All our ordinary stories A multigenerational family odyssey

Chinese Canadian Wong's opening "Notes on Language" address Cantonese, inconsistent transliterations, Mandarin Pinyin--and more. Her insightful final line, "If you find this jumble of language and dialects frustrating, please know that it is even worse inside my head," underscores exactly the limits of intergenerational communication she captures in her second graphic memoir after Dear Scarlet (2019). Wong's black-and-white pages of simple lines, ordered panels, and hand-lettering exude an immediate intimacy. Certain pages are missing panels, suggestive of narrative ellipses, as if the blankness manifests all that can never be said. Propelled by her mother's 2014 stroke, Wong confronts her relationship with her immigrant parents as she struggles with empty words, of not being a "better daughter," of being a "lousy translator since [she] was a small child." Wong attempts to bridge the yawning generational divides by resurrecting and recording family experiences--surviving China's Cultural Revolution, the sundering aftermath of immigration, the prodigal returns. Undeniably wrenching is the realization that a deeper relationship with her parents might not be possible, but Wong learns to accept what they can give.

Wong (Dear Scarlet) explores her Chinese immigrant parents' history with gentle curiosity, wry humor, and moments of aching regret. The language gap is an overarching theme: Wong's parents don't speak English and she isn't fluent in Cantonese, making her "my parents' lousy translator since I was a small child." The narrative opens in the present day, as Wong struggles to concisely translate a doctor's verdict to her mother ("stroke not too sharp," she fumbles in Cantonese). From there, she flashes back to when she and her brother chose Saturday morning cartoons over Chinese language school: "So excited about winning our freedom that I could not imagine what I might be losing." Loss and the "family history of separation" are also explored, as Wong depicts her parents' separate, harrowing escapes from China during the Cultural Revolution, while lamenting how little they opened up to her about these and other experiences. Elsewhere, she delves into the history of Chinese immigrants in Canada and how centuries of migration have shaped Chinese culture since the Ming Dynasty. Wong employs simple line drawings to convey complex emotions, choosing just the right imagery and details to depict visiting an old Chinese Canadian cemetery, touring Kowloon, or hanging out at "a second rate Calgary mall" in the 1980s. It's a resonant journey into the past. Agent: Carly Watters, PS Literary. (Sept.)

A Canadian cartoonist and writer pieces together the unspoken lives of her Chinese-born parents. When Wong, author of a previous graphic memoir,Dear Scarlet, visited her mother, Sandy, in the hospital in 2014, she became aware of how poorly she spoke Cantonese and how disconnected she felt from her now deeply depressed mother. Determined to understand the reasons behind the distant relationships she had with both Sandy and with her emotionally absent father, Frank, the author began revisiting her past. Language was only one part of a problem: Her immigrant parents were also blue-collar working people who "weren't around much" during her childhood. Probing further, Wong realized that the distance also had to do with the personal stories her parents had avoided telling her--e.g., about the dangerous escapes they made to Hong Kong during the Communist Revolution. Through spare, pen-and-ink images and simple language, Wong imagines Sandy and Frank's respective histories, skillfully interweaving them with strands of the life the family shared in Canada. Plunging deeper into the past, the author also imagines the lives of her mysterious paternal great-grandfather, who came to Canada early in the 20th century to "lift his family out of extreme poverty." Despite "overwhelming racism," exemplified by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 and in forced separation from loved ones in China, her great-grandfather persisted, doing everything he could to "give his family a good life from afar." What emerges from the fractured segments of Wong's story is not just a poignant tale of intergenerational trauma, but also an inspiring portrait of familial dedication that embraces wisdom, grace, and love. "I am the descendant of people who stepped out into the unknown and found a way to live," she writes. "A child of survivors, many generations back." A moving and heartfelt graphic memoir. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.