Book Review for Alice Wong, an Indiana Writer

I have been remiss and lazy in posting this. Indiana Author Awards has a review by Leah Milne of Alice Wong's A Year of the Tiger.

Born and raised in Indiana, Alice Wong has written a book that diverges from what one might call a “typical” memoir. However, that difference is deliberate. “I decided to write a memoir at this age—” she writes, “the age I was never supposed to reach, during a time I was never supposed to occupy” (xiii). I first heard of Wong on social media, where I quickly became one of her over 72,000 followers on Twitter. Her online community, the Disability Visibility Project, will celebrate its 10^th anniversary in 2024. Given her prominence as an Asian American disability activist, Wong makes her terms clear in the memoir’s introduction: This is NOT a sad story about someone who single-handedly defeats unthinkable obstacles despite struggling with her identity as a Chinese person and/or wheelchair user. Prepare yourself instead for something entirely different. 

Readers are all the more fortunate for Wong’s purposeful defiance of convention. Year of the Tiger is equal parts irreverent, funny, inspiring, and enraging, delivered through a combination of essays, artwork, and conversations—not to mention recipes, a crossword puzzle (with an answer key at the end), and an official playlist (which you can listen to here). In several essays and interviews, she recalls her shifting mobility due to muscular dystrophy, a diagnosis she received at age two, and the institutions and programs that helped or impeded her pursuit of health and independence. As a sci-fi/fantasy fan, I was especially thrilled to read her description of her birth: Entitled “A Mutant from Planet Cripton,” the essay first details her origins as a “baby alien learn[ing] the ways of the Normal” before going on to enthuse about her love of science fiction. In a later chapter, she describes her day as a robot—that is, attending a White House event via a video call on wheels. 

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