giving it away, the final 12 pages are swift and bloody and disastrous; for me not having liked these characters it felt like heavy-handed retribution.

[Beatrice Gormley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the best book I've read about the immigrant experience. Three young Chinese come to New York at the beginning of the Communist revolution in China. They only intend to stay a few years, but Mao Zedong's takeover strands them in the United States permanently, as they gradually and reluctantly realize. Each of the three struggles in their own way to learn the language and customs of their new country, to earn a living, to come to terms with the ways they have changed. Poignantly, they share jokes about how "typical Americans" behave, but all the while they themselves are transforming, with sometimes disastrous consequences, into typical Americans.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, sad, true, and incredibly entertaining, Typical American has remained near the top of my list of all-time favorite books ever since I first read it several years ago. There's a clear-eyed, generous, tough-minded heart at the center of this novel about a Chinese immigrant's experience of trying to make a life and a family for himself in our wonderful but profoundly complicated country.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Loved the writing - Gish Jen is a great storyteller w/ a real way w/ words. That said, this was the kind of book that gets more and more depressing by the minute w/ people making terrible decisions left and right. I often really like books like that, but this time it just made me sad. Still, worth the read.

[Annika LaOrange · Rating 4 out of 5]

*EARLY SPOILERS

Typical American is a book with a very unique, entertaining writing style. It is complex and uses many unnecessary, but pleasant, details. I really enjoy Gish Jen’s writing style and how it sort of mimics someone telling a story, or thinking out loud. It sounds as if someone is going on, and on, and on about something they know a lot about. I think Gish Jen is a wonderful and creative writer that has her own particular literary formula in her work. She has, over these past few months, become my favorite author.
I like the themes of her writing as well. The themes surrounding culture and adapting to culture. This book does not attempt to sugarcoat what life was like for Chinese immigrants going to American universities in the 50’s and 60’s. In comparison to another book by Gish Jen, World and Town, I think that I like this one more. I feel like this one has an edge that World and Town does not have. It is slightly darker, more real.
The story follows Ralph, a man who moved to America to get his PhD and become a doctor, or maybe an engineer. It is a very rocky road from there, as he is not used to America at all. He lost his visa, as he forgot to renew it. Ralph had to quit going to school. He hides from the police, hopping from apartment to apartment. He harms himself, and at some point even attempts to kill himself. I enjoy the more serious themes as well. I like how the book puts emphasis on Ralph’s misunderstanding of American culture and lack of social awareness at some points. It shows that he really was in a state of mania for a majority of the preposition. I would like to note that most of this happens within the first 50 pages of the book.
The author uses many literary devices in her story. One is metaphors. An example of a metaphor in this story would be “Now the servants chattering became a choir in a silent movie, a line of O mouths, or a school of fish, blub blub.” It also uses personification. An example of personification in this story would be, “Above him, the moon hid bright-faced in the trees.” Anaphora is also utilized, “”Not only do I know who you are, I know what you are.” continued Pinkus. This time Ralph moved to let someone by. “Not only do I know you’re a liar, I know you’re a sneak.”” The author uses analogies as well! “... he watched the blood cross back, no thicker, no more vibrant, than that of a chicken.” It also uses anadiplosis, an example is, “But little Lou didn’t come, didn’t come, didn’t come; and then Ralph didn't care if he came or not.” Those are just five of the many devices used by the author.
Another small thing I would like to note is the inclusion of Chinese pinyin in the book. To emphasize the culture, the author includes the pinyin of certain Chinese phrases that apply to situations. “Xiang banfa. An essential Chinese idea-- he had to think of a way.”
The characters were diverse and well written, with the American stereotypes and all. There was a point in the book that was made where Ralph found an American woman that was sought after there to be gross and a “hag,” but as time passed he started to find her more attractive and even had a little spark with her, until she was fired from her job and moved. I find that to be a very interesting part of the book, that really does add on to the theme of culture in this book.
I really, really love a book that leaves me thinking when I set it down. It leaves open ends for me to try and decipher the meaning of, and I enjoy deciphering those open ends. It’s the kind of book that leaves me fulfilled.

[Alex Klimkewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chinese immigrants assimilate into America. Love, loss, and cultural (mis)understanding.
I read this for an online English course. What follows is my discussion board post covering this novel:

American Dream, Chinese Nightmare
Ralph Chang comes to the United States to get an education, vowing to keep his head down (hardly looking at the sights during his transcontinental train ride) and dedicate his spare time to cultivating virtue, honoring his family, and keeping away from girls (Gish 6). In time, he loses his virtuous aim and falls into an endless cycle of following the American dream. What that American dream entails in ambiguous success and ill-defined happiness, and rather than being content with his life as a tenured professor, Ralph dreams of larger greatness, propelling him to neglect his family and commit criminal behavior. Ralph and the other Changs go from criticizing the typical Americans and promising “they wouldn’t “become wild” here in America” (67) to doing some quite outlandish actions stemming from the unhappiness wrought by American society on their family members. They (Ralph, Helen, and Teresa) are negatively influenced by the Americans in their lives. Would Ralph have envisioned the automobile as a source of liberation or use it as an expression of his anger if not for his memorable joy ride with Grover? Although Teresa admits that concubine is a Chinese position within the family structure, she doesn’t truly adopt this title, and instead lives out a more romantic Americanized affair with Old Chao. Helen seems less actively tarnished by her involvement in American society, and one could even make the claim that she becomes empowered through doing things like fixing the furnace and exercising her muscles for the first time in her life. However, even Helen is seduced by Grover and loses her virtue to a character personifying unbridled greed and ambition.

Somewhere in the course of their family building the Changs lost their way and became by seduced by the American dream. They started on a trend of upward mobility and were not content to settle. Ralph moves his family out of a dilapidated apartment and moves them “out to the suburbs, land of greater promise” (Gish 183). He compares his own life to the lives lived by his neighbors and his successful acquaintance Grover. There is the recognition that the rules of life are freer in the United States than they were in China, limitless success to those who work hard enough. I think that Ralph’s mediation on American soil nicely embodies this idea: “A lawn like this was America. It was the great blue American sky, beguiling the grass upward. It was the soil, so fresh, so robust, so much better quality than Chinese soil; Chinese soil having been prevailed upon for too many thousands of years.” (159). While America offers more personal liberties than their native China, the Changs discover that they can’t keep up with the Joneses. Ralph wants more than the safety and security of his university job. He desires greater success, and to him this means greater material wealth, because, “in this country, you have money, you can do anything. You have no money, you are nobody. You are Chinaman!” (199). Ralph gambles with his family’s fortune and embraces a man who in a typically American fashion leeches onto the Chang family and leaves havoc in his wake.

Would the Changs have been better off without Grover in their lives? Would Ralph have settled for his tenured professorship? Would Teresa or Helen have succombed to affairs? We can only speculate, but as far as wondering what the Changs get up to after the resolution of Typical American, we can look to other Gish Jen stories. I stumbled upon the short story “In the American Society” in my junior English literature textbook. This tale, told from an adolescent Callie’s perspective, relates her father’s trials and tribulations at a new business, a pancake house. Sadly, the Changs still seem seduced by the American dreams of the image of success because Helen convinces them to join a country club. Their attempt doesn’t end well when Ralph has an altercation with another man there. This supplementary story reinforces the idea pursuit of an amorphous ideal of success can only lead one to failure. The ground is rocky and poor, like that built on the Chang’s Chicken Palace. The bottom falls out all too easily, but with close family ties, maybe someone like Ralph could one day come to the realization that with his education, his home, and his family, he had achieved the American dream long before wanting more, more, more.

The article by Michelle Asha Cooper and Robert Teranishi sets out to tell the truth about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) as model minorities in America. The perception that AAPI are at an advantage (academically, socially, politically, etc.) is misleading. Celebrating the achievements of stereotypes diminishes the efforts of those who do not reach a certain identified marker of success. I found it interesting that the idea of AAPI as a model of minority behavior arose out of further denigration of African Americans. Given recent political developments in this country, it is wildly clear that to be perceived as a typical (successful) American, one must wear a certain skin color, worship a certain way, reside in a certain tax bracket, or sport an outrageous coiffure. What will it take to redefine the nature of race relations so that these value judgements don’t matter? What could make every individual in this melting pot of ours a typical American?

Cooper, Michelle Asha & Robert Teranishi. “The Truth about ‘Model Minorities.’” Forbes, 5 Aug. 2010, http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/05/mode... Accessed 31 Jan. 2017.

Gish, Jen. Typical American. 1991. Vintage Books, 2008.

[Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a bit of a struggle to convince myself to continue reading this book at times, but it entertained some.

[Baljit · Rating 2 out of 5]

A promising first half but spirals out of control in the final section.

[Jeannie · Rating 2 out of 5]

read for school, did not enjoy it. Little explanation on how Ralph and Helen even have chemistry, storyline rushes forward. Unnecessary Chinese volcab inserted. Save ur time and souls ppl.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. The writing style was suffocatingly bland and I didn't care about any of the characters: Ralph, Helen, Theresa. They represent a very narrow slice of the Chinese American experience: privileged, overeducated and smug, possibly like the author. I couldn't relate to any of them, and whatever racism they must have experienced coming to America in the 1950s is ridiculously minimized and glossed over. Chinese-Americans are still seen as "foreign" 50 years after WWII so to call them "Typical American" is to trivialize the racism and hostility Asian immigrants still face today. It's false and that's why so much of "Typical American" feels dishonest and unengaging - the author refuses to take a hard look at the lives of real immigrants and prefers the fantasy version of America instead.

[Ev · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like when I sit down and accidentally end up learning 30+ years worth of family drama

[MelioraBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars [Review to come]

[Hillary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good thing I waited a day or so before reviewing this book. If I had reviewed it right after finishing it, I would have given it a lower rating. I needed some time to think about it.

What I understand here is that Gish Jen tells a story about Chinese immigrants in the US, in mostly the second half of the 20th century. She uses some devices to add authenticity to the story. For example, when the characters speak to each other in Chinese or Shanghainese, the dialogue appears in italics. When they speak in English, the dialogue is not. At the beginning, it was hard to read the characters' English speeches, because they were just learning English. I didn't feel I was truly grasping the entire story--much like the characters' comprehension level in English--and I even considered dropping the book.

But as the reader progresses, so does the characters' English. It's a clever device, and the story gets much easier to follow. We American readers get a real sense of the cluelessness, wonder, appreciation, and culture shock the characters feel. Since Ralph and Helen have two children, we now have two American Born Chinese, children who speak little Chinese; they are very much being raised as American kids. This is typical second generation cultural and linguistic development.

The more subtle subtext is the deep cultural differences the immigrant characters struggle with. As Chinese people, they grew up in a very collectivist society: the group (family, in this case) is everything, and personal needs take a backseat. The idea is that the group will take care of everyone. But it leaves Ralph very gullible and childlike, unprepared for his role, and with little idea how to relate to/communicate with his wife, Helen. He simply believes that he, as the father, is the head of the household, whether he knows what he's doing or not. Needless to say, he makes a number of bad decisions.

On the other hand, Helen, and Ralph's sister, Theresa, don't know how to speak up for their needs and their rights. Or they figure out subtle (sneaky) ways to get their thoughts and desires across. Both end up having affairs, which lead, at least partly, to the final downfall of the family.

And yet, the family has great respect and admiration for the American individualistic society. They marvel that anyone can become rich, that the US is the land of opportunity. The women tend to be a bit more cautious and realistic about the dangers of working with certain people and fudging the rules. But not a lot, and they often must defer to the "father."

All this was incredibly frustrating for me. I was also very surprised that the family encountered almost no racism once they moved to the suburbs. Really? And, honestly, the last chapter or so was, well, what was that? What was the point, and why was that the ending?

So, while this is not my favorite book ever, I do have respect for Jen's use of language to tell the story in several layers. But I need to like the characters, at least a little bit, in order to love a book. That didn't much happen here.

[Kellyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The following is a discussion post I wrote for my Women and Gender Studies intro course regarding this book, which we were asked to read for our "big assignment":

I would like to take this opportunity to air some of my grievances about Typical American. I mean this as an opinionated response, and I don’t mean to offend anybody who enjoys this book at all.

I had been looking forward to starting to read this book, because I tend to enjoy books about immigrants and foreigners who experience American culture for the first time. I initially thought it was an odd choice for a women and gender studies course, but as we began discussing intersectionality as it relates to feminism, I started to get excited to read it and examine the feminist and cultural underpinnings in the story. I especially like to hear Asian people’s experiences in America, since I used to tutor Chinese and Korean people of varying ages in English speaking, reading, and writing.

However, I’ll admit I am about halfway through the book and I am not enjoying it at all. The primary reason is the prose, or the way the story is told. Typical American is described on Goodreads as “a superbly engrossing story that resonates with wit and wisdom” but I don’t see that at all. The prose is more often confusing, rushed, and not engaging than wise or witty. It’s like the author spends too much time developing scenes that are neither important nor interesting and does not take care to develop ones that illustrate what the characters want or where the plot is going.

I also dislike the characters simply because they are not well-written or interesting or lifelike. It is difficult for me to care about them as people or about what happens to them in the story. I don’t mind that at times they behave unethically and selfishly; many excellent books portray flawed characters. The difference is, however, that we become interested in these characters, either because of or despite these flaws. That is where the prose needs to come in to paint a picture of interesting, lifelike characters. For example, Rubeus Hagrid from Harry Potter is one of my all-time favorite characters. He is incredibly flawed; he is irresponsible and reckless, but the way he is written, as well as the times when he redeems himself, makes him enjoyable to read about.

This is not to say that the book does not have its instances where feminism, culture, and other ideas can be identified and examined. I’m just not enjoying the journey to get to those instances.

[Kkraemer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be one of the best books I've ever read. Also one of the funniest.

Chang Yifeng was the son of a traditional family who valued sons, and his ears stuck out, so he went through childhood with his hands over his ears so that no one would make fun of him. He also missed hearing things. This combination, avoiding ridicule and information, defined his life..

He came to the U.S. and accidentally took the name "Ralph" to become Ralph Chang, a fairly unmelodious name for a man who has the kind of passivity, cluelessness, passion, and anger that define so many Americans. By turns, he is successful (almost in opposition to his own efforts) and taken as a fool. He lives at the edge of what he assumes from Confucian China and what he sees in the bright lights and big city of the U.S. He worships a guy who seems to have figured things out, Grover Ding, a Chinese American combination of John Wayne and God.

This is the story of his life, his family, his work, his failures. "..sometimes after work, Ralph watched TV now...never bothering to turn the channel, simply letting the words and images wash over him. The stories were nothing like his story; for this, he felt a gratitude bordering on love. When the time came for him to turn the TV off, he watched the images waver and disappear as thought it were a real world, all his world ought to have been, that was sucked back into the set...a story with one character, doing nothing."

Jen's characters, descriptions, dialogues, and reflections are saber sharp and brilliant, often so funny that the images elicit not just chuckles, but laughter.

What an amazing book.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical American’s Typical Book Review
By Colin Eldred
The book Typical American by Gish Jen is about a Chinese family who sends their children to the United States for school and job opportunities. The children use the phrase typical American as a way of calling us dumb or stupid. By the end of the book the family changes their views on what the typical American really is because of all of their experiences in the United States. I found this book very interesting in the beginning, but the rest I found quite dull and boring. The book got a little depressing with the main character Ralph having his life go downhill. He had the job of killing and plucking chickens and he didn’t do as well in school as he had hoped or thought. The book had a couple of points where a person might find themselves laughing or smiling which is always a good touch. The author uses very good vocabulary and descriptive adjectives, while reading the book I found myself looking up words several times. The book Typical American is very typical itself as a book. The book is definitely not great, but it’s not bad either. I would recommend this book to people that are interested in the life of an immigrant. I rate this book with 3 stars because there is no way I would read it again, but I don’t totally regret reading it.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

possibly one of the worst books i had to read for school. this book is so thematically empty and i can't sympathize with a single character. this book genuinely portrays an entire race in the worst image possible: spineless, weak, selfish, and corrupt. this book is meant to be based on gatsby but it has failed in every way possible. every night i dread reading this book and every day my peers and and i show up to class shocked by the diabolical events that unfolded last night while reading. the quotes of this book have become a running joke between my friends and i. at the end of the unsufferable 296 pages, i still don't understand any of the themes or connections. why is the dog named grover? why is it significant that grover is the catalyst for theresa's accident? why are the cats named mona and callie? will ralph ever be caught for tax evasion? who knows. ralph is just the worst character overall and he's so blindly spiritual that he essentially has no control over his life and justifies his violence as inevitable.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jen tracks the assimilation of a Shanghainese immigrant, Yifeng (Ralph) Chang, to the United States in the 1940s and 1950s (possibly 1960s as well). It is a rather unsympathetic look, as Chang gets taken in by a fellow immigrant and conman, Grover. Although Ralph is the protagonist, Jen's real focus is on women: his sister, Theresa, and wife, Helen, whose lives are perhaps constrained in a different way in the United States than they were in Shanghai. The lives of this family are told in very short chapters in a third-person, detached sort of way. Although the novel is a bit cynical and dark about the American dream, it is overall fairly melancholy, as Ralph reflects of the wreckage of their lives. For some reason Jen's style did not mesh with me, and overall I was just as detached from these characters as the Jen's narrator.

[Banuta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an impressive first novel and Gish Jen has gone on to write many others. I'm impressed above all by Jen's style: she holds all the strands of her story tightly in her hand and lets the characters wander this way and that, making us catch our heads in dismay or lean forward with anticipation. Comedy is a hard taskmaster and there are times when her brush strokes are too thick and I almost want to quit reading -- but then the story pulls me forward, or simply her arresting language, the metaphors like "they had tiptoed through the talk as though the bedroom of a fitfully sleeping child," who can argue with that? I'm not sure I believe the hapless Ralph can become as violent as he did, but maybe that's how it happens. In any case: bravo Jen.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a dark, dark book. A newly immigrated group of Chinese students become family and take on the worst aspects of our culture during the 60’s and 70’s. I found the adoption of deadly sins hard to believe and the protagonist’s leaving academia for the tax fraud possibilities of a chicken franchise seemed absurd. The small lies and major deceptions seem also implausible but perhaps I don’t know the truth.

As to the characters, most are unlikable, even before their Faustian acts.

It feels like this book is playing into the kinds of stereotypes promoted by early cinematic depictions of the Chinese. As I write this, I just took it down a star.

[MaupassantGuy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover said it was going to be, and I am writing it by heart here, so take it cum mica salis, "wildly funny". Girl, this is hardly amusing. It's heartwrenching, beautiful, epigrammatic, but nowhere near funny. With the great American dream as a toile de fond, a family grow to be fully American, while teaching us a valuable lesson (the Chinese way, so not with their words, rather with their actions) about the plethora of possibilities that offer the human relations. So complicated, yet so sublime. Core topic: love no more, and no less. Last caveat: don't try to read this if you are feeling a bit low. It will add a layer of melancholy to your mood.

[Tracy M · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was like 2.5 stars. Maybe this is really what it was like in the 50s and 60s, but the characters felt like huge stereotypes - what Americans feel like Chinese immigrants are like. I really could not stand Ralph by the end of this book. It was like he had become a caricature of what he had previously identified as "typical American," which perhaps is the point, but I didn't appreciate it. No one in this book made any good decisions, and it was hard to watch them just keep repeating mistakes and straining after Grover, who from scene 1 was a horrible human. I'm glad I finally read this, but I'm also glad I'm done and won't have to revisit it.

[Diane Withrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read about Chinese immigrants who came here in the late 40’s- specifically two siblings who arrived separately and those who came into their orbit as they assimilated into American culture as well as resisted their new home. While I understand those reviews who were assigned the book as being frustrating- I believe the frustration expressed perfectly the struggle with immigration itself- a new language, bureaucracy, culture- all unlike what was. To read in its entirety is is to experience it as intended.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the character development, the plot, and the author's writing style. But the book ended so abruptly that I was convinced that I'd either purchased an incomplete copy or someone had removed the final pages. Seeking reviews online, I'm assured that the book really does just end this abruptly, without a wrapping up of all the loose ends, so I'm rounding down my 4-star review to 3.5 stars solely due to lack of appreciation for the ending. I have shelved more of this author's work to read in the future, though.

[Joanne Kelleher · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this for our library book club. It is the story of a family of Chinese Immigrants circa 1949. Ralph, the main character, comes to the USA as a university student. We watch him transform from a fearful student to the "typical American" that he mocked when he was first starting out. It was a tough read. Even though Ralph was hard to like, I felt for him as his world started to unravel. It was interesting to see what this Chinese family perceived as "typical" American behavior.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm fond of books with protagonists I like and this book had none. That said, everybody had foibles that I can relate to, but the number of cringe-worthy situations almost made me put this book down. How can bright people do stupid things? The story I should have - wanted to - absorb was the difficulties of being an immigrant, but the interpersonal drama mostly eclipsed that message. I'm conflicted about whether to pursue Jen's other books.