American Woman
By Susan Choi
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060542221, 384pp.)
Publication Date: August 19, 2004
Categories: Political, Psychological
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On the lam for an act of violence against the American government, 25-year-old Jenny Shimada agrees to care for three younger fugitives whom a shadowy figure from her former radical life has spirited out of California. One of them, the kidnapped granddaughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate in San Francisco, has become a national celebrity for embracing her captors' ideology and joining their revolutionary cell.
A thought-provoking meditation on themes of race, identity, and class, American Woman explores the psychology of the young radicals, the intensity of their isolated existence, and the paranoia and fear that undermine their ideals.
Susan Choi was born in Indiana and grew up in Texas. Her first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Discover Great New Writers Award at Barnes & Noble. With David Remnick, she edited an anthology of fiction entitled Wonderful Town: New York Stories from the New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
"Historical sweep and startling particular shrewdness . Choi has written a fascinating portrait of dangerous fragility."
-New York Times
"A brilliant read . astonishing in its honesty and confidence AMERICAN WOMAN is a haunting book."
-Denver Post
"Intellectually provocative and vividly imagined."
-Kirkus Reviews
"A hypnotic, winding route through the scorched emotional landscape of 1974."
-Joy Press, Village Voice
"Prepare to be held hostage by Susan Choi's mesmerizing AMERICAN WOMAN."
-Vanity Fair
"Few writers since Graham Greene have brought such tender, insightful, poetic, intelligent, darkly comic writing to the political thriller."
---Francisco Goldman
"With uncompromising grace and mastery, Susan Choi renders the intimate moments which bring to life a tale of prodigious sweep."
-Jhumpa Lahiri*
"Enthralling."
-Publishers Weekly
"Brilliant . Choi's insightful understanding, vivid description, lyrical use of language and deft dialogue make it an overall reading pleasure."
-Oregonian
"An artful, insightful meditation on the radical impulse ...a complex and layered work."
-Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Deeply impressive: confident, historically astute, psychologically persuasive . beautiful and disturbing. a work of real achievement."
-Jennifer Egan, Nation
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