Jean Chen Ho

Jean Chen Ho's Fiona and Jane ably straddles the novel/short story boundary. The reader has to build her own bridges between some of the individual story lines, but building them isn't hard, and the complex understanding of the central characters that's gained is very much worth it.

Fiona and Jane have been friends since second grade; the stories gathered here take them well into middle age. Their closeness waxes and wanes, but when they're with one another, the connection is solid and their show more understanding of one another is both deep and humorous. Each of them lives a life full of questions about their own identities and about their choices and trajectories in life.

There's also a third character worth mentioning in Fiona and Jane—Won, who also met the two in second grade, and who appears regularly as a sort of port in a storm. Won is gay, and although he has trouble bring open about that identity as a teenager, as an adult he's much clearer about his trajectory and values than either Fiona or Jane are.

Fiona and Jane is the kind of book that can be read in a single sitting, but it's worth slowing down for. Let yourself settle into it and get to know the characters over time, the way they come to know one another.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. show less

I love how this story jumped between each perspective. It was a very quick read, and while the dialogue felt very cheesy at times, I thought it was a well crafted story. I was entertained the whole time. As I read, I thought I would give this three stars, but the way the plot and organization wrapped up made me bump it up a star, and I think this would make a great film. Not my usual read as I don’t typically go for books with a “feel good” ending, but it was a nice change of pace, and show more I couldn’t put it down! show less

In the vein of so many books these days, Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho is low on plot and heavy on the internal musings of young women. Told through short stories that jump around in time — sometimes focusing on both girls, but sometimes just one as they move away from each other and then back as friends sometimes do. Fiona and Jane succeeds where many of these books do not for a number of reasons including Ho’s excellent writing and the characters’ interesting histories and internal show more struggles. They feel like real people with real issues and lives. Fiona and Jane is an excellent choice for readers who enjoy character-driven books that examine themes of friendship, belonging, relationships, family, and first-generation immigrants. show less

Interesting interconnected stories of girls who are friends since childhood. Both are Taiwanese, which accounts in part for their friendship, but each fills a need in the other's life that begins at a young age and is able to grow into their adulthood. Jane is born in America to immigrant parents, though her father returns to Taiwan when she is young, presumably to make money, but when she visits him at age 13, she realizes it is for other reasons, and he will never come 'home.' Her mother, show more meanwhile, has found Jesus in their Asian American church, and becomes a realtor in CA to support them. Fiona and her single mother emigrate when she is young, after a devastating earthquake, and in part to escape the scandal of her single motherhood. It is a long time before Fiona learns of her father's identity and situation, though her grandfather alludes to it before they leave. Her mother is happy to leave her controlling parents but has a hard time making her way in the new country. The friends progress through high school, college, young adulthood, relationships and marriages, though not necessarily in a linear way, and with time and distance coming between them on more than one occasion. When Fiona moves to NYC, for example, it becomes hard to maintain their friendship. Yet each always comes back to something they need and fulfill for each other. Good story-telling, but I was often unable to get the emotional connection in their relationship that would make me care more about each of them. show less