Customer Reviews

Mona in the Promised Land: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was tempted to give this book 3 stars, but couldn't bring myself to do it. Gish Jen is really a fantastic writer who can carve meaning out of detail as well as anyone else pumping out fiction today. And that's almost good enough.

In Mona Chang, Jen creates a funny, wise-cracking Asian-American woman confused by the dizzying cultural contradictions that surround her. Bad enough that her own country - the US, folks - stereotypes and denigrates her; the real problem is her parents, Chinese immigrants who want their daughter to be Chinese without being *too* Chinese - independent and obedient in the same heartbeat. Mona proceeds to find herself by experiencing the entire spectrum of the so-called "melting pot," and in doing so unearths discrimination - spiritual, financial and racial - under every rock, including those in her parents' own yard.

Reviewers have remarked that this book sheds new light on race relations in America. Jen's primary achievement, however, is in demonstrating the equivalence between the battles for financial, racial and spiritual liberation. She puts inclusionism - or "cafeteria racism" - to a scathing acid test: most of her characters are so bitterly wrapped up in their own quest for social liberation that they don't notice the common cause they share with the people they profess to despise. MONA is also illuminating for whites who have never experienced racism, who wonder how asking an Asian-American "Where are you *really* from?" could possibly be insulting, or why a group of militant African-American men would revolt when a young white girl accuses them en masse of thievery.

Unfortunately, the book bogs down in several places, most notably near the middle where Mona, Barbara and Seth futz around in the "Underground Railroad". Worst of all, the ending is completely botched. Everything said by any of the characters in the last 30 pages has the stilted air of moral finality; characters seem to reappear out of thin air, under flimsy pretexts. And, of course, there's the infamous epilogue, which substitutes the complexity and bitterness experienced throughout the book with a well-telegraphed, made-for-Hollywood five-hankie affair that makes you blink and scream, "What the hell was that??"

Despite its flaws, this is still an important book. Any time you find a voice this crisp and witty, it should be held on high as a standard for aspiring writers. Read it, and take the last thirty pages with a grain of salt.

Other critics in this space have commented on the more serious aspects of this novel as an immigrant novel; if you want an immigrant novel, I suggest Jen's prior work, "Typical American," a book about Mona's family one generation before. If, on the other hand, you're interested in the new American bildungsroman, you're in the right place.

I picked up this book in a traditional bookstore and opened to a chapter following a frightening event Mona decides to hide from her parents. Mona's fright after and decision to hide her near-rape as a teenager is compared lyrically to a time when, as a small girl, Mona tried to dry a doll's dress over a gas burner and it caught on fire. The description of the doll dress shrivelling and flaming in the kitchen sink was enough to make me buy the book; the juxtaposition of these scenes when reading the book through quite impressed me. Jen's flawless transition and subtle use of metaphor throughout the novel make this a classic American novel.

The book taken from an objective standpoint does seem a little unbelievable from time to time. However, Jen has depicted Mona so sympathetically that we are drawn in and follow her willingly through her romps, and her friends' romps, that we will believe anything as long as it follows with her character.

Finally, Jen capably follows Mona over several years, even foreshadowing ten and fifteen years in the future, without destroying the suspense of the book. By the time we're done reading, we believe that Mona has managed to grow up with herself, holding true to her family, her Chinese heritage, and her Jewish affiliation, after all.

This book was definitely a roller coaster. I'm actually torn in my evaluation of the novel because at some points, Jen really seemed both insightful and entertaining but at other points she seemed to rely more on (as some other reviewers have said) human caricatures and tended to drag the story a bit.

I liked the character Mona. She seemed both clever and funny and was a very complex character. In fact the only real criticism I would have of the book had to do with "Camp Gugelstein" - the establishment of a psuedo-hippie commune in one of the character's houses. It seemed a little "Combaya"ish if you know what I mean. A bunch of cool adult guys in the seventies willingly doing yoga? That's a bit much. Alfred and the "brothers" - as an African American (even though I know Jen was strongly trying to avoid this) I felt as if she seemed to lean more towards black stereotypes - the embittered brother who constantly argues about injustice but shuffles his feet when it comes to making any change. In fact the only time that Alfred seems to be empowered is when he meets his white girlfriend which some would say could imply the age old theme that a black person can only achieve greatness with the help of Caucasians. But don't get me wrong. I'm not trashing her characterization entirely because I applaud her effort to at least introduce the topic of Chinese American and African American relations in a fictional literary work. I've never seen it done before. For a pioneering effort, it was a relatively good try.

My final evaluation: I'd read Who's Irish? over again before I'd check this one back out the library...

As an American-born Chinese woman of about Mona's age, I thoroughly identified with some aspects of Mona's coming of age (my nickname was Changowitz too!). I was disappointed at the uneveness of the novel, but when it was funny, it was laugh-out-loud funny. The fact that the two girls, Mona and Barbara, remain friends through thick and thin was a nice realistic touch. However, what happens with Mona and Seth in the epilogue was a big letdown. I thought Mona a much stronger character than the epilogue suggests. Good beach book.

I thought this was one of the best book that I have read lately-- until the epilogue. "Mona in the Promised Land" is unlike most multicultural books that I have read. This book actually addresses the idea of assimilating into American society. Most books set in this motif side-step this issue. For this reason I really enjoyed the book. Furthermore, I found the descriptions of the characters in the book accurate. I attend a high school where half the students are Jewish and another twenty percent are Asian. Based on my experiences, Gish Jen correctly describes the intermingling and tension that can exist between different ethnic/religious groups. Even though I have only praised this book, I was extremely dissapointed with the epilogue. After finishing the book I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. The epilogue reminds my of an episode of a tv sitcom where everything works out in the end. This is a departure from the realistic nature that Jen conveys through the rest of the novel. My suggestion-- don't read the epilogue and you will really enjoy this book.

Gish Jen's second novel has the quality of magical realism, but retains a firm grounding in reality. Her title character, Mona Chang, shifts in and out of her multiple identities-- Chinese, Jewish, American. While Jen's first novel--_Typical American_--also explored America's varied identities in terms of clashing cultures and the immigrant experience through humor, _Mona in the Promised Land_ is more lighthearted though still a substantial book. _Mona_ is a book of the second-generation Asian-American. The only grouse I have is the sentimental way in which Jen tends to end her novels, and this a fault more evident in her second book. Nonetheless, I look forward to her future works. She's a worthy successor of the older generation of writers like Maxine Hong Kingston

That is a question which Mona asks and re-asks herself. She dons different identities, in the same manner as if she were trying on new shades of lipstick. She's Chinese, American, Jewish, virgin, non-virgin, rich, poor, smart, and so on. Each identity is worn on her lips, on herself, until it rubs off. But similar to worn-off lipstick, she can still feel it on her. Layers and layers of identity, garbling her fundamental Chinese face.

Gish Jen explores the hard question of identity in America, lightened by a rare sense of humor. Through the telling of Mona's life, Ms. Jen forces the question of what _does_ it mean to be a "hyphenated" American? In America, there are many races, but no corollary conception of a multi-American identity.

Mona dons different identities, as if she can become a different kind of American each time she "changes." Through Mona's narrative the reader can almost believe that Mona is actually changing; that she is convincing the people that her last name isn't Chang and she doesn't have a hairless body. But then, another character will speak, and the reader is jerked back into the hackneyed racial stereotypes which are more "real" than the various identities that Mona tries on for size.

Ms. Jen effortlessly shifts the reader back and forth through Mona's identity changes and her observer's reactions, or rather reality checks. No one is spared. All of Ms. Jen's different characters, peripheral or central (old Chinese parents, African-American workers, free-spirit Jewish mothers, and WASPy princesses), are revealed to have ingrained prejudices. But before the novel races towards a "cut off their heads" ending--Ms. Jen's humor prevails and inimitable phrases, (such as, he was a "jocular jock") allow the reader to shrug off any ugly inferences.

Overall, the prose is awe-inspiring (to an aspiring writing), the humor original, and the story quite serious. It bears repeated reading because _Mona in the Promised Land_ is a multi-layered novel. It is a funny romp through a seaweed bed of words. It is biting story about what is means to be a hyphenated American. It is story about Mona finding her way through a life where her parents' instruction book doesn't fit. It is simply a good read.

Probably the biggest problem with this often charming novel is feeling. The Asian-American teen Mona rebels from her parents, and we see it, are told about it, rather than feeling it. It doesn't particularly make sense, and that stems from Jen not being whole-hearted about the characterization of the parents. This story is a sort of romp for Mona, a notebook purge, perhaps, wherein anything Jen can think of goes in, when the subject is the protagonist and her Jewish boyfriend. The parents are cliches, whipping posts. Occasionally the mother's harangues strike a true note and are thus stirring, but are usually placemarkers. A subplot that occupies a lot of space, concerning an available crash-space for a Black friend of Mona's, doesn't begin to carry the drama Jen seems to attempt. It seems a waste of effort. A lot of the book is like that, including another twisty set of events not to be given away here--not as interesting as the narrative voice would insist--not felt.

Jen's "Mona" was a delightful read. I was laughing out loud, and at the same time was left seriously thinking about the ability of Americans to define ourselves. She engages the split between our personal and public selves as well as conflicts between parents and children around issues of identity... and she does all of this within the context of a fun-spirited tale.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There was a laugh on every page, and bizarre situations, some that I related and some that I marvelled at at put myself in. I thought a lot about the mulicultural issues prestented and was fascinated by every chapter, especially not growing up in the 70's era. Read this book.