Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories

I loved these interlinked stories for their humor, their humanity, and their insight into life in China and the lives of Chinese Americans. Starting from the first story, Thank You, Mr. Nixon, recalling the president’s China visit–and Pat Nixon’s red coat–the author takes us into the China behind the ‘Potemkin’ façade projected to the West. Gish Jen creates conflicted and real families and characters who take us into recognizable, and foreign, situations.

But the bamboo curtain had parted. Not all that wide, really, but wide enough for tour buses to get through. from Thank You, Mr. Nixon by Gish Jen

The humorous tone is tempered by references to past trauma. “I remember when the Japanese came,” an old man tells his show more caretaker with Chinese grandparents, “The Japanese came and boom! Bombs. I once say a girl blown up.”

Characters struggle for a green card, are pressured to fulfill parental dreams but flounder, looking for purpose. They go to China looking for roots and beauty and discover spies and people clamoring for sponsorship. They cope with Covid craziness. They learn the hazards of doing business with China. And, they learn by returning that they can’t go home again.

II highly recommend these stories.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. show less

This was an outstanding reading experience for me. I enjoyed seeing the ways the various characters cropped up and related to one another in these connected short stories. I also really appreciated the exploration of different generational experiences, with stories set from the 70s until the 2020s. I thought the exploration of Chinese vs. American POVs was equal parts fascinating and humorous. I’ll be revisiting this again in the future.