"Sparkling--a gently satiric look at the American Dream and its fallout on those who pursue it."--The New York Times
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reviews
Nov 28, 2008
Tracy
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Jun 29, 2011
Reema
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lucid, witty, compassionate prose. gish jen really dramatizes multicultural concerns in a more playful, more complex way than activists often will (thankfully!). some pieces are stronger than others--and i wish the cast had been more diverse--but i very much admired her delicate and human touch with very prickly, highly politicized subjects. such as the model minority stereotype, asian fetishes, interracial families, and diasporic nostalgia. gish manages to find something funny and liberating in
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Apr 10, 2011
Lisa
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In addition to portraying a wide array of characters and spaces I have never met before--you know what I mean, right? In certain stories, you're like, "I know this character."--not in Jen's stories--I love her quirky word choice. The collection is cliche-free, as I far as I can tell, a does, as the cover jacket text promises, provide "a gently satiric look at the American Dream." Well worth the read. After the opening title story, there is a bit of a slow patch, but if you ap
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Feb 04, 2012
Connor
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Right on the cover there's a question mark with a little Chinese girl for the dot. And the title's "Who's Irish?" How could this not be a whole novel about short stories that question the very notion of ethnicity? Well, easily, apparently. I always imagined the title story to be a gathering of Chinese parents in a park, together trying to contemplate Americans. But that's not really what this collection is about. This collection is more about the stories of people where the notion of e
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Oct 14, 2010
Katie M.
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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.
Feb 13, 2008
Corinne
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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 p More...
House, House, Home, the last story in the book, really got into the question of voluntary exclusion. Juxtaposing an eccentric and affluent art p More...
Jun 29, 2008
Elizabeth
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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
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Jun 24, 2011
Libby
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Some cute short stories, some sort of sad. Not being chinese american i couldn't really relate directly but still found the stories interesting and entertaining.
Nov 10, 2011
Henry
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This is strictly competent set of authorial-narcissism, and I definitely want to take out out of the school library so I can lose it in the woods somewhere.
Sep 27, 2011
Labmom
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Tedius short story collection, ostensibly about the immigrant experience but really with no unfying theme, interesting characters or outstanding writing.
Dec 07, 2010
Eric
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A series of short stories and two somewhat longer ones. The two long stories are the real treasures in this book. Great insight into the human condition.
Jul 07, 2010
Richard
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I read it for college. It's a collection of short stories that are entertaining, if not exactly my style.
Jul 13, 2011
Carolyn
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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 Irishme
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Dec 10, 2008
Ciara
rated it:
wow. i don't remember this at all. i know it's a short story collection. i know i was kind of into it at the time. not in a "i love it!" way. more in a "i don't resent the fact that i am reading this" way, faint praise, to be sure. i couldn't tell you what a single story was actually about. i guess gish jen & lorrie moore should form a club: authors that ciara vaguely likes but can't recall.
Mar 17, 2008
Lee Anne
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Not as good as her previous novels. This is an example of what I mean when I say I don't like short stories, when what I really mean is I don't like BAD short stories. The first story was good, and the last, longest story was good. The rest read like I came into the middle of a movie, watched part of it, then someone changed the channel. I have her most recent novel, The Love Wife, in my to-be-read pile; when I get around to it in a couple of years (probably), I'm sure I'll like it more.
Jul 06, 2009
Christina
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the first and last stories are *really* good, the ones in the middle so-so.
Oct 11, 2007
G
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Not as good as her novels but she has a keen understanding of how people's relationships work (or don't).
May 12, 2008
Read about half of this. Liked the stories, just wasn't compelled to finish.
Dec 16, 2009
noisy penguin
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Still working my way through all the stories but it's good so far.
Feb 07, 2012
Feb 06, 2012
