The Love Wife

Starred review from July 26, 2004
A meddlesome Chinese-American mother bequeaths a Chinese nanny to her ambivalent son and his big blonde wife in this darkly comic fairy tale about cultural assimilation, biological destiny and domestic warfare. In her earlier novels (Typical American
; etc.) and short stories, Jen established a sort of Asian Richter scale, registering the culture shock of new and not-so-new Chinese immigrants and their complicated, irrepressible families. Here she focuses on the racially mixed Wong family: Carnegie; his older wife, Janie (dubbed "Blondie" by Carnegie's hilariously awful mother); two adopted Asian daughters (the difficult teenager Lizzy and the hypersensitive Wendy); and a "bio" baby son who looks disturbingly non-Asian. When Carnegie's mother dies after a long bout with Alzheimer's, the Wongs are shocked to learn that she has arranged for an extended visit by a female relative from the Mainland, the unmarried, mysterious Lan. A year older than Blondie, whose "dewlap" and resemblance to an "Aeroflot" are beginning to alarm Carnegie, Lan seems quaint, "plainish" and self-effacing; soon her ambiguous status, passive-aggressiveness and blooming beauty threaten to destabilize the already rocky Wong marriage. Not only does she captivate Carnegie, who is dismayed and fascinated by his own rediscovered Chinese identity, she also preys on the Wong girls' insecurity as Blondie's nonbiological daughters. What threatens to turn into a standard evil-nanny plot takes on unexpected depth as Jen captures the not always likable Wong family with her trademark compassion, laser-like attention to detail and quirky wit. Though the shifting first-person narratives sometimes come off as awkwardly stagey (particularly Carnegie's, with comments like "I was entranced by the eternal return of villanelles—that deathless morph"), this novel has a robust, lived-in quality that makes you miss it when it's over. Agent, Maxine Groffsky.
11-city author tour.

May 1, 2004
Chinese American Carnegie Wong is happily married to the WASPy Blondie. So why is his truculent mama insisting on disrupting things by bringing over a pretty Chinese cousin as nanny to the children? With an 11-city author tour.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2004
Adult/High School-A vivid and likable family struggles with issues of adoption, aging, generational conflict, and clashing attempts at personal growth. The Wongs-composed of German-Scots-Irish-American mother Blondie, Chinese-American father Carnegie, adopted daughters Lizzie and Wendy, and birth son baby Bailey-live in suburban Boston, experiencing varying degrees of self-satisfaction and secret uncertainties. When Carnegie's strong-willed mother dies, she leaves a strange will that requires him to invite a formerly unknown Chinese relative into their home. Lan, a middle-aged woman from the provinces, readily wins the hearts of the daughters-both of Asian ancestry-and places herself quietly and adamantly at odds with Blondie, in spite of the latter's wishes for harmony in the home. Carnegie feels an attraction to Lan that he wants to keep at bay. Each of the characters helps tell the story, sometimes paragraph by paragraph and never on his or her own for more than a page or two, making this read like a wonderful overheard conversation among family members who truly love one another, in spite of individual quirks. Issues of race, racism, and interracial relationships are examined through the prism of such indisputable humanness that there isn't an ounce of didacticism to be found here. Both adopted teens and those who simply wish they'd wake up to discover that their parents aren't those embarrassing lumps in the next room will enjoy this riff on family while finding much to consider-and to smirk knowingly about.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2004
Jen--a writer of great comedic skills, candor, and imagination, who specializes in cultural collisions--portrays a hugely entertainingly American family in her third novel, a vibrant work notable for its unusual and arresting dialogue-saturated style. Not only do characters address each other, they also appeal to an unidentified third party, as though they're in group therapy or starring in a documentary. Mama Wong is the novel's ruling spirit. After fleeing China because she was too "spicy" a girl to get along with the Communists, she finds success in the U.S., only to see her son, Carnegie, engaged to an Anglo. She offers Carnegie, and his fiancee, called Blondie, a million dollars to call off the wedding, but they met on the day that Carnegie impulsively decided to adopt an abandoned Asian baby girl and feel destined to be together. The Wongs travel to China to adopt a second daughter, then Blondie has a son. Then Lan, a smart and alluring relative of Mama Wong's, arrives from China, allegedly as a nanny, although Blondie suspects more dire motives. This is a recipe for a situation comedy, or a soap opera, but instead it unfolds as a probing and hilarious inquiry into complex questions of nurture and nature, bloodlines and love. From Lan's scorn for the ease of American life to the girls' preference for Lan over their mother to the strains on Carnegie and Blondie's marriage, Jen, as keenly attuned to the incongruous as to the profound, orchestrates predicaments rich in irony and revelation to create a smart, piquant, and far-reaching tragicomedy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2004
Before Lan, a distant relative, arrived from China, the Wong family knew who they were: father Carnegie; mother Blondie; two adopted Chinese daughters, Lizzie and Wendy; and one biological son, Bailey. Except for baby Bailey, each member takes turns beseeching the listener to understand the Wong family from his or her perspective. It seems fitting that multiple narrators should take turns telling a story that explores the complex frontiers of the modern American family, but their overlapping, interrupting voices create a chaos that, while accurately representing family life, may prove unsettling to listeners. Additionally, interjections like Carnegie's single-line rejoinders to Blondie's laments, or Lizzie's sudden, venomous reactions to Wendy's sweet childhood stories make the characters feel more like disembodied voices than real people. Carnegie and his daughters are given clear voices and appropriate accents, but Blondie's voice sounds strangely exotic and not at all Middle American, as it's supposed be. All in all, though the novel has the makings of an important work of literature, this audio translation may bring listeners more confusion than satisfaction.

Starred review from July 1, 2004
The Wong family has enough problems, as second-generation Chinese Carnegie and his WASPy wife, Blondie, are constantly challenged by their two adopted daughters: typically rebellious adolescent Lilly, of indiscernible Asian descent, and shy preteen Wendy, who is decidedly Chinese. Meanwhile, Blondie is unsettled that she looks nothing like her daughters and husband, and so she clings to her recently born, wholly unexpected biological son, Bailey. The story gets even more interesting when Carnegie's mother, who has been relentless in her dislike for Blondie, arranges for a mainland Chinese relative named Lan to live with them. While Wendy and Lilly begin to wish that Lan were their mother instead of Blondie, and Carnegie begins to wonder what he missed out on with Asian women, the reader detests Lan's intrusion-and wonders why Blondie doesn't put up a bigger fight. Poignant, funny, and powerful in the tradition of her previous works (e.g., Who's Irish: Stories), Jen's latest raises many questions about the significance of race relations within family life and provides an illuminating portrait of Chinese Americans. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/04; see Behind the Book, p. 68.]-Dale Raben, Library Journal

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.