The Love Wife

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating ideas are presented, but plot is not strong
Review: I found myself really thinking after reading this book, especially about what I felt were its two main themes---class and adoption. Over and over we see how those who feel they are in a higher class than others subtly make this known, and how those in the lower class are affected by this, and how things can get reversed. Lan and Blondie's relationship really is incredibly well presented. The meaning of family in relation to adoption is also something I got many new insights into after reading this---what makes someone family? A twist at the end of the book especially makes you think!

However, I found the plot of this book quite weak. It seems to rely too much on big shocking events to move things along, or events that are meant to be shocking, but most of which you can see coming from half a book away. I guess plot is not the important element here, though. The book is mostly internal dialogue of its many characters, and we get to know most of them quite well, except in my mind for Carnegie, who never really comes alive for me.

I read this book with a great deal of enjoyment, and found the time to finish it even with a small colicky baby needing my attention! The author has a wonderful gift for characterization and also for sense of place---I am very familiar with a couple of her locals---the suburban Boston area and Maine---and they were very well presented! I would certainly recommend this read.

Rating:
Summary: HARD TO FOLLOW
Review: It's not a bad story or book. It is in quite a few places hard to follow. It's written in a narrative, almost like a play. In many areas it's hard to figure out who is talking and who is responding. No need to go over the plot, others here have. So it's 3 to 3 1/2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: A Cliché-Destroying Look at Identity
Review: Modern books about families seem to be destined to vilify and undercut family life. They usually follow a predictable path towards dissolution. As a result, I'm usually reluctant to read such books. The stories and characters beg the question, and usually don't add much.

I found The Love Wife to be an effective, original story that defies the clichés of the family life genre.

The book combines one pinch of Amy Tan with one pinch of Charles Dickens in combining two cultures, many cultural perspectives and making many fundamental comments about what and who we are. Having been delighted with the unique perspective, I was even more thrilled when the plot continued to develop in ways that I would never have predicted . . . avoiding the many timeworn techniques that I have grown to loathe.

In reading reviews of the book, I notice that the descriptions are a little off center . . . almost as though the readers didn't notice the subtleties of the plot.

The book develops in an elliptical fashion. You need to be prepared to go forward, backward and sideways in time to appreciate the story's development.

The beginning will cause you to have one set of assumptions about the characters and the flashbacks will give you a totally different view. I found that way of telling the story to be a delightful unsettling of my assumptions.

As the story opens, Carnegie Wong and his blond wife, Jane ("Blondie" to the Wongs), are fully engaged in raising a family including two adopted Asian daughters, the frisky teenaged Lizzy who prefers black and the obedient younger Wendy who's still in pink, and a biological young son of their own, Bailey who looks like Blondie. Both parents have the usual career and family anxieties, complicated by Carnegie's Mom's disapproval.

Mama Wong was an immigrant to the United States who has lived the American dream of rising to wealth and respectability. She has a hard time accepting those who don't share her ethic . . . which includes Carnegie and his family. Blondie's family is an even greater horror to her, not being Chinese and being further away from the work ethic.

When Mama Wong dies, she leaves behind the family genealogy for Wendy, which Carnegie would dearly love to see in order to understand his roots. But there's a catch, Carnegie's family must accept into their household a distant relative, the forty-six-year-old woman Lan, from China for two years. That seems like little enough to do. The entry of Lan into the household sets the family off into a different course than they had planned, but one that Mama Wong would surely have approved of.

In the course of the story, you will learn that a love wife is a mistress. The book's central mystery is "who is the love wife?" and you will find it to be a fascinating one.

The book has a deep heart and a strong sense of multicultural perspective. Lan's views of Communism in China struck me as being as realistic as Blondie's views about socially responsible investing in the United States. When the cultures clash, the author shows genuine sympathy for all concerned. That quality gives the story a nice balance that I enjoyed very much.

If I liked the story so much, why didn't I give it five stars? I almost did, but I then remembered the number of places where I had a little too much trouble following the plot. It's worth the effort, but the effort shouldn't have been required. A little stronger editing would have made this book a modern classic. As it is, the book is an exceptional novel that I would recommend to anyone.


Rating:
Summary: Depth of Character
Review: So much has been written about Gish Jen's new novel. Yet what has been missed in all the press and in the reviews posted here too, is the depth of characterization in this book, and the accuracy of the portrayal of Chinese culture in particular. The character of Blondie captures to an uncanny degree the dream of self realization that lies at the core of many American lives. The character of Carnegie epitomizes a certain rootless post-modern ironic take on the world. But even more dead on is the character of Lan. As a person who has spent time in China, I am amazed to finally behold a character who thinks like the Chinese I met and knew. For example, she is, like a large number of Chinese people, obsessed by what's "real" and what's "fake." In a country where so much of reality is cloaked, it is not surprising that people would think and talk in those terms. Why is it that you almost never see a Chinese character in American fiction who reflects that? Lan is also obsessed with her status in a way that I recognize from my encounters in Asia. She needs to know whether she is a member of the family or a servant, and is obsessed with the question. A related issue for her has to do with belonging. She is, in my reading of the book, not so much trying to steal the girls as driven to find a place among them. So many Chinese students report, over and over, how cold a country America seems to them. Lan is no exception. And she is obsessed with the question of whether she is authentically from Suzhou, a beautiful place that represents the height of Chinese civilization. Suzhou is where her family came from, but she has been living in Shandong province, a poor and backward area. Which is her identity? I loved the way she is portrayed as having as many identity problems as the American characters. It isn't only Blondie who looks back (to Wisconsin). Lan looks back too. The idea of return is important to her. As for so many Chinese, it lies behind her seeming modernity and interest in capitalism.

This is one of the best books I have ever read, a spectacular and groundbreaking achievement I recommend to all.


Rating:
Summary: Self Identity
Review: The Love Wife, though flawed, is a complex, challenging commentary about self identity. There is a dark side to this book - the profoundly destructive effect of the Maoist revolution and the later cataclysmic Cultural Revolution. The first victim is Mama Wong, a woman obsessed with possessions and financial success, who abandons her family to escape to the West. The bright and attractive Lan, the Chinese "cousin" and nanny, is also a victim. She is a member of the "lost generation", an entire generation of Chinese youth caught up in the Cultural Revolution, who with little or no formal education later became society's failures and outcasts. Lan arrives in America as a middle-aged woman, a former factory worker, with no husband, children, or higher education. Yet she believes that she had been destined for greater things, and, like Mama Wong, exhibits a certain ruthlessness in her ambitions. Blondie, the "American" wife, who is initially a sympathetic character, fundamentally lacks that core strength and sense of self necessary to fight for her values. She abandons her job, and then, like Mama Wong, her family. Carnegie, ironically, is his mother's son, with a less destructive, but equally wry wit. He, too, struggles with his identity and his attachment to his mother, at the expense of his marriage and later his health. The Love Wife becomes mired in too many extraneous and improbable plot points, but the author's sensitivity to her characters makes this a satisfying and important book.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fabulous
Review: This book piqued my interest from page one. I became attracted to the characters instantaneously. Each one has his/her own comical neuroses and depth. The author's style of shifting narrators provides a shift in perspective which made me feel like I had become intimately involved with the characters--as if I had the opportunity to read their journal entries and understand their private points of view.

The Love Wife tells the story of the new American family. The cast of characters include Carnegie, a Chinese American,his mother Mama Wong, his "midwestern white" wife Janie/Blondie, their three children--2 adopted Chinese girls and one biological boy, and Mama Wong's distant relative from mainland China, Lan, who flies in like Mary Popins after Mama Wong's death. In her will, Mama Wong has bequeathed Lan. Lan arrives with her parasol and exotic stories from the mainland. As a result of her appearance, each character redefines who he/she is culturally and personally. This new redefinition brings about huge change in the family dynamics.

Gish Jen brings up the ever prominent question and theme: what makes an American family? Well today, an American family can be everything and anything and Gish Jen clearly demonstrates this sentiment.

Although this book is fiction, what makes it so delightful is that it reads as non-fiction. Gish Jen's knowledge of popular culture, family interactions, history, and attention to detail make the reader believe that she is talking about your next door neighbor.

This book is a winner--you won't want to put it down and you will laugh out loud many times as you become engrossed in the story.

Rating:
Summary: "In the beginning, believe me, was Mama Wong."
Review: When Carnegie Wong's mother, the outrageous Mama Wong, discovers that Carnegie is going to marry Janie Bailey ("Blondie"), descended from Scottish/German immigrants, she tries, vainly, to bribe Carnegie to change his mind. Fourteen years later, the happily married Blondie and Carnegie now have two adopted Chinese daughters and a biological "half half" son, and Mama Wong has died. Their home life is suddenly turned upside down, however, when Lanlan, a 46-year-old "cousin" from mainland China, previously unknown, arrives at their home through the machinations of Mama Wong--from beyond the grave. Working as their part-time nanny, Lan quickly wins over the children, who respond to the fact that, like a "real" mother (and unlike Blondie), she looks like them.

The life of this racially mixed family is examined in minute detail, and the reader sees Lan slowly undermining their relationship with Blondie. Lan tells stories about life in China, fixes Chinese snacks, and introduces Chinese cooking, and the children try to understand and appreciate their cultural and racial identity. In bright, breezy language, each of the main characters develops the narrative from his/her own point of view and reminisces about the past, revealing his/her own quirky personality, offbeat relationships, and search for personal and cultural identity.

Despite the specific details, minute descriptions, and personal commentary, the characters are not fully rounded, and their motivations are unclear. Carnegie, for example, has protected his marriage against his mother's meddling for years, and his attraction to Lan is both baffling and inconsistent with what we know of his marriage. Blondie is a high-powered executive, an assured and self-confident businesswoman, yet she allows herself to be victimized by Lan, offering virtually no resistance, and we never really know why Lan resents Blondie so much. Neither Lizzy (age fifteen) nor Wendy (age nine) is seriously rebellious, yet they inform Blondie they would prefer a "real" mother "like Lanlan."

In the last third of the book, the author introduces several new characters and shifts the focus from the limited story of Lanlan's effect on the Wong family to several subplots involving other "cultural" issues--episodes involving physical abuse and violence, the failure of a small business, and prejudice against immigrants in rural Maine. These episodes are highly dramatic, even sensational, but they feel tacked on to provide a climax of greater significance than the domestic issues which have been the focus to this point. With its multiple points of view, eccentric characters, and humor, however, the novel is lively and entertaining, and Gish Jen's emphasis on cultural identity will strike a sympathetic chord with a large portion of the American population. (3.5 stars) Mary Whipple


Rating:
Summary: Heart-Stopper
Review: When I saw that the NYT's tough Michiko Kakutani gush over The Love Wife , I had to take a look. Wow! This couldn't be a more timely novel with all the cross-cultural clashes front page news; here's a novel both about families mixed-raced and mixed-adoption/bio but also about America, nationhood, & the challenges that cultural misperceptions create. The reviews I've seen comment on the amazing Mama Wong, but all the characters are so real they become 'family' by the end. Kakutani's comment that this is a "big-hearted" book is right on; you feel that the author love's all these characters and you do to -- though at times you want to shake them too! And, the ending is a heart-stopper.

Rating:
Summary: difficult to follow the story
Review: While I am impressed with how the characters are portrayed, especially the more modern Chinese, I find it difficult to read the book, because of the fragmented flow caused by different character's narration. Also no quotation marks around who said what. It makes my eye tired, and my speed of reading slowed down. So I give it a 3 star, because I think with a better way of telling the story, it will make the story easier to understand and may get more audience.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful New Novel from a Master
Review: While most large cities have a ChinaTown, the mixing of Chinese and locals has gone more slowly. Perhaps not unlike other ethnic groups, Chinese have tended to marry Chinese. In this story, Carnegie Wong, a second-generation Chinese American is married to Blondie, decided not Chinese.

Dead and presumably gone is Mama Wong, Carnegie's mother, eternally opposed to his marriage. Mama Wong is gone, but not forgotten. In comes Lan, a mainland Chinese relation who Mama Wong has arranged to come 'to look after the kids.' I am reminded that the Chinese symbol for trouble is two women under one roof.

Gish Jen is likewise a daughter of Chinese immigrants. A Harvard graduate, she is also the recipient of a Lannan Award in the amount of $75,000 to honor her work of exceptional quality. Gish Jen is proof that the excellent American, or should I say Chinese-American novel is not a thing of the past.