The nine effervescent travel-based essays in journalist Connie Wang's first book, Oh My Mother!, upturn stereotypes of suffering immigrants and American dreamers while deftly tracing her family's adjustment to life in the U.S. As Wang explains, the Chinese phrase "wŏde mā ya," literally "oh my mother," is equivalent to the interjection "oh my god." Qing Li, her mother, has been Wang's inspiration as a first-generation immigrant; she's been "the angel and devil on my shoulders, the little voice in my head, and the creative muse that I have pushed against and climbed upon."
Qing gave up her editing career to join her husband, Dexin, getting his physics Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska. Dexin's participation in Tiananmen Square protests precluded their permanent return to China, so they soon sent for two-year-old Connie, too. As the family moved around the Midwest for Dexin's work, they embraced all-American phenomena such as road trips, timeshares, Disney World, and Las Vegas. Wang contrasts adult life in New York City and Los Angeles with her upbringing, and gains perspective on return visits to China: "it felt strange to see my parents as social, popular people." In two standout essays, "Fancy Things" and "R&R," she celebrates a shared love of fashion, as she and Qing tour the opulent Palace of Versailles, and marvels at her mother treating lifelong insomnia with marijuana while in Amsterdam. As a friend observes to her, "Qing's always been a trendsetter." Affectionate and incisive, these mother-daughter essays illuminate family relationships and life across cultures. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck