Typical American (Vintage Contemporaries) [Paperback]

Gish Jen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 8, 2008 | Series: Vintage Contemporaries

From the beloved author of Mona in the Promised Land and The Love Wife comes this 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A wry but compassionate voice and distinctive sensibility animate this accomplished first novel, a darkly humorous account of Chinese immigrants encountering America. Lai Fu Chang comes to the U.S in 1947 to study for his Ph.D. in electrical engineering, changes his name to Ralph in the same impulsive, muddled way he does everything else, neglects to renew his visa and has become a penniless recluse when he is discovered by his older sister, called Theresa in her convent school, and her friend Helen, who have been sent to America to escape the Communists. Ralph marries Helen, and the three become a family who dub themselves the Chinese Yankees, the Chang-kees. Vainglorious and ineffectual, puffed up with domineering pride, Ralph attempts to rule the roost, but it is his self-effacing but resourceful wife and self-sacrificing sister who bring the family through the bad times that befall them after feckless Ralph becomes involved with a millionaire conman who seduces Helen and brings them to the verge of financial ruin. The view of this country through the eyes of outsiders attempting to preserve their own language and traditions while tapping into the American dream of success and riches is the piquant motif that binds the novel--and underscores the protagonists' eventual disillusionment. Jen sums up the two cultures in a brief, apt comparison: "The way Americans in general like to move around, the Chinese love to hold still; removal is a fall and an exile." Her imagery is fresh and startling: "The sun was huge and low . . . a moongate opening to a hellish garden," and her imagination is droll: "He nodded so emphatically, his sandwich laid a pickle chip." But most significantly, Jen proves herself a virtuoso raconteur of the Chinese-American experience.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Like Amy Tan and Timothy Mo, Jen's delightful first novel follows the hopeful lives of Chinese immigrants with a great deal of humor and sympathy. As foreign students in New York, Ralph Chang, "Older Sister" Teresa, and Ralph's future wife Helen become trapped in the United States when the Communists assume control of China in 1948. Banding together, the three of them innocently plan to achieve the American dream, while retaining their Chinese values. Predictably, just when they appear to have reached their goal, the lures of freedom prove too great. Ralph's greed leads him to sacrifice his family's security to build Ralph's Chicken Palace, while Teresa and Helen find their own passions ignited in illicit ways. Inevitably, the family--the Chinese symbol of unity--suffers more than a few cracks along the way. This is truly "an American story"--a poignant and deftly told tale of immigrants coming to terms with the possibilities of America and with their own limitations, foibles, and the necessity of forgiveness. Sure to be a popular purchase for public and academic libraries.
- Kathleen Hirooka, Stanford Univ. Libs., Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307389227
• ISBN-13: 978-0307389220
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gish Jen has published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New Republic, and other magazines, as well as in numerous anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Her honors include a Lannan Literary Award and a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. For further info, please see www.gishjen.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A wry, ironic, emotionally complex novel- a brilliant debut. March 22, 2002

By David J. Gannon

Format:Paperback

It's only after reading this fascinating book that one fully appreciates the irony intrinsic to the title. This is a book that is thoroughly atypical in virtually all its aspects.
Typical American follows the lives of three Chinese immigrants in New York: Ralph Chang, his sister Theresa, and Theresa's roommate Helen, who becomes Ralph's wife. Theresa becomes a doctor, Ralph earns a Ph. D. in mechanical engineering and gets a job teaching at a local college, and Ralph and Helen have two daughters.

As they each become caught up in achieving the American dream, they must make difficult choices about the importance of success, family loyalty, and the people they hope to become.
Essentially, however, like all immigrant tales, the underlying aspect of the story is one of assimilation. Usually tales of Chinese assimilation into the American mainstream demand the forsaking of Chinese customs; conversely, preservation of Chinese traditions requires the rejection of any possibilities of assimilation. The dramatization of such cultural conflicts has become somewhat formulaic, and Chinese-American writers seem locked in this conventional depiction of the Chinese immigrant experience.

Not Gish Jen. In Typical American Gish Jen rewrites the formula that has long dominated Chinese-American immigrant fiction, and complicates firm notions of Chinese and American identities that have been staple elements of that formula.

Normally these assimilation tales are multi-generational sagas where the conventional opposition between American and Chinese cultures is usually played out through generational conflicts, in which the older, immigrant generation's insistent preservation of Chinese traditions are pitted against their first -generation offspring's desire to cast off those manacles.

Not here.... Eschewing this "typical"' setting for her narrative, Jen breaks from the paradigmatic use of Chinatown that has been a staple of Chinese immigrant narratives. This also removes the Changs from the clutches of parental demands or strict Chinatown societal codes. Rather than settling in an established Chinese community for moral and financial support Ralph, Helen and Theresa remain very isolated in their new life in America. This isolation from the "parental' or "traditional" elements of Chinese culture enables Jen to illustrate the conflicts inherent to cultural assimilation within the context of the individual rather than a group. And, so, while the characters strive mightily to achieve "typical American" status-the full middle class lifestyle with all the accouterments and benefits that implies-they nevertheless still see many of the traits and behaviors attendant to that lifestyle through Chinese eyes and refer to these behavioral traits in Anglos pejoratively as "typical American" Behavior. Thus they are in the position of decrying what they actively seek to attain, thus brilliantly illustrating the often schizoid process of assimilation.

The first line of the book asserts that this is "an American story", but in fact this is neither a "typical Chinese-immigrant" story, nor a ""typical American" one. In the end, no one is "typical" anything. Ralph's revelation at the end is not the disillusionment of a Chinese nor an American, but simply a man confused by the complexity of the new context that surround him: "Kan bu fian. Ting bu fian. He could not always see, could not always hear. He was not what he made up his mind to be.

Both Ralph's and Helen's revelations at the end of the book 'are critical moments in which Jen invalidates the generational/ cultural conflict paradigm; she has deftly shown that the notion that the choice that one "stay Chinese" or "become American" is an illusion. In fact, the "typical" immigrant will never be either.

This is a wry, ironic, emotionally complex novel that is well worth reading. Read more ›

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic...but risky? February 8, 2000

By vanishingpoint

Format:Paperback

Gish Jen is gifted, no doubt about it. A fantastic line writer, just about every sentence shines. She's funny as hell, too, when she wants to be. Mixing up the humor and the pathos, she can generate some serious amount of emotion from the reader.

The characters are very real and the dialogue between them is witty and smart. Jen effortlessly moves between the main characters' (Ralph, Helen, and Theresa) points of views in a close third-person voice, and as an immigrant myself, I found myself relating closely to many of the twists and turns in the plot...though that's not to say that the ideas in this book are immigrant-specific. Not at all, in fact -- the stuff that makes up this novel are broad and universal.

But (isn't there always a but?), there's something missing from these pages, and it took me a while to figure it out. What is it? Risk. I don't think Jen takes many risks...or if she does, they don't seem risky enough. It's a solid book, a first novel that any writer would be proud of -- but for me, it didn't have that element of risk (or maybe "menace" that Raymond Carver often referred to) that really makes (or breaks if done badly) a book.

It's definitely worth reading, though, just on writing alone if nothing else (and there's plenty, so read it!).

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars There Is No Such Thing As American Dream March 21, 2002

By Matthew M. Yau

Format:Paperback

Ralph, Helen, and Theresa immigrated from China to escape political instability in the post-War era. The trio of young ambitious Chinese immigrants slowly transformed into everything they once despised in the typical American as they set out after their dreams and created their own suburban paradise. Ralph, like many of his counterparts, struggled with his visa but mangaged to finished his PhD in mechanical engineering and obtained a university tenure. Together with his wife Helen (introduced to him by his sister Theresa), the young couple set out to make the so-called "American dream" come way in all possible ways: finding a split-level home in the suburbs of Connecticut, making huge bucks in fast food (America is such a fast food nation), walking dog and sending dog to training school, making excursions into adultery. Theresa studied to become a doctor who later on engaged in an affair with a man. Ironically, as the ambitious trio fulfilled their "American dream" (ahhhammm) they have become someone whom they despised in the first place-typical American: the typical American no-good, typical American don't-know-how-to-get-along, typical American just-want-to-be-the-center-of-things, typical American no-morals, typical American use-brute-force, typical American just-dumb, typical American no-manners, and typical American eating-junk-and-not-healthy. The trio began to adopt to more American vocabular but still retained their Chinese ways of thinking like "xiang ban fa"-think of a way. In a way, the American dream has corrupted the trio. Ralph became so money-oriented that he believed he can only fit in the society if he made good money. If he couldn't make a lot of money, he would be dubbed Chinamen. "Money, in this country, you have money, you can do anything.... You have no money, you are nobody. You are Chinaman! Is that simple!" Even Helen, she allowed himself to engage in sexual quickie in her own house behind her husband's back with Grover Ding, who represented a typical American-born-Chinese that was not rooted in any traditional Chinese values. Afterall, the American dream will never be the same again. Gish Jen's writing has astutely portraited a typical immigrant experience through her witty style and choice of waords. As a Chinese-American, I can deeply relate to the Chang's experience-the desire to fit in but at the same time the quest for prosperity, success, and respect. The novel might seem funny but who can really understand immigrants' life struggles if not being one? Read more ›

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Typical Story, Typically Told January 20, 2005

By Joseph S. Lamountain

Format:Paperback

The immigrant experience in America is well-trodden ground and unfortuntely Gish Jen's Typical American doesn't really add much to this well-established body of literature. Her writing style is good, the story she tells is moderately compelling (if frequently unrealistic) and on, and on, and on. There's nothing wrong with Typical American, but that's hardly a good reason to pick it up and read it. If you're interested in the American immigrant experience, I recommend Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides or Call it Sleep by Henry Roth. If Chinese family life is your interest, Wild Swans by Jung Chang or Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Chang are far more worthy of your investment of time.