Gish Jen explores the hard question of identity in America, lightened by a rare sense of humor. Through the telling of Mona's life, Ms. Jen forces the question of what _does_ it mean to be a "hyphenated" American? In America, there are many races, but no corollary conception of a multi-American identity.
Mona dons different identities, as if she can become a different kind of American each time she "changes." Through Mona's narrative the reader can almost believe that Mona is actually changing; that she is convincing the people that her last name isn't Chang and she doesn't have a hairless body. But then, another character will speak, and the reader is jerked back into the hackneyed racial stereotypes which are more "real" than the various identities that Mona tries on for size.
Ms. Jen effortlessly shifts the reader back and forth through Mona's identity changes and her observer's reactions, or rather reality checks. No one is spared. All of Ms. Jen's different characters, peripheral or central (old Chinese parents, African-American workers, free-spirit Jewish mothers, and WASPy princesses), are revealed to have ingrained prejudices. But before the novel races towards a "cut off their heads" ending--Ms. Jen's humor prevails and inimitable phrases, (such as, he was a "jocular jock") allow the reader to shrug off any ugly inferences.
Overall, the prose is awe-inspiring (to an aspiring writing), the humor original, and the story quite serious. It bears repeated reading because _Mona in the Promised Land_ is a multi-layered novel. It is a funny romp through a seaweed bed of words. It is biting story about what is means to be a hyphenated American. It is story about Mona finding her way through a life where her parents' instruction book doesn't fit. It is simply a good read.
