Book
Bad bad girl : a novel / Gish Jen.
"Gish's mother--Loo Shu-hsin--is born in 1925 to a wealthy Shanghai family where girls are expected to behave and be quiet. Every act of disobedience prompts the same reprimand: "Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!" She gets sent to Catholic school, where she is baptized, re-named for St. Agnes, and, unusually for a girl, given an internationally-minded education. Still, her father would say, "Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot." Agnes finds solace in books, reading every night with a flashlight and an English-Chinese dictionary, before announcing her intention to pursue a Ph.D in America. It is 1947, and with the forces of Communist revolution on the horizon, she leaves--never to return. Lonely and adrift in Manhattan, Agnes begins dating Chao-Pei, an engineering student also from Shanghai. While news of their country and their families grows increasingly dire, they set out to make a new life together: marriage, a number one son, a small house in the suburbs. By the time Gish is born, her parents' marriage is unraveling, and her mother, struggling to understand her strong-willed American daughter, is repeating the refrain that punctuated her own childhood: "Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!" Bad Bad Girl is a novel about a mother and a daughter forced to reckon with one another across decades of curiosity and ambition, elation and disappointment, intense intimacy and misunderstanding. Spanning continents and generations, this is a rich, heartbreaking portrait of two fierce women locked in a complicated life-long embrace"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780593803738 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xiii, 323 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition: First hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2025.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | "Borzoi book." |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Autobiographical fiction. Domestic fiction. Novels. |
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | FIC Jen | 31681010441764 | FICTION | In process | - |
- Baker & Taylor
Spanning continents and generations, traces the turbulent bond between a brilliant Chinese immigrant mother and her headstrong American daughter, as they navigate a lifetime of love, ambition and aching misunderstanding, in the new novel by the author of The Resisters. Illustrations. - Baker & Taylor
"Gish's mother--Loo Shu-hsin--is born in 1925 to a wealthy Shanghai family where girls are expected to behave and be quiet. Every act of disobedience prompts the same reprimand: "Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!" She gets sent to Catholic school, where she is baptized, re-named for St. Agnes, and, unusually for a girl, given an internationally-minded education. Still, her father would say, "Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot." Aggie finds solace in books, reading every night with a flashlight and an English-Chinese dictionary, before announcing her intention to pursue a Ph.D in America. It is 1947, and with the forces of Communist revolution on the horizon, she leaves--never to return. Lonely and adrift in Manhattan, Aggie begins dating Chao-Pei, an engineering student also from Shanghai. While news of their country and their families grows increasingly dire, they set out to make a new life together: marriage, a number one son, a small house in the suburbs. By the time Gish is born, her parents' marriage is unraveling, and her mother, struggling to understand her strong-willed American daughter, is repeating the refrain that punctuated her own childhood: "Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!" Bad Bad Girl is a novel about a mother and a daughter forced to reckon with one another across decades of curiosity and ambition, elation and disappointment, intense intimacy and misunderstanding. Spanning continents and generations, this is a rich, heartbreaking portrait of two fierce women locked in a complicated life-long embrace"-- - Random House, Inc.
BEST OF FALL: Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, People, Oprah Daily, Writer's Digest, W Magazine ⢠RUPAUL'S BOOK CLUB PICK ⢠An engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.
âA transcendent work of art.â âBoston Globe
âGish Jen has written the multigenerational mother-daughter epic of our new century.â âJunot DÃaz
âHeart-piercingly personal. . . . Suffused with love.â âLos Angeles Times
My mother had died, but still I heard her voice. . .
Gishâs mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls are expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaidâfar more loving to than her real motherâis torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: âBad bad girl! You donât know how to talk!â Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English nameâAgnesâbut a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But even then he can only sigh, âToo bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot.â Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sailânever to return.
Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-Pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and successfully establish a new American life: Marriage! A house in the suburbs! A number one son! By the time Gish is born, though, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes, confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself, is repeating the refrainââBad bad girl! You donât know how to talk!ââas she recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.
Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as immensely incisive as it is compassionate.
