Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Typical American

Typical American

Jen, Gish

Paperback

Series: Vintage Contemporaries

General FictionLiterary Fiction

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0307389227
ISBN13: 9780307389220
Publisher: Vintage
Published: Jan 8 2008
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.50
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.20 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
From the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of Mona in the Promised Land and Thank You, Mr. Nixon comes a comic masterpiece, an insightful novel of immigrants experiencing the triumphs and trials of American life.

Gish Jen reinvents the American immigrant story through the Chang family, who first come to the United States with no intention of staying. When the Communists assume control of China in 1949, though, Ralph Chang, his sister Theresa, and his wife Helen, find themselves in a crisis. At first, they cling to their old-world ideas of themselves. But as they begin to dream the American dream of self-invention, they move poignantly and ironically from people who disparage all that is typical American to people who might be seen as typically American themselves. With droll humor and a deep empathy for her characters, Gish Jen creates here a superbly engrossing story that resonates with wit and wisdom even as it challenges the reader to reconsider what a typical American might be today.

Also from

Jen, Gish

View All

Also in

General Fiction

View All