I Heart Gish Jen
Last year right around July 4, I posted a picture of Gish Jen’s novel Typical American with the caption “We’re all typical Americans.”
I know I’ve said this before (maybe just in stories?), but I really love Gish Jen’s work. I was introduced to her when a copy of her novel Mona in the Promised Land landed in the Tufts Observer’s office — this was such a nice change from the usual bizarro PR materials we received. I was an English major, so I obviously read a lot — but it was a lot of Chaucer, Tolstoy, Lawrence, Faulkner. (Are these all men? Why, yes they are.) Like a lot of young adults, I was a voracious reader as a child until about high school, and then reading became more of an academic chore. Which is fine, by the way; it was a “chore” I enjoyed, and the mythical pioneer in me thinks hard work (sometimes!) equals reward. But discovering Gish Jen opened up this door where I could re-emerge as someone who read “good literature,” but enjoyed it in a different kind of way. Once I graduated, I spent sooo many Saturdays walking to Harvard Book Store from my apartment in Central Square to pore over books by, yes, Gish Jen…but also Allegra Goodman, Barbara Kingsolver, Jane Smiley, Alice Munro, and Tom Robbins. These became my “beach reads.”
So here’s Gish Jen’s latest — a short story collection called Thank You, Mr. Nixon. I shared this in my stories (and sort of “softly” on the MetroWest Readers Fest account bc I’m still distributing our press releases, etc.), but Thank You, Mr. Nixon is the selection for 2022’s community-wide read. Over 20 regional libraries have expressed an interest in participating, and many are planning their own events to complement the biggie: Gish Jen will be joining us on Thursday, Oct. 6. I’m beside myself! (Thank you, Courtney at Wayland Library, for helping to make this connection.)
The reason I’m posting this today is because NPR just released its “Books We Love” summer edition, and yup, Thank You, Mr. Nixon is on it.
But also: Did you know that the late John Updike, often viewed as the epitome of “Great American Writer,” named Gish Jen as his self-appointed “successor” before he died? This is America; let’s read about it! 🇺🇸
originally published on instagram