This collection of twelve stories set in Flushing New York in the present is a perfect follow up after the novel 'Free Life.' The Chinese immigrants not only deal with a tough new life in America, but with each other---older generation against younger, those living here thinking and sometimes battling with or for those in China.
My favorite stories are 'In the Crossfire' where a young couple trys just about everything to get an interferring mother to cut short her visit; 'Temporary Love' where a young couple whose spouses both still live in China, so they have a 'wartime marriage' until the woman's husband comes and spoils everything; and finally my guilty pleasure is 'Choice.' My older Chinese friends wagged their heads hearing about the story 'Children as Enemies' where grandparents newly arrived from China had to confront grandchildren who demanded their Chinese names (both first and last) be changed to be more American.
Like all of Ha Jin's writings, 'A Good Fall' is entertaining, at times funny, at times painful, but always worth reading.