[.ca] Mona in the Promised Land: A Novel (ISBN 0679776508)

From Amazon.com:
The heroine of Mona in the Promised Land is a true child of the suburbs. Mona--a self-described "self-made mouth" goes to temple, loves pickles, is boy-crazy, worries about getting into the right college and keeping up with her over-achieving sister, and wishes her parents were less strict. Her equally Jewish Westchester classmates hardly notice what everyone else finds hard to forget: Mona may be Jewish by choice (and voice) and American by nationality, but her surname is Chang and so she is considered less an expert on seders and schmaltz than China. In Gish Jen's hands, '70s suburbia is a place of buoyant hope and change. While Mona's parents worry about what she'll do next--her mother suggesting at one point that she might even want to be black, Mona ripostes that that's not a religion. She does, however admit to knowing "some kids studying to be Bobby Seale. They call each other brother, and eat soul food instead of subs, and wear their hair in the baddest Afros they can manage." The divide between past conservatism and present bohemia is one of the novel's concerns, but its epigraphs hint at the porous nature of cultural identity, of groups taking what they choose from one another. As for Gish Jen, she turns out to be a descendant of Laurence Sterne. Mona has the buttonholing narrator, the rollicking comedy that modulates into genuine sadness, and the incidental but all-important details that might confuse those intent on the author's ethnicity but will delight everyone else.

Mona wants to be something other than Asian Promised Land:
For some odd reason this book left a bad taste in my mouth. She was trying so hard to be Jewish, I guess it's not cool or PC for Mona to be Baptist + the writers ... attempt to integrate African -Americans in this book. I felt as if I was having multiculturalism shoved down my throat... Asian-american lit this is not. A wannabe white girl with one black friend literature - buy it.

Mona wants to be something other than Asian Promised Land:
For some odd reason this book left a bad taste in my mouth. She was trying so hard to be Jewish, I guess it's not cool or PC for Mona to be Baptist + the writers ... attempt to integrate African -Americans in this book. I felt as if I was having multiculturalism shoved down my throat... Asian-american lit this is not. A ... white girl with one black friend literature - buy it.

Mona needed to have a reality check.:
After starting this book and putting it down in three years, I finally am able to give it three stars. I found it very hard to get into this book and want to continue to read it. If it hadn't been for a snow storm I may never have gotten around to finishing it. While Mona Chang is a wise cracking character throughout the book, her mother is the true comedian. Her character kept me laughing and often thinking about one of the mothers from the book the "Joy Luck Club." Her level of sarcasm was unbeatable. When Mona's sister embraces their culture Mona finds her odd. Yet she doesn't think anything of embracing the culture of her friend. It was almost painful to read when Mona dines with her WASP friend and family. One of the reasons I was not a huge fan of this book, was due to Mona's constant need to be Jewish. I don't know why it just didn't appeal to me for this character. She fought against her own heritage to the point that she actually became a rude character that just didn't seem to get it. It being what her parents had worked for and struggled for. They were people that were proud to be American. Mona on the other hand found a love interest and a friend that spent too much time looking for the injustice in life. Mona's parents become frustrated with her for good reason. The Underground Railroad section was definitely a grasping at straws moment. Later when Seth and Mona struggle in their relationship I found the "jumping" section a bit dramatic. Especially for the reasoning behind Seth's need for attention. Although it is easy to find fault with this book, it is also a book that in the end I am glad I read. Mona is a character that you will not soon forget.

Maybe two-and-a-half stars:
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.

Awesome writing with unfortunate flaws:
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.