| The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family Contributor(s): Wong, Lindsay (Author) |
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ISBN: 1551527367 ISBN-13: 9781551527369 Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Family & Relationships | Dysfunctional Families - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - Asian American Studies - Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General |
| Dewey: 616.890 |
| LCCN: 2019403694 |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.9 lbs) 304 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Asian - Topical - Family |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons when in fact they should have been on anti-psychotic meds. Lindsay Wong grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic grandmother and a mother who was deeply afraid of the "woo-woo"--Chinese ghosts who come to visit in times of personal turmoil. From a young age, she witnessed the woo-woo's sinister effects; at the age of six, she found herself living in the food court of her suburban mall, which her mother saw as a safe haven because they could hide there from dead people, and on a camping trip, her mother tried to light Lindsay's foot on fire to rid her of the woo-woo. The eccentricities take a dark turn, however, when her aunt, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, holds the city of Vancouver hostage for eight hours when she threatens to jump off a bridge. And when Lindsay herself starts to experience symptoms of the woo-woo herself, she wonders whether she will suffer the same fate as her family. On one hand a witty and touching memoir about the Asian immigrant experience, and on the other a harrowing and honest depiction of the vagaries of mental illness, The Woo-Woo is a gut-wrenching and beguiling manual for surviving family, and oneself. |