Typical American

I saw Gish Jen read and bought Typical American so I could get her signature and say I had a signed copy. So everyone would envy me. I didn't know when I would get around to reading it. But then I started reading it, and it's become an entirely charming, engrossing, compelling page-turner. I have plenty of other things to do, miles to go before I sleep, but I can't quit reading about these people--Ralph, his sister Theresa, and his wife, Helen. What engaging people. And Gish Jen--she's funny, great sense of style to her prose; she's wry and moving both. Gish Jen--please, turn me loose. But no, don't. This is the kind of book that's so enjoyable I don't want it to end. Apart from the pure pleasure of reading, moreover, there's a serious purpose to this book: Gish Jen is doing something important for us, in a vein similar to Maxine Hong Kingston. Jen is redefining what a "typical American" is. At a number of points, the gradually more Americanized Chinese immigrants at the center of the story scoff at "typical Americans" for their wastefulness, for their laziness, for many qualities that people from other countries have begun to associate stereotypically (perhaps with some justice) with Americans--satisfied, not wanting to put out too much energy, complacent, arrogant. But in the meantime, Ralph, Theresa, and Helen are themselves becoming "typical Americans." Not in the sense they criticize, but in several new senses. On the one hand, they integrate themselves into the revelation of the American dream--the house outside the city, the green lawn, the rewards for hard work, planning, and desiring. On the other hand, they are becoming the "typical Americans" in the sense that they represent the new Americans who are changing the character of America: from its Euro/Judeo/Christian origins (the people who set aside the Native American tradition) to its new roots in both native peoples (not an issue in this book) and in the new immigrants, who come, struggle in their new environment, have disappointments and successes, individual and cultural quirks, experience resentment and hostility from those who have become settled and consider themselves the rightful "owners" of the land (I'm thinking of an incident where Ralph takes his family to a ball game and is jeeringly advised to go back to his laundry--he's actually a mechanical engineer with a PhD). These are the new typical American: they arrive from exotic lands speaking a language that has no European connection, and put a new face on the country; but by the same token, they are typical in the old sense, the same sense as the Irish, Germans, Jews, Eastern Europeans, etcetcetc: they come from foreign lands to the place of nearly unlimited opportunity, work hard to establish themselves, and finally begin to reap the fruits of their monumental labors. Thus the title has multiple resonances, both ironic (its references to the complacent entrenched) and, I would almost say, reverent in

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

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?

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!).

In Typical American Jen introduces us into a family that is torn apart by war and the main character dreams of stablishing himself as a Doctor of Mechanical Engineering to redeem himself in front of his family back home. Very well told story, and quick to point out the immigrant experience in a very realistic way. Having been writen in the early 90's, this novel is along the first to freely speak of the new American experience as ethnic literature. I recommend it.