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The Woo-Woo : how I survived ice hockey, drug raids, demons, and my crazy Chinese family

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  • Author: Wong, Lindsay
    Date:
    Created
    2018
    Summary:

    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.

    Contents:
    • Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Author's Note; Wong Family Tree; Prologue: Brain Child; Chapter 1: From Dumpster; Chapter 2: Pot Mountain; Chapter 3: On the Ice; Chapter 4: You Can't Escape the Woo-Woo; Chapter 5: Woo-Woo Logic; Chapter 6: The Empty; Chapter 7: Your Future Calling; Chapter 8: Chinese Hell Month; Chapter 9: Fun-Fun's Igloo; Chapter 10: Replacement Kid; Chapter 11: The Suicided; Chapter 12: "Jump, Bitch, Jump!"; Chapter 13: The Woo-Woo's Chosen; Chapter 14: The Other Mountain; Chapter 15: Bad, Bad Brain; Epilogue; Acknowledgments
    Original Publisher: Vancouver, Arsenal Pulp Press
    Language(s): English
    ISBN: 9781551527376, 1551527375