Mona in the Promised Land: A Novel

Important note: Read Jen's first novel FIRST, and then the end of Mona won't seem too slapdash and tacked-on, too easy. You really need the context of the first novel to get the full impact of that one. That said, the characters are great individuals, individually lovable and frustrating and exasperating-- in other words, they're people. And they're teenagers in the 1960s, with racial tension stretching from China and Japan's conflict to black and white clashes. Protestant and Jewish clashes. And in all of this, Jen maintains a high level of downright hilarity. She's a wonderful writer, and this is one book you won't want to return to the library.

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.

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.

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.

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.