Bad Bad Girl
by Gish Jen
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The award-winning author of The Resisters returns with an engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.
My mother had died, but still I heard her voice. . .
Gish's mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls are expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaid--far more loving to than her real mother--is torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: "Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!" Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name--Agnes--but a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But even then he can only sigh, "Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot." Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail--never to return.
Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-Pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and successfully establish a new American life: Marriage! A house in the suburbs! A number one son! By the time Gish is born, though, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes, confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself, is repeating the refrain--"Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!"--as she recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.
Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as immensely incisive as it is compassionate.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9780593803738
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- Gish Jen
- Publisher
- Knopf Publishing Group
- Published Date
- October 21, 2025
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 352
- Physical Info
- 1.57 in H x 9.29 in L x 6.14 in W (1.36 lb)
Gish Jen is a masterful storyteller, and Bad, Bad Girl is a heartwarming, heart wrenching, funny, captivating story.After her mother’s death in 2020 Jen began searching for the genesis of her troubled relationship with her mother. Why does she treat me so differently? Why am I a bad, bad girl?Jen weaves together the pieces of her family story as she knew them, with the bits of ephemera that emerged after her mother’s long life--some letters, a log book and other morsels. The trail led her to unrevealed pieces of her family story. The resulting book is a rich family saga that spans generations and continents. It is true to its times, places, politics, cultures, and the intricacies of life.I’ve always loved Jen’s work and Bad, Bad Girl is my favorite to date. It’s a rare joy for me to pick up a book that keeps me up all night because it is just too good to stop reading. Simply put, Bad, Bad Girl is an un-put-down-able book. Bad, Bad Girl is a heartwarming, heart wrenching, funny, captivating story.After her mother’s death in 2020 Jen began searching for the genesis of her troubled relationship with her mother. Why does she treat me so differently? Why am I a bad, bad girl?Jen weaves together the pieces of her family story as she knew them, with the bits of ephemera that emerged after her mother’s long life--some letters, a log book and other morsels. The trail led her to unrevealed pieces of her family story. The resulting book is a rich family saga that spans generations and continents. It is true to its times, places, politics, cultures, and the intricacies of life.I’ve always loved Jen’s work and Bad, Bad Girl is my favorite to date. It’s a rare joy for me to pick up a book that keeps me up all night because it is just too good to stop reading. Simply put, Bad, Bad Girl is an un-put-down-able book.
Do you have a difficult mother? Do you struggle with the idea that you, in your own way, are/were a difficult mother? Are you interested in intergenerational trauma? Do you enjoy books that make you laugh and cry in almost equal measure? Okay, well, you might cry a little more with this one, but as with so many things, that would depend on your experience. Do you love books that seamlessly braid together the political and the personal. This book is for you.
I am a very avid reader, and this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is a book about mother-daughter relationships and how we work through them as our mothers’ generation passes on. It is also a dynamic historical novel. I have sent 4 copies to friends already!
This is a difficult story told about the author and her mother who was abusive. She was always called Bad and beaten whereas number one son could do no wrong. Her parents where Chinese immigrants who still followed the old ways of discipline. Hard to read but well written.
This is a beautiful, moving story of a mother- daughter relationship. Jen attempts to understand the forces that shaped her mother and that in turn affected her mother’s distant and abusive relationship to her. The author’s mother was an immigrant from China ,with a difficult history with her own mother . The fate of her family back in China after the Communist revolution and a difficult marriage weighed on her , as well as her loneliness in a foreign land-as Jen understands. The book represents a somewhat wished- for dialogue between them- tender, painful, wise and at times humorous. An accomplished, highly readable book.
