Why Gish Jen Talks to The Dead

Writer Gish Jen recently had a revelation about her novels: her characters often talk to the dead. But in her most recent work, Bad Bad Girl, the dead talk back. In this book, Jen fictionalizes real details of her mother’s life, immigrating from China to the US in the 1940s and raising a big Chinese American family. The result is an exploration of a fraught mother-daughter relationship, and the elusive grasp of the American Dream. Jen talks to Boston Globe editorial page editor Jim Dao about this personal book, and about how America has changed since she started writing about it. Email us at [e-mail].