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Mona in the Promised Land

A Novel

Part of Vintage Contemporaries

Author Gish Jen

Paperback

$21.00 US

Knopf | Vintage

5.17"W x 7.96"H x 0.68"D | 9 oz | 24 per carton

On sale Apr 01, 1997 | 320 Pages | 9780679776505

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From the acclaimed, award-winning author of Thank You, Mr. Nixon comes a “hilariously funny and seriously important” novel (Amy Tan) about American multiculturalism and a Chinese American teenager doing her best to fit in–even if it means converting to Judaism.

In these pages, acclaimed author Gish Jen introduces us to teenaged Mona Chang, who in 1968 moves with her newly prosperous family to Scarshill, New York. Here, the Chinese are seen as "the new Jews." What could be more natural than for Mona to take this literally—even to the point of converting? As Mona attends temple "rap" sessions and falls in love (with a nice Jewish boy who lives in a tepee), Jen introduces us to one of the most charming and sweet-spirited heroines in recent fiction, a girl who can wisecrack with perfect aplomb even when she's organizing the help in her father's pancake house. On every page, Gish Jen sets our received notions spinning with a wit as dry as a latter-day Jane Austen's.

GISH JEN’s most recent novel is THE RESISTERS; she also has a new book coming out in January 2022 entitled THANK YOU, MR. NIXON. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute and the Guggenheim Foundation as well as of a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and of a Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short work has appeared in the New Yorker and other magazines, and have been chosen for The Best American Short Stories five times, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century. She delivered the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University, where she is currently a visiting professor.

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A New York Times Notable Book

“Both hilariously funny and seriously important.” —Amy Tan

“A shining example of a multicultural message delivered with the wit and bite of art. . . . Gish Jen creates a particular world where dim sum is as American as apple pie.” —Los Angeles Times

“Hopeful and smart, a rare combination.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Hilarious and dazzling. . . . This firmly plotted novel has a raucous good time.” —The Boston Globe

“Funny, headlong and completely delightful. . . . A light-hearted novel of radiant charm and human warmth.” —Cynthia Ozick

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