appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Kevin Quinn

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho, pub. Viking
At its best, this collection of related stories is a searching consideration of fractured lives. Though it focuses primarily on protagonists Fiona and Jane, all of the characters are burdened in some way: with nagging questions of identity (cultural, sexual or otherwise); with a weighty sense of familial responsibility; or with the after-effects of psychological trauma.
Whether we encounter a mother who has not told her daughter the truth about her absent father, or an ex-convict now working for a moving company, or a young man with throat and mouth cancer who chronicles his thoughts in a notebook during his treatment, they are all connected, directly or otherwise, to Fiona and Jane.
Their stories unravel in concert with Jean Chen Ho’s exploration of the two women’s friendship.

Childhood best friends, the Taiwanese-Americans navigate coming of age in Los Angeles with varying degrees of success. They meet in second grade, when Fiona arrives from Taiwan not completely comfortable with English (she’s called Ona in Taiwan but adds Fi to fit in). Jane’s family is more traditionally American (they are a nuclear family who live in a beautiful house and have notable financial success).
In contrast, Fiona moves to America without her father, who her mother has told her is dead. Nevertheless, the similarities and connection between the two girls prove vital for the development of the shifting versions of themselves that unfold within each of the 10 stories.
Eventually, Jane’s father goes back to Taiwan for work – and never returns. In her last year of high school, she visits him, and what she discovers about him is integral to the trajectory of the rest of her life.
Similarly, when Fiona is in her last year of university, her grandfather dies and leaves her a small inheritance. The gift, more money than she has ever had, precipitates memories of her early life in Taiwan, as well as revelations that inform her journey through adulthood.
Ho’s treatment of Fiona and Jane’s early life is captivating, but her presentation of their adult life is often unfulfilling. Jane’s sexuality becomes a focal point of later stories but it is investigated simplistically. And Fiona’s life unfolds without the dimensionality it needs. Ho goes for themes without producing rich characterisation, making some of their experiences predictable.

Furthermore, the perspective is always Jane’s unless we are hearing from a third-person narrator. This is a notable feature of the book in that it makes Ho’s presentation of Fiona’s life rather limited. Indeed, in the book’s title story, “Fiona and Jane” (narrated with odd imbalance by Jane), Fiona is almost absent from the central plot and feels tagged on to the story’s too-neat ending.
In “The Inheritance”, we have the best access to Fiona as her past in Taiwan opens up with appealing interest. Though we later learn about her failed romances (in stories such as “Doppelgängers”) and her difficulty settling on a meaningful career, her story never again reaches a satisfying level of intimacy.
It is Jane’s consciousness, then, that moves the book along. Whether her presentation of teenage sexual awakening, in “Go Slow”, or her description of men she shouldn’t have dated, in “Korean Boys I’ve Loved”, or her sensitive consideration of friendship on the verge of collapse, in “The Movers”, Jane’s point of view occupies most of Ho’s attention.
While Fiona goes to law school, Jane is a writer, a fact that too easily explains why Jane’s voice overpowers the book.
Ultimately, Fiona and Jane is uneven, aesthetically and narratively, its central voices not consistently authentic. The choice to present a series of interrelated stories means that individual narratives cannot always stand on their own. Indeed, some feel merely intercalary – a way to move from one to the next or to tie up loose ends hastily. Elsewhere, single stories beg for richer treatment.
Ho focuses on lives often neglected in fiction, but the book lacks nuance and originality.


Rise of Asian-American voters in US elections — a visual explainer

Why Jackson Wang’s Coachella performance made history: the Hong Kong born K-pop star was the music festival’s first ever Chinese solo performer – and he grabbed the moment with both hands

‘Asian-Americans are vital’: New York City to host first-ever parade celebrating Japanese

Meet Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash: the Chinese-American tech billionaire once worked for eBay and PayPal, but credits his experience as a dishwasher for his current success

Asian America

Asian-American coming-of-age tale set in LA, Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho, focuses on lives fiction often neglects, but is uneven

Los Angeles is the setting for Jean Chen Ho’s Fiona and Jane, stories about Asian migrants coming of age that’s centred on the two women of the book’s title. Photo: AFP

The cover of Ho’s book. 

Author Jean Chen Ho.

How web novel site Wuxiaworld, born of the Asian-American experience, connects Western readers with Eastern fantasy fiction

Cover of Korean web novel “The Second Coming of Gluttony”, a popular read on Wuxiaworld. Picture: Breathe

Wuxiaworld founder and CEO Jingping Lai.

A screenshot of Wuxiaworld’s website, showing its most popular web novels on January 14, 2022. Picture: Wuxiaworld

Tale of two Chinas – Taiwan and mainland, cosmopolitan and provincial – by Lo Yi-Chin, Faraway is a novelistic memoir about a father’s illness and a son’s dilemma

Lo Yi-Chin’s Faraway describes the tribulations of a son returning to mainland China from Taiwan to take his hospitalised father to the self-ruled island. The Taiwanese author mines the situation for comedy. Photo: Getty Images

The cover of Lo’s book.

Taiwanese author Lo Yi-Chin. Photo: Lo Yi-Chin

In Faraway, Lo Yi-Chin and his mother make fun of their mainland Chinese relatives; lack of worldliness, and contrasts provincial China with cosmopolitan Taiwan. Photo: In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images

Magazines

PostMag

Lifestyle

Arts

Family & Relationships

Culture

Books

Shifting versions of the two women of the book’s title, Taiwanese-American and childhood best friends, unfold within its 10 interrelated stories
Jean Chen Ho has produced a searching examination of fractured lives that is both captivating and unfulfilling, its themes rich but characterisation lacking


Two Taiwanese-American women give this collection of short stories its title. The author, Jean Chen Ho, paints a commendable picture of fractured lives, but too often uses clumsy or superficial brush strokes.


Books and literature

Chinese overseas

Taiwan

Asian-Americans

An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review