Join us for a discussion of this year’s ONE: MetroWest Reads book selection, Thank You, Mr. Nixon by Gish Jen

The acclaimed, award-winning author of The Resisters takes measure of the fifty years since the opening of China and its unexpected effects on the lives of ordinary people. It is a unique book that only Jen could write—a story collection accruing the power of a novel as it proceeds—a work that Cynthia Ozick has called “an art beyond art. It is life itself.

Beginning with a cheery letter penned by a Chinese girl in heaven to “poor Mr. Nixon” in hell, Gish Jen embarks on a fictional journey through U.S.-China relations, capturing the excitement of a world on the brink of tectonic change.

Opal Chen reunites with her Chinese sisters after forty years; newly cosmopolitan Lulu Koo wonders why Americans “like to walk around in the woods with the mosquitoes”; Hong Kong parents go to extreme lengths to reestablish contact with their “number-one daughter” in New York; and Betty Koo, brought up on “no politics, just make money,” finds she must reassess her mother’s philosophy.

With their profound compassion and equally profound humor, these eleven linked stories trace the intimate ways in which humans make and are made by history, capturing an extraordinary era in an extraordinary way. Delightful, provocative, and powerful, Thank You, Mr. Nixon furnishes yet more proof of Gish Jen’s eminent place among American storytellers.

Copies of the book will be available to check out at the Circulation Desk and in e-book format on Libby.

For more information, please go to MetroWestReadersFest.org or see the MetroWest Readers Fest Facebook group.

Additional events include book discussions, discussions about the Chinese-American experience, art, and music events at various libraries.

For a complete list of MetroWest Readers Fest ONE events being held around the MetroWest area, please see www.metrowestreadersfest.org/events

No registration for this event.