Typical American (Plume Contemporary Fiction)

Rating:
Summary: Realistic but Offending
Review: Set in the 1940s, Typical American is about an immigrant named Ralph Chang who planned to come to America temporarily but instead, permanently resided in the U.S. Ralph was faced with most of the difficulties present-day immigrants are faced with such as forgetting to renew his visa, his only proof that allowed him to stay in the U.S. However, Ralph's life became smoother and not long after Ralph settled into America, he got married and began a family. Soon enough, Ralph's family went through many minor problems like most healthy families...until Ralph met Grover Ding, Ralph's friend's tenant. Grover brought major chaos to Ralph's family by the various actions he displayed. Although the beginning of Typical American seemed like an innocent story about Chinese immigrants, the well-written plot soon turned into a more complicated and mature book. For instance, instead of a normal family's ups and downs, the Chang family soon went through much betrayal and several cases of adultery soon took place. Typical American wasn't the nice, innocent story anymore, but a mature adult book. Despite some harmless humor throughout the book, such as Ralph's two young daughters quarreling, I disliked the book because it had some lustful topics at times. Although I liked the book in the beginning, (Ralph's struggles were powerfully intriguing), the middle and latter parts of Typical American were disturbing and ruined my whole positive perspective of the book. (For example, a character in the book committed adultery while another person had an affair.) However, the plot was clearly well-written and advanced with the reader being curious to gain more information. Also, with many jokes and realistic family-life issues, Typical American grasped the reader's attention. So, those who wouldn't be offended by lustful topics would probably enjoy Typical American. Otherwise, those who are innocent-minded and sensitive to lustful issues would probably find this book disturbing.

Rating:
Summary: Realistic but Offending
Review: Set in the 1940s, Typical American is about an immigrant named Ralph Chang who planned to come to America temporarily but instead, permanently resided in the U.S. Ralph was faced with most of the difficulties present-day immigrants are faced with such as forgetting to renew his visa, his only proof that allowed him to stay in the U.S. However, Ralph's life became smoother and not long after Ralph settled into America, he got married and began a family. Soon enough, Ralph's family went through many minor problems like most healthy families...until Ralph met Grover Ding, Ralph's friend's tenant. Grover brought major chaos to Ralph's family by the various actions he displayed. Although the beginning of Typical American seemed like an innocent story about Chinese immigrants, the well-written plot soon turned into a more complicated and mature book. For instance, instead of a normal family's ups and downs, the Chang family soon went through much betrayal and several cases of adultery soon took place. Typical American wasn't the nice, innocent story anymore, but a mature adult book. Despite some harmless humor throughout the book, such as Ralph's two young daughters quarreling, I disliked the book because it had some lustful topics at times. Although I liked the book in the beginning, (Ralph's struggles were powerfully intriguing), the middle and latter parts of Typical American were disturbing and ruined my whole positive perspective of the book. (For example, a character in the book committed adultery while another person had an affair.) However, the plot was clearly well-written and advanced with the reader being curious to gain more information. Also, with many jokes and realistic family-life issues, Typical American grasped the reader's attention. So, those who wouldn't be offended by lustful topics would probably enjoy Typical American. Otherwise, those who are innocent-minded and sensitive to lustful issues would probably find this book disturbing.

Rating:
Summary: hmmmm.
Review: the first couple of chapter was interesting. but it got boring after a while. just normal immigrant story.

Rating:
Summary: A Typical Story, Typically Told
Review: The immigrant experience in America is well-trodden ground and unfortuntely Gish Jen's Typical American doesn't really add much to this well-established body of literature. Her writing style is good, the story she tells is moderately compelling (if frequently unrealistic) and on, and on, and on. There's nothing wrong with Typical American, but that's hardly a good reason to pick it up and read it. If you're interested in the American immigrant experience, I recommend Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides or Call it Sleep by Henry Roth. If Chinese family life is your interest, Wild Swans by Jung Chang or Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Chang are far more worthy of your investment of time.

Rating:
Summary: Good for an Evening's Enjoyment
Review: This is definitely a book worth a read. Gish Jen takes us into the life of an immigrant and the world of wants versus needs. I would have liked there to have been more character introspection-- after all actions are very well but the soul of a book are the motives that drive characters and how they feel about their lives and decisions. On the whole I enjoyed this book- especially the arts where business scams were carried out. Although literay the writing style is easy to read. Much of the short sentence prose adds to the fragmentary nature of the characters.