Gish Jen
Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen began as a memoir, but, as Jen explains, because her mother withheld information about her life and kept little records of herself, Jen was obliged to fill the blanks in her mother’s life by using her imagination. The end result is a blend of memoir and fiction—in Jen’s words, “a forged truth.”
Jen writes about her mother’s early life in China, her move to the U.S., her education, her marriage, and her role as a mother of five children. The narrative is peppered with dialogue and commentary she imagines having with her now deceased mother. Her mother’s constant refrain of “Bad Bad Girl” is in reference to Jen and gives the book its title.
The heart of the novel is the mother/daughter relationship. Jen had a contentious relationship with her mother who not only withheld love and support from her eldest daughter, but also physically, emotionally, and verbally abused her, venting all her anger and frustration at her. Jen’s success and the many accolades she receives as an author are either ignored by her mother or dismissed in a perfunctory manner. At times Jen is angry, loving, forgiving, compassionate, and understanding of the challenges her mother faced as a new immigrant in a country which was so different from the country she left behind.
Although Jen has made a success of her life as a wife, a mother, and an author, she continues to be haunted by her history of trauma as she struggles to come to terms with her mother’s abusive behavior. She witnesses her mother’s favorable treatment toward her other children and wonders why she is denied even a modicum of affection and support. She oscillates between understanding her mother and seeking her acceptance and love while bitterly resenting her for the beatings and verbal abuse.
Jen acknowledges the possibility that writing her book is an attempt to make sense of her mother’s treatment. She attributes much of their dysfunctional relationship to the gulf between Chinese immigrants and their Americanized children. Unfortunately, she was the child to shoulder much of that tension. But through this blend of memoir and fiction, Jen manages to distance herself somewhat from her childhood trauma, contextualize her mother’s behavior, and elicit understanding and empathy for all the characters involved, including her mother.