Book Review: Oh My Mother! (OT) A Memoir in Nine Adventures

Oh My Mother! A Memoir in Nine Adventures by Connie Wang (Penguin Random House, 2023, $28, 240pp HB) Review by Skye Anderson.

Funny (But Maybe Not Meant to Be)

Author Connie Wang, born in the US of parents from mainland China, has written a memoir of growing up that is primarily about her mother, whose English is not flawless but who tries to be as American as possible - sometimes getting things wrong (and funny).

You will smile as you remember growing up in your own family, fighting with siblings, trying to pull the wool over your parents' eyes and sometimes getting away with it. Wang remembers and writes things about her childhood that you don't, until you read Oh My Mother! 

And the Title?

We all know the meaning of OMG but did you know the 'translation' of OMG into Chinese is Oh, My Mother!? It loses something in the translation of the title, however. On the other hand, the use of the word, mother, is perfect since Wang writes about her mother on every page, in every chapter, as if the book were about her mother or her relationship with her mother or her mother's idiosyncrasies in trying to adapt to life in the US and raise American children in Alabama and Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities.

Wang's mother is an accountant but her main passion in life is fashion which she passed on to Wang (Wang's 4-years-younger sister is a psychiatrist) who becomes a fashion editor in New York City.

The Flow

Wang takes us through nine episodes in "life with mother," (probably chronologically), starting with her early childhood and including a trip to China when she was twelve. A couple of the chapters (Las Vegas and Versailles) were less entertaining, especially to male readers I suppose, but even with an emphasis on international fashion and fashion shows during Fashion Week in New York and Paris, etc., most men will be able to skim over those parts and recognize themselves on nearly every page.

Even the reader who has not traveled abroad will smile at the incidents Wang chooses to include, sort of like writing about a vacation through the eyes of a 7-year-old who remembers Denmark as the place she lost her doll and Scotland as the place she got sick. . . . 

Universalities

Even though our protagonists are Chinese Americans, they are a typical family with embarrassing situations and angry outbursts. I love Wang's sentence structure with some pages consisting of only one paragraph. But I would not attempt to read this book out loud, however, for so many sentences go on and on and on - but Wang does this lovingly and with humor*.

There is much serious food for thought in this book, about family, about immigrants, about DisneyWorld, about belonging. I look forward to more Wang books!

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*typically (?) studious Chinese student's humorous snippet - "I had scored well enough on my tests and papers that it no longer burdened me, which meant l could forget everything I had learned and spend the rest of the holidays decompressing, relaxing, not caring." p.67