Mona in the Promised Land

Mona in the Promised Land - Paperback

$21.00
$21.00
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Mona in the Promised Land
  • Mona in the Promised Land
Mona in the Promised Land - Paperback

Mona in the Promised Land - Paperback

by Gish Jen
$21.00
$21.00

Book Overview

From the acclaimed, award-winning author of Thank You, Mr. Nixon comes a "hilariously funny and seriously important" novel (Amy Tan) about American multiculturalism and a Chinese American teenager doing her best to fit in-even if it means converting to Judaism.

In these pages, acclaimed author Gish Jen introduces us to teenaged Mona Chang, who in 1968 moves with her newly prosperous family to Scarshill, New York. Here, the Chinese are seen as "the new Jews." What could be more natural than for Mona to take this literally--even to the point of converting? As Mona attends temple "rap" sessions and falls in love (with a nice Jewish boy who lives in a tepee), Jen introduces us to one of the most charming and sweet-spirited heroines in recent fiction, a girl who can wisecrack with perfect aplomb even when she's organizing the help in her father's pancake house. On every page, Gish Jen sets our received notions spinning with a wit as dry as a latter-day Jane Austen's.

Front Jacket

In this ebullient and inventive novel, Gish Jen restores multiculturalism from high concept to a fact of life. At least that's what it becomes for teenaged Mona Chang, who in 1968 moves with her newly prosperous family to Scarshill, New York, where the Chinese have become "the new Jews." What could be more natural than for Mona to take this literally--even to the point of converting? As Mona attends temple "rap" sessions and falls in love (with a nice Jewish boy who lives in a tepee), Jen introduces us to one of the most charming and sweet-spirited heroines in recent fiction, a girl who can wisecrack with perfect aplomb even when she's organizing the help in her father's pancake house. On every page of Mona in the Promised Land, Gish Jen sets our received notions spinning with a wit as dry as a latter-day Jane Austen's.


"A shining example of a multicultural message delivered with the wit and bite of art...Gish Jen creates a particular world where dim sum is as American as apple pie."--Los Angeles Times
ISBN9780679776505
Author Gish Jen
PublisherVintage
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedApril 1997
LanguageENG- English
Pages320
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Asian American Cultural Heritage Fiction Literary

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More by Gish Jen

Mona in the Promised Land

Mona in the Promised Land - Paperback

Mona in the Promised Land - Paperback

By Gish Jen

About Gish Jen

GISH JEN is the author of five novels, two books of stories, and two works of nonfiction. Her honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the Fulbright Foundation, as well as the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her stories have been chosen for The Best American Short Stories five times, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century; she has also delivered the William E. Massey, Sr., Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University. She and her husband split their time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

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