| The Love Wife Contributor(s): Jen, Gish (Author) |
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ISBN: 140007651X ISBN-13: 9781400076512 Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group OUR PRICE: $19.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2005 Annotation: From the highly praised author of "Mona in the Promised Land and "Who's Irish?-a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family. Here is Carnegie Wong, second-generation Chinese American warm heart and funny guy. Here is his WASP wife, the delicious "za-za-vavoomy" Blondie. Here are their two adopted Asian daughters, and their half-half bio son. And here is Mama Wong, Carnegie's no-holds-barred mother, who, eternally opposed to his marriage, has arranged from her grave for a mainland Chinese relation to come look after the kids. Is this woman, as Carnegie claims, a nanny? Or is she, as Blondie fears, something else? What happens as Carnegie and Blondie try to incorporate the ambiguous new arrival into their already complicated lives is touchingly, brilliantly, intricately told. Powerfully evoking the contemporary American family in all its fragility and strength, Gish Jen has given us her most exuberant and accomplished novel. "From the Hardcover edition. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Women - Fiction | Family Life - General |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Series: Vintage Contemporaries |
| Physical Information: 0.88" H x 5.3" W x 7.98" (0.65 lbs) 400 pages |
| Themes: - Topical - Family |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: From the massively talented Gish Jen comes a barbed, moving, and stylistically dazzling new novel about the elusive nature of kinship. The Wongs describe themselves as a "half half" family, but the actual fractions are more complicated, given Carnegie's Chinese heritage, his wife Blondie's WASP background, and the various ethnic permutations of their adopted and biological children. Into this new American family comes a volatile new member.Her name is Lanlan. She is Carnegie's Mainland Chinese relative, a tough, surprisingly lovely survivor of the Cultural Revolution, who comes courtesy of Carnegie's mother's will. Is Lanlan a very good nanny, a heartless climber, or a posthumous gift from a formidable mother who never stopped wanting her son to marry a nice Chinese girl? Rich in insight, buoyed by humor, The Love Wife is a hugely satisfying work. |