Fiona and Jane Pdf Summary Reviews By Jean Chen Ho

Fiona and Jane Pdf Summary

A witty, warm, and irreverent book that traces the lives of two young Taiwanese American women as they navigate friendship, sexuality, identity, and heartbreak over two decades.

Best friends since second grade, Fiona Lin and Jane Shen explore the lonely freeways and seedy bars of Los Angeles together through their teenage years, surviving unfulfilling romantic encounters, and carrying with them the scars of their families’ tumultuous pasts. Fiona was always destined to leave, her effortless beauty burnished by fierce ambition–qualities that Jane admired and feared in equal measure. When Fiona moves to New York and cares for a sick friend through a breakup with an opportunistic boyfriend, Jane remains in California and grieves her estranged father’s sudden death, in the process alienating an overzealous girlfriend. Strained by distance and unintended betrayals, the women float in and out of each other’s lives, their friendship both a beacon of home and a reminder of all they’ve lost.

In stories told in alternating voices, Jean Chen Ho’s debut collection peels back the layers of female friendship–the intensity, resentment, and boundless love–to probe the beating hearts of young women coming to terms with themselves, and each other, in light of the insecurities and shame that holds them back.

Spanning countries and selves, Fiona and Jane is an intimate portrait of a friendship, a deep dive into the universal perplexities of being young and alive, and a bracingly honest account of two Asian women who dare to stake a claim on joy in a changing, contemporary America.

READ

Fiona and Jane Reviews

Shopper Aware

3.0 out of 5 stars I wanted a lot more than the book offered

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

I like books about women and their friendships in particular. I also love reading about other cultures. This book seemed a perfect fit for me. I had read a few weak reviews but not daunted by that went ahead and bought the book. From the beginning I had some difficulty keeping on top of the time, place, and characters. The author seems to jump around and that, while often used in writing, is not my favorite. My preference is that a story have a flow and that every character’s voice is unique enough to know who you are reading about. For me that was not the case with this book. I kept thinking Fiona was Jane and Jane was Fiona. Sometimes I got confused as to the present and the past. Where are we? Are we in New York or back home? The friends had a friendship that went on for many years, but why? Do they even like each other? They don’t let each other in on their feelings and one is jealous of the other out of the blue. Neither of them are very likable but I kept thinking there would be a revelation in their relationship. Jane’s father is gay and that caused some trauma for her but this also treated with little depth. There was little to give the the reader a peek into anything about Taiwan though both of the characters were Taiwanese American. Maybe a trip here and there and the one calling her mother Mah. It is clear that the author has talent but this book required my diligence and patience and even then it left me dissatisfied at the end.

Angela T. Huang

5.0 out of 5 stars Single-parent children; Friendship between girls

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a novel about the lives of modern young people, full of confusion and struggle. Both heroines grew up in single-parent households, which is a common situation in modern society.

Fiona and Jane have been good friends since elementary school. The backgrounds of the two are very similar. Both their mothers are from Taiwan, and they both grew up in single families without a father. It’s just that Jane was born in the United States, while Fiona was born in Taiwan. The friendship between the two has continued, almost their lifetime.

In the days of Jane and Fiona’s parents, homosexuality was not a very recognized behavior, and the parties had to communicate in very secret circumstances, and sometimes even struggled to change, causing many tragedies. In the novel, Jane, her birth is actually a tragedy, because she was born under the circumstances that her parents should not be united. Even if both parents love her, they can’t make up for the lack in her heart, causing the tragedy of his father’s suicide. And later, knowing that she was just like her father, she couldn’t avoid some struggles.

And Fiona is a different story, her mother’s love is a tragedy in the age of patriarchy. Her mother fell in love with someone whom her grandfather did not approve of, had a child, and chose to run away. However, the grandfather still pursued this pair of lovers and broke them up abruptly. Fiona didn’t know her father was alive until her grandfather revealed it inadvertently. This left an uncertain shadow on her young mind, and even if she asked her mother, she could not get an answer. This may also have a negative impact on her future relationships with different boyfriends.

Regardless of the years of life experience of the two heroines, fortunately they finally recognize the truth and try to find what they think is the right path.

What attracted me to reading this novel was that the author was born in Taiwan, and the first chapter mentioned the focus of Taiwan’s tourism culture: night markets. The novel also mentions some political situations and people’s life in Taiwan in the early years, especially the Shilin Night Market, which makes readers feel very cordially. Of course, this can only be felt by those who have lived and grown up in Taiwan. The Shilin night market makes me think of the time I was there with friends while in college.

It’s not a long book, but it’s very well written about what happened to two heroines. The writing does not have any cumbersomeness, the description is very clear, and it is not sloppy. This is comforting to read. It can be said that although this is the author’s debut, it’s very successful.

billfalls

5.0 out of 5 stars Constant surprise and delight

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 30, 2022

Verified Purchase

Her essay in the NYT Magazine (1/14/2022, I think) left me wanting more of her writing style. “Fiona and Jane” delivered more, plus a whole pantheon of beautiful flawed humans and the tangles, often self-inflicted, in which they find themselves.

Her list of acknowledgments includes one of my all-time favorite books, Edward P. Jones’ “Lost in the City.” I suspect that “Fiona and Jane” will stay with me just as long, and I’ll be watching for her next book.

About Jean Chen Ho Author Of Fiona and Jane Book

Jean Chen Ho
Jean Chen Ho

Jean Chen Ho is the Author Of Fiona and Jane Book. She was born in Taiwan and grew up in Southern California. Jean is the author of Fiona and Jane (Viking, 2022), a linked story collection. She’s a doctoral candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California, where she is a Dornsife Fellow in fiction. Her writing is published in Georgia Review, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Guernica, The Rumpus, Apogee, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and others. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Fiona and Jane pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information

Fiona and Jane pdf books
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking (January 4, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593296044
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593296042
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 0.95 x 8.55 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #76,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #229 in Asian American Literature & Fiction
  • #2,138 in Short Stories (Books)
  • #6,067 in Literary Fiction (Books)
  • Customer Reviews: 3.6 out of 5 stars    586 ratings

Get A Copy Of Fiona and Jane pdf Or Paperback By Jean Chen Ho

You can Get A Copy of Fiona and Jane pdf Or Paperback By Jean Chen Ho from these online stores below.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *