SOURCE: Annan, Gabriele. “Blair-Speak.” London Review of Books 22, no. 1 (6 January 2000): 25.

In the following review of Who's Irish?, Annan comments that Jen's prose is witty and perceptive, but that her stories are marred by unrealistically happy endings.

Ever since her first novel Typical American appeared in 1991, the Chinese American writer Gish Jen has been acclaimed as the new Amy Tan. Amy Tan herself acclaims her on the cover of Mona in the Promised Land (1996), Jen's second novel; and again on this collection of short stories. Jen has a lot going for her: she is witty, perceptive, penetrating, sharp on motives and a great mimic. She can do Black American, Jewish American (including the puns) and, of course, Chinese American: ‘When I first come to the United States, I also had to hide-and-seek with those deportation guys. If people did not helping me, I am not here today.’ Jen is...