Amazon.com Review

Nobody writes about the immigrant experience like Gish Jen. What sets her apart from other ethnic writers is the wide-angle lens she turns not only on her own Chinese American ethnic group, but on Jewish Americans, African Americans, Irish Americans, and just about any other hyphenate you'd care to name. Though her tales are filtered through an Asian experience, they are, at heart, the quintessential American story of immigration, assimilation, and occasional tensions with other ethnic communities. The title story, for example, is a neat variation on a time-worn theme: mothers and daughters. The narrator is an elderly Chinese woman whose thoroughly assimilated daughter, Natalie, has married into an Irish American family. Natalie is successful; her husband, John, is not. Natalie's mother comments early on:

I always thought Irish people are like Chinese people, work so hard on the railroad, but now I know why the Chinese beat the Irish. Of course, not all Irish are like the Shea family, of course not. My daughter tell me I should not say Irish this, Irish that.

The narrator has other thoughts on the Irish question as well, including the connection between national diet and world view: "Plain boiled food, plain boiled thinking," she says of John, then adds that "because I grew up with black bean sauce and hoisin sauce and garlic sauce, I always feel something is missing when my son-in-law talk." But it soon becomes apparent that the problems between the narrator and her daughter's family are less cultural than generational, and in the end the mother forms a surprising alliance.

Jen comes at the question of identity from another angle in "Duncan in China," in which a second-generation Chinese American man returns to Mainland China to teach English. Here she manages to delicately suggest the enormity of the differences between the very American Duncan and his Chinese students, coworkers, and relatives. And in "Birthmates" she places her computer programmer protagonist, Art Woo, in close proximity to the low-income, mostly black residents of a welfare hotel that he's accidentally checked into. Class, race, gender, and job security all figure into this brilliant, subtle story that looks at the dark side of the American dream and finds that failure comes in all colors. These eight stories are sharply written, filled with humor, pathos, and more than a few surprising twists and turns. Quite simply, Who's Irish? is a delight. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

任璧蓮（Gish Jen，1955-），美國著名華裔女作傢，齣生於紐約，父母都是中國移民。先後畢業於哈佛大學和依阿華大學作傢坊，創作的短篇小說曾入選1988年、1995年和20世紀的《全美最佳短篇小說集》。1991年齣版長篇處女作《典型美國人》（Typical American），被《紐約時報》評為當年最值得注意的書之一，並進入瞭美國書評傢協會奬的終審名單。任璧蓮由此蜚聲文壇，聲名直追業已成名的華裔女作傢湯亭亭（Maxine Hong Kingston）和譚恩美（Amy Tan）。1996年齣版長篇小說《莫娜在應許之地》（Mona in the Promised Land），也成為《紐約時報》當年最值得注意的書之一，並被《洛杉磯時報》評為該年度10本最好的書之一。1999年，短篇小說集《誰是愛爾蘭人？》（Who’s Irish?）麵世，廣受評論傢和讀者的歡迎。目前，任璧蓮正著手創作第三部長篇小說。