From Publishers Weekly
A meddlesome Chinese-American mother bequeaths a Chinese nanny to her ambivalent son and his big blonde wife in this darkly comic fairy tale about cultural assimilation, biological destiny and domestic warfare. In her earlier novels (
Typical American; etc.) and short stories, Jen established a sort of Asian Richter scale, registering the culture shock of new and not-so-new Chinese immigrants and their complicated, irrepressible families. Here she focuses on the racially mixed Wong family: Carnegie; his older wife, Janie (dubbed "Blondie" by Carnegie's hilariously awful mother); two adopted Asian daughters (the difficult teenager Lizzy and the hypersensitive Wendy); and a "bio" baby son who looks disturbingly non-Asian. When Carnegie's mother dies after a long bout with Alzheimer's, the Wongs are shocked to learn that she has arranged for an extended visit by a female relative from the Mainland, the unmarried, mysterious Lan. A year older than Blondie, whose "dewlap" and resemblance to an "Aeroflot" are beginning to alarm Carnegie, Lan seems quaint, "plainish" and self-effacing; soon her ambiguous status, passive-aggressiveness and blooming beauty threaten to destabilize the already rocky Wong marriage. Not only does she captivate Carnegie, who is dismayed and fascinated by his own rediscovered Chinese identity, she also preys on the Wong girls' insecurity as Blondie's nonbiological daughters. What threatens to turn into a standard evil-nanny plot takes on unexpected depth as Jen captures the not always likable Wong family with her trademark compassion, laser-like attention to detail and quirky wit. Though the shifting first-person narratives sometimes come off as awkwardly stagey (particularly Carnegie's, with comments like "I was entranced by the eternal return of villanelles—that deathless morph"), this novel has a robust, lived-in quality that makes you miss it when it's over.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–A vivid and likable family struggles with issues of adoption, aging, generational conflict, and clashing attempts at personal growth. The Wongs–composed of German-Scots-Irish-American mother Blondie, Chinese-American father Carnegie, adopted daughters Lizzie and Wendy, and birth son baby Bailey–live in suburban Boston, experiencing varying degrees of self-satisfaction and secret uncertainties. When Carnegie's strong-willed mother dies, she leaves a strange will that requires him to invite a formerly unknown Chinese relative into their home. Lan, a middle-aged woman from the provinces, readily wins the hearts of the daughters–both of Asian ancestry–and places herself quietly and adamantly at odds with Blondie, in spite of the latter's wishes for harmony in the home. Carnegie feels an attraction to Lan that he wants to keep at bay. Each of the characters helps tell the story, sometimes paragraph by paragraph and never on his or her own for more than a page or two, making this read like a wonderful overheard conversation among family members who truly love one another, in spite of individual quirks. Issues of race, racism, and interracial relationships are examined through the prism of such indisputable humanness that there isn't an ounce of didacticism to be found here. Both adopted teens and those who simply wish they'd wake up to discover that their parents aren't those embarrassing lumps in the next room will enjoy this riff on family while finding much to consider–and to smirk knowingly about.
–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
