Review | 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
- 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
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.
