Beyond the Book: Background information when reading The Love Wife

Beyond the Book

This article relates to The Love Wife

Gish Jen's first novel was published in 1991; Typical American followed three young Chinese immigrants who slowly transform into everything they had once criticized as 'typically American'.  In her next book, Mona in the Promised Land (1996), which was named one of the LA Times' top ten books of 1996, Jen continued to explore the notions of cultural diversity and ethnic identity.  In 1999 she published a collection of eight short stories titled Who's Irish?: And Other Stories which examined American life from a foreigner's perspective.   In addition her short stories have been published in many places including The New Yorker and The New York Times. The Love Wife is her fourth book.

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This article relates to The Love Wife. It first ran in the October 19, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.