Gish Jen
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Major Issues Major IssuesThe experience and lives of first and second generation immigrant families in contemporary America provides Gish Jen with a wealth of stories, conflicts, and themes for her fiction. One major theme that Jen’s reviewers have discussed is the interplay between ethnicity and identity, both of which are shown to be slippery and unstable in Jen’s fiction. Assimilation and cultural diversity, and intergenerational conflict, are other significant issues explored in her writing. Jen has expressed her own interest in capturing and conveying to her readers some of the complexities of the American Dream. Critics point to religion, especially conversion, as another recurrent motif. Readers and reviewers describe Jen’s work as both comic and poignant Author Links
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