Who's Irish?

by Gish Jen

In this dazzling collection of short stories, the award-winning author of the acclaimed novels Thank You, Mr. Nixon and Mona in the Promised Land --presents a "sparkling ... gently satiric look at the American Dream and its fallout on those who pursue it" ( The New York Times ).The stories in Who's Irish? show us the children of immigrants looking wonderingly at their parents' efforts to assimilate, while the older generation asks how so much selfless hard work on their part can have yielded them offspring who'd sooner drop out of life than succeed at it.With dazzling wit and compassion, Gish Jen looks at ambition and compromise at century's end and finds that much of the action is as familiar--and as strange--as the things we know to be most deeply true about ourselves.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, China, Asian Literature, School, Asian American, Literary Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Although from skimming the other reviews, it seems like some felt that Jen is better-suited to novels than short stories, I disagree. Sometimes, Jen's novels feel a little schizophrenic to me in the middle, like Jen loses her attention span and is racing around from perspective to perspective. In the short stories, obviously, Jen doesn't need to maintain her attention span through 300 pages, and I feel the book is better for it. I really enjoy Jen's writing style and her perspectives on interracial relationships. She does have an uncanny ability to see through the eyes of many different kinds of people and to make each viewpoint seem real and valid.

[Repellent Boy · Rating 2 out of 5]

En “Residente permanente” Gish Jen nos presenta un total de ocho relatos, todos ellos centrados en americanos de origen o ascendencia china y lo que ha implicado para ellos el que sus padres hubieran emigrado a Estados Unidos persiguiendo el sueño americano. No todo es fácil, no todo es sencillo, y la mayoría encuentra pocas posibilidades profesionales, un racismo adherido firmemente a todas las ramas de la sociedad y un tremendo choque cultural entre los que tienen muy presente su cultura y los familiares que ya nacieron en América y no reconocen esta como propia.

El choque entre culturas es un tema que siempre me llama, me atrae mucho ese encuentro entre diferentes países, ese golpe que se dan esas personas que se encuentran entre ambas culturas, siendo mitad una cosa mitad la otra, pero sin sentirse parte de ninguna en su totalidad. Como digo, es un tema que me interesa siempre y que disfruto mucho, por eso cuando descubrí este libro que presentaba un grupo de relatos donde nos introducía a personas con diferentes circunstancias, pero que compartían esta lucha por sentirse parte de algo y por escapar de ese racismo que terminan por normalizar, me propuse leerlo de un tirón.

Finalmente la experiencia ha sido bastante agridulce. Si bien es cierto que la autora usa el humor para representar infinidad de situaciones donde ese racismo tan interiorizado se deja ver, a través de comentarios, de actitudes, de discriminaciones a nivel laboral o personal, y lo absurdo de estas situaciones consiguen sacarte alguna carcajada. También creo que el primer relato, que me gustó bastante y consigue hacer un retrato bastante ridículo del discurso de estas personas que miran al que no es igual que ellas como si fuera inferior, es el único que me ha gustado realmente. En el resto encontré historias bastantes dispersas, que no terminaban de decirme mucho, y que pese a alguna que otra escena que me parecía acertada o que denunciaba algo, me llegaron a parecer incluso aburridos.

Pese a que todos los relatitos son bastante cortos, el último tiene unas ochenta páginas, bastante largo teniendo en cuenta que el libro consta de menos de doscientas cincuenta páginas para ocho historias, y para colmo es el que menos me ha gustado de todos y se me ha hecho soporífero. Normalmente no suelo tomar la iniciativa de abandonar libros, es algo que me pasa poco y menos en cuanto a literatura asiática, pero si no llega a ser así de corto, este libro no lo hubiera terminado.

En definitiva, es un libro con ideas interesantes, que tiene un primer relato que cumple muy bien y que pese a que el resto se me han quedado bastante insustanciales, hay alguna que otra escena bastante lograda y digna de analizar en cuanto a crítica social, pero nunca termina de ser contundente. Es una lectura que me ha descolocado, porque a veces parecía ser “demasiado americano” pese a estar criticando precisamente la pérdida de estas raíces, como producto del racismo y el desapego. No sé, no me ha terminado de cuadrar. Quizás no he terminado de pillarle todo lo que quería transmitir. Una lástima.

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great collection of stories. I picked this up after reading a Samantha Lan Chang interview where she cites Gish as a similar author. Gish has a wonderful roughness to her writing, a deadpan humor that eases the harshness of the stories. While I wouldn't necessarily compare these stories with Chang's, I'm eager to pick up a novel.

House, House, Home, the last story in the book, really got into the question of voluntary exclusion. Juxtaposing an eccentric and affluent art professor with Pammie, a child of immigrant parents who was raised poor and with struggle, told a bigger story of how we ascribe ourselves to an identify just as much as we rebel against that which we came from.

[Ira Sukrungruang · Rating 4 out of 5]

That first story is simply a knock out.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title story is a gem

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gish Jen writes about the normal interactions of people and very cleverly nails the small and large ways they disappoint us. When she brings racist characters into her stories, it enters in a quiet way at first. Stories that make one reconsider their own relationships and interactions with others.

[sher · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5! thoroughly enjoyed the titular story

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the title story, but others were good too.

[🍥]

"If you've never felt even a pang of yearning about acceptance, you are not really an outsider, she maintained. Your brand of alienation is romantic and sentimental, and I resent it."

This quote pulled from the last story, "House, House, Home" aptly sums up the theme of the entirety of the collection for me. From the first story about a Chinese grandmother with differing child-rearing ideals from her daughter and son-in-law, to the middle story about a man who, aimless in the United States, travels to China and discovers it was not what he expected. These short stories are smart and layered, with interestingly developed characters throughout. The stories explore marriage, old age, Chinese and biracial identity, and many other, always relevant themes.

I enjoyed the book. Admittedly, I tried reading it quite some time ago and, though I was having a good time even then, I stopped and did not return to again until now. So much time had passed that I forgot all but one of the stories, so it was as if I was reading it for the first time. I was surprised by the length of two of the stories, but that may be because I am more used to anthologies than I am short story collections. The last story was the weakest, for me, but it was still pretty good. I don't have a favorite, because, overall, I really enjoyed all the stories about the same amount, except for the last. I don't know if I would re-read this in its entirety again, but there are definitely a few stories that I will refer to more than once in my life.

I think I need to re-evaluate my Goodreads rating system so, for now, I will leave this unrated, but it is definitely 3+ stars.

[Michael Malone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dazzling. Eight short stories focused essentially on the Chinese experience in America, with one on the (Chinese-) American experience in China. (The title, stemming from a Chinese woman's view of the Irish-American family her daughter married into, is misleading.) Expertly articulated; Jen has a gift for rendering tiny details with exquisite flair in her depictions of foreignness and alienation.
The final story, House, House, Home, flips the script, with the protagonist getting a new perspective on foreignness from a Hawaiian man she falls for.
Not by design, but I happen to not read many, or enough, female authors. Who's Irish offers a very unique, and feminine, perspective on every page, and I loved it.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lord this was boring. First of all, it's short stories, which I tend to disklike b/c I want more from my characters and time. Secondly, the short stories were too short!! haha. And, really it was almost like they were trying too hard to be quirky or something. I just really thoroughly did not enjoy reading this. The only reason I did was b/c my Italian mother-in-law gave it to me as a joke for Christmas, as the new solo Irish girl in the family. Here was the rub -- it's about Asians, not Irishmen, HAHA, the joke is on me!!!
So I don't recommend this on any level.

[Katie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love me some Gish Jen. Her writing is compassionate, whip-smart, and always a delight to read. I didn't actually find most of these stories to be nearly as good as her novels, and there are definitely several duds in this collection ("Duncan in China" in particular is kind of a snoozer) but still definitely worth a read.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written stories with a wry sense of humor. But if I never read another story about a young woman tumbling for her much older professor, and how that relationship surprisingly doesn't work out very well, that will be okay. (It's still a good story.)

[Laura K · Rating 4 out of 5]

It takes a lot of talent to weave stories involving the same characters through a series of books and short stories. Gish Jen is a master at this. I read the more recent books first, and now find myself looking eagerly for the appearance of a familiar character in the earlier short stories.

[ola! · Rating 3 out of 5]

i only read who's irish (one story) but it engulfed me in conflicting emotions and i loved it

[AmaraTheReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite quotes:

—Twins! said Pammie. How exciting!
Congratulations!
—I'm so sorry to do this to you, said Andrea, retching.
……
-Surely Andrea is coming back soon, said Sven.
—I don't think so, said Pammie. She appears under a species of house arrest.
—What do you mean?
—I mean that she barely gets to finish a sentence, said Pammie. She has to schedule time to take a shower. She eats baby food because she doesn't have the energy to get something out of the refrigerator.


“I just want to say,” he announced, “now, and for history, that you, Addie Wing, are the love of my life. My harem is nothing to me.” At this everyone laughed, even Addie’s women’s studies friends, who had over the years practically come to appreciate him. “That’s good, since I’m sure you are nothing to them,” she managed—not the best reply, but people did laugh at that, too. After all, it was her shower, and they loved her. Addie had always thought Rex should have married someone with a gift for the comeback line rather than someone who felt pressured by banter, as she did.


He wanted to go home. This is what he knew: That the weather was extreme in China. That he missed pizza. That he envied his brother Arnie, with his sense of purpose in life. How shallow it was, to believe in making money; and yet how it protected one against life itself—disorienting, disconcerting life. It was as useful as religion. Perhaps it was a religion, to which he, Duncan, should convert… What did Duncan have with which to organize pointless, brutal life?

[Marni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize when I picked this book up that it was short stories. Not my favorite read. As I always end up caring about the characters and then they are gone. Same is true here. The first story about the mother/grandmother was funny. Jen's prose took me right there and I could picture the scene and was giggling at the mother's thoughts of her son-in-law's family during a Thanksgiving dinner. Priceless. The second story tore at my heartstrings of a broken man who was afraid of everything after a divorce. Each story made me care about the central character and then....they were gone. On to the next. If you like a short story - perfect for reading on a commute train you could finish one a trip - I recommend this one. Well written.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only recently learned of Gish Jen and her work and am absolutely mesmerized. These stories follow the lives of different Asian-Americans—snapshots of an America that I think is much more deserving of representation in popular culture. The first story, “Who’s Irish?” is told from the perspective of a Chinese grandmother who tells a story about her half-Irish granddaughter.

In another story called “Duncan in China,” we follow a Chinese-American who travels to China to reconnect with his heritage and teach English—the story is amazing!

It’s such a great collection that I know I will be returning to these stories again.

[Tim Morrissey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m normally annoyed by Iowa Writers workshop fiction, but this time I felt good about it. My roommate said that Gish Jen’s creative thesis came and went, hence why her 2020 novel didn’t make as much of a splash. But I feel like this was really powerful, even in 2024. But maybe I am nostalgic for a 90s I was too young to live through, and the vibrancy of ethnic identity within her stories feels untainted by the cynicism of America post 9/11. What does that say about me?

Favorite stories:
- Duncan in China
- Who’s Irish?
- Birthmates

[Leaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with many short story collections, some of this book's stories were gems while others fell flat for me. The title story had me laughing out loud, while several in the middle of the collection just left me depressed. I definitely appreciate the way Jen's stories explore so many different facets of the Asian American experience. However, the novel Mona in the Promised Land does it better than Who's Irish.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of stories. They were really thought provoking and despite the fact that they were short I found myself getting immersed in each of them. I would even think about them when I wasn't reading the book. A lot of them deal with issues of race, immigration, class, and identity, but there's also a lot about family and romantic relationships. Didn't expect to enjoy these as much as I did, but it was really worthwhile reading.

[Kathleen O'Nan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I loved these short stories, I am now really looking forward to reading Gish Jen's novels. Living in Los Angeles, a city of immigrants, makes me appreciate the diversity of these tales. Even though they are all about the Chinese-American experience, they look at so many different aspects of that experience, it is dizzying. And enlightening.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really fantastic collection of short stories. I was completely immersed in the final story, which is more of a novella, 'House, House, Home'. These stories have so much to say in what feels a very approachable and universally appealing way while maintaining Gish Jen's very unique and important voice and perspective.

[Oconnor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories about the experiences of being Chinese American is incredibly diverse and interesting. Each story has a unique point of view, and the spectrum of characters and voices is incredible. Thought provoking and easy to read.

[Matt Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The balance of humor and sadness, along with attention to the inner lives of characters as they bob and weave through life and constantly revise what it means to be happy, ensures that not one word of even a seventy-plus page story is wasted.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that leave you wanting more. I think many of the traditions from Jen's heritage should have become as natural in today's American culture as they were in the China of her parents home. Our world might be a better place.

[Yvonne Ong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful stories, but many of them promised more than they gave.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found the short story on line and read at the suggestion of my son. Excellent! A gem.
Must find the book to read her other short stories - or order other of her books from my library.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought the title story was the best.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read by this author and I find myself so tickled by the way she uses words. These stories were delightful and thought-provoking.