SOURCE: Brownrigg, Sylvia. “Margarinized.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 5026 (30 July 1999): 21.

In the following review, Brownrigg comments that the stories of Who's Irish? address the theme of marginalization with intelligence and humor.

Gish Jen's new collection of stories [Who's Irish?], like other recent fictions by Lan Samantha Chang or Mei Ng, explores a rich territory where intergenerational conflict intersects with cross-cultural misunderstanding.

Jen's characters are fluent in the vernacular of the American suburbia in which they are raised, but they remain alert to the chiding voices of their striving, often immigrant parents. “Ma fan” is one of the few Chinese phrases architect Pammie knows; it means “just like you”, and in her mother's critical usage it denotes a troublemaker, one who stands out. The good child would have “kept herself small and edgeless” so as not to embarrass her family.

Jen's characters do have edges, of humour and of independence...