26: Typical American by Gish Jen
Apr. 5th, 2010 01:50 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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50books_poc26: Typical American by Gish Jen
I picked up Typical American on the basis of having enjoyed Jen's collection of short stories, Who's Irish? a while ago. Typical American is most like the last story in that collection, in that it's slightly rambly and unfocused, and is largely concerned with family. The rambliness made it somewhat less than a pageturner, and yet it's not that it wasn't enjoyable; it was very enjoyable, very well-written if sometimes a little too arch for my taste. It was just that I would put it down and not feel compelled to pick it up again. And then, when I did pick it up again, it would take a few pages for me to get back into the flow; but once I was in the flow, it was a smooth and pleasant read.
The story concerns Ralph Chang, né Chang Yifeng, who comes to New York from Shanghai in the late 40s to study engineering; it's about how he (and later his sister and his wife) adapts to life in the USA, so different from life in Shanghai, but also how he matures and learns to deal with life in general. It's full of pithy observations and beautifully-phrased descriptions, and though (as I said) the tone is often quite arch and distant, the characters are nonetheless depicted in three dimensions and with a great deal of warmth.
(Additional tags: chinese-american)
I picked up Typical American on the basis of having enjoyed Jen's collection of short stories, Who's Irish? a while ago. Typical American is most like the last story in that collection, in that it's slightly rambly and unfocused, and is largely concerned with family. The rambliness made it somewhat less than a pageturner, and yet it's not that it wasn't enjoyable; it was very enjoyable, very well-written if sometimes a little too arch for my taste. It was just that I would put it down and not feel compelled to pick it up again. And then, when I did pick it up again, it would take a few pages for me to get back into the flow; but once I was in the flow, it was a smooth and pleasant read.
The story concerns Ralph Chang, né Chang Yifeng, who comes to New York from Shanghai in the late 40s to study engineering; it's about how he (and later his sister and his wife) adapts to life in the USA, so different from life in Shanghai, but also how he matures and learns to deal with life in general. It's full of pithy observations and beautifully-phrased descriptions, and though (as I said) the tone is often quite arch and distant, the characters are nonetheless depicted in three dimensions and with a great deal of warmth.
(Additional tags: chinese-american)
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