The Woo-woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family who blame their woes on ghosts and demons when they should really be 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; when she was six, Lindsay and her mother avoided the dead people haunting their house by hiding out in a mall food court, and on a camping trip, in an effort to rid her daughter of demons, her mother tried to light Lindsay's foot on fire.

The eccentricities take a dark turn, however, when her aunt, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, holds the city hostage for eight hours when she threatens to jump off a bridge. And when Lindsay starts to experience symptoms of the woo-woo herself, she wonders whether she will suffer the same fate as her family.

At once a witty and touching memoir about the Asian immigrant experience and 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.

Reviews

Lindsay Wong's The Woo-Woo is a brave, funny, and heartbreaking memoir that takes on the mysticism so regularly sold to us as part of the Asian American experience, and presents a side we don't often see: that of a young woman struggling to survive her family's adherence to a belief system she knows will doom her and them both. --Alexander Chee, author of How To Write an Autobiographical Novel

The Woo-Woo will break your heart then bind it back together. With luxurious prose, dark humor, and a sharp yet tender gaze, Lindsay Wong gives us an unforgettable memoir that mines the truth of her explosive family and its everlasting ripples as they follow her into adulthood. --Lily Brooks-Dalton, author of Motorcycles I've Loved and Good Morning, Midnight

How anyone survives childhood is a mystery, but how Lindsay Wong endured hers is a revelation. Extraordinary in their cruelty and blacker-than-midnight hilarity, Wong's family in The Woo-Woo is unforgettable. Equal parts appalling and riveting, Wong proves that a sense of humor can get you through the most dire circumstances. A riveting, unbelievable family epic told in exquisite, visceral prose, you won't believe it's not fiction. --Elizabeth Greenwood, author of Playing Dead: A Journey Through The World Of Death Fraud

That Lindsay Wong is even alive to write this book is amazing. That she can make it into the hilarious, touching, and tragic story that she's given us here is proof that books still have a purpose. Her black humor combines with compassion: she represents the realities of mental illness in her family while still telling us the story from their perspective: that of people haunted by The Woo-Woo. After you read this book, you may be, too -- in the best way. --Sarah Perry, author of After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, A Daughter's Search

Here's a memoir so alive and full of 'you can't make this stuff up' that you'll find yourself wincing and snickering and possibly weeping long after reading the last eloquent sentence. The Woo-Woo is both heart-wrenching and batshit insane, and is also beautifully rendered and fearless in its whip-smart humor. Lindsay Wong spares nothing, not even herself, in her search for clarity amidst madness, while the specificity of her prose reminds us of the woo-woo lurking within every family tree. --Sean Madigan Hoen, author of Songs Only You Know: A Memoir

Author Bio

Lindsay Wong holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and a MFA in Literary Non-Fiction from Columbia University in New York. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in No Tokens, The Fiddlehead, Ricepaper Magazine, and Apogee Journal. The recipient of many awards and fellowships (including The Studios of Key West, Caldera Arts and the Historic Joy Kogawa House), she has been writer-in-residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska City, NE