Gish Jen: More Stories

Caution: this is a long post that's mostly summary. Not really a review!

Gish Jen, Thank You, Mr. Nixon.
Published February 1, 2022.

Gish Jen's new collection of short stories portrays a number of characters at different times of their lives. The action spans the history of China from the date Nixon's visit in 1972 until now. It illustrates the lives of Chinese immigrants to America in the 20th century, and the fate of their relatives who did not leave. Every story stands on its own, and every story connects to the others. All reflect both irony and a kind of bitter sorrow. The descriptions of the suffering of the family members who were left behind is especially vivid and poignant.

The first story, which gives the book its title, is a letter to President Nixon (in hell) from a Chinese woman named Tricia Sang (in heaven). As a child, Tricia had greeted Nixon when he visited. She then lived a long life under changing conditions in China. Her description of her life readies the reader for the vast changes that happened as China opened up and changed over the decades. "The more we thought about it, the more we felt you were the best enemy we had ever had, Mr. Nixon," she wrote (p. 11). 

The second story, "It's the Great Wall," takes place shortly after Nixon's visit, and describes a visit to China by an American couple, Gideon and Grace, and Grace's mother. Her mother, Opal, had fled China, and raised Grace in New York, and Gideon was not Chinese at all -- he was a descendant of Dutch Jews from the Caribbean. These tourists are required to take a guided and heavily chaperoned tour, but allowed briefly to visit Opal’s family and her mother's final resting place in a hall filled with tens of thousands of urns with cremated remains. Gideon and Grace's daughter Amaryllis is a pre-schooler left behind, but reappears in the later story "Amaryllis" at the age of 40. 

The contrast between the life Opal has had in America and that of the relatives left behind is evident — 

“The stories were hard to believe—not only of people being humiliated and terrorized in every way but of people being turned in by their own children. Who were these animals that had broken into Opal’s father’s study and ripped up his priceless paintings? What were they, that they had thrown her father into the river and left him to drown, that they had bound the hands of her mother and sisters, and forced them to watch as his body floated out to sea? And could all this really have been happening while Opal was trying to figure out what a Jell-O salad was?” (p. 46)

“Duncan in China," the next story, is about Duncan Hsu, an unsuccessful child of Chinese immigrants to America in contrast to his brother Arnie, already mentioned as a business partner of Tricia in heaven. "Almost as soon as Duncan reached Shandong, he knew that he had come for naught, that the China of the early 1980s had more to do with eating melon seeds around a coal heater the size of a bread box than with Song Dynasty porcelain." (p. 55). 

"A Tea Tale" is about a couple who want to create a tea-importing business — and get rich. Characters, including both Tricia and Duncan, from the earlier stories are involved, as the couple give up trying to deal with Chinese entrepreneurs, business practices, and legal issues. By now, it's the era of Tiananmen Square protests, so the background politics and characters' awareness are different. The story continues four years later. And the following story begins "Arnie Hsu the success, brother of Duncan Hsu the failure, had his own import-export business." (p. 118). And we see what patience with Chinese ways can accomplish (I guess).

"Gratitude" is about parents and children  – obviously. It begins at about the time of the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong in 2003. The family of Tina Koo, who has three daughters, will figure in many of the subsequent stories. Her daughter LuLu has already appeared: wife of Arnie Hsu. Tina's daughter Bobby is running away from her successful job, and Tina is chasing her. 

Food in these stories is often very vivid -- here's a passage from Tina's meal with Bobby when she's trying to get her to return to her successful life in New York:

"They had noticed that the fish in the tanks were not like the fish in Hong Kong, jumping out of the water; and sure enough, this fish tasted half dead, as if it had been eating hamburgers. The lobster, too, was strangely chewy, and who had ever seen such shrimpy shrimps? Plus it wasn’t only the seafood you didn’t really want to eat. An egg white dish that in Hong Kong would have been soft as a cloud was here more like a doormat. You had to chew chew chew before you could swallow one bite." (p. 143). 

Several of the later stories are about a different character, Arabella, who is studying law. Her law school colleague narrates the story "Mr. Crime and Punishment and War and Peace," about her efforts to get a job. Another food passage:

"I had picked a local hippie restaurant with every variation of tofu and brown rice possible, and with four kinds of kale smoothies. We tried all four. Then we tried three of the Buddha bowls, and then an udon-miso thing, and all the world glowed with warmth and antioxidants until I told her about the grease." (p. 158). 

Arabella becomes an immigration lawyer and plays a role in a later story, which has new characters and also connects a bit to Tina and her husband.

"No More Maybe" is more of a stand-alone story, which appeared a few years ago in the New Yorker. (I blogged it here.) It has one little connection to Tricia and her successful business, and how she taught students and aspiring entrepreneurs about business of clothing manufacturing. "We were all so sad when she got sick." (p. 226). 

And the last story is once again about Tina, her good daughter Betty, and her lost daughter, Bobby. The time frame comes right up to the present.

Why did I write such a strange synopsis? Because I found the incredibly numerous threads of connection so challenging, although every story was so satisfying and insightful. Every story tells a story! And I haven’t given away a single plot.

Blog post © 2022 mae sander.