Gish Jen has been publishing novels and short stories since 1991, when her debut, “Typical American,” was nominated for a National Book Critics’ Circle Award. But as Jen points out in the “Author’s Note” to her tenth book, “Bad Bad Girl,” she has never written about her mother.

Her mother, Agnes, was born in China, where she endured a culture that short-shrifted girls and a mother who treated her precociousness with disdain. The story of Agnes’ family life there, amidst war and upheaval and her journey to America is one part of “Bad Bad Girl,” but the other part is how as an adult herself Agnes mistreated and physically abused Gish while showering love and affection on Gish’s siblings.

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Throughout the book, Gish give

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