Book
Why didn't you tell me? : a memoir / Carmen Rita Wong.
A DNA test and an immigrant mothers long-held secrets upend her daughters understanding of her family, identity and place in the world, in this powerful and dramatic memoir.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780593240250 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: x, 216 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Crown, 2022.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Wong, Carmen Rita. Authors, American > 20th century > Biography. Internet personalities > United States > Biography. Television personalities > United States > Biography. |
| Genre: | Biographies. Autobiographies. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookstown Branch | 818.5209 Wong | 31681010284743 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
"Carmen Rita Wong--media entrepreneur, former national television host, author and advice columnist--has always craved a sense of belonging. First, in a warm room full of Black and brown Latina women cheering on her dancing during her childhood in Harlem. Then, among the almost exclusively white playgrounds of New Hampshire, after her mother married her stepfather, Charlie, who seemed to be the ideal of the white American dad. She had always believed what her mother told her: that her father was a man named Peter Wong, a Chinese hustler whom she was forced to marry for a green card. But then, as Carmen's mother was dying of cancer, Charlie revealed that he was actually her father--a painful revelation made all the more confusing when a DNA test later proved that neither Peter nor Charlie was her father. It was too late for answers. Her mother had passed away. Carmen wanted to shake her mother's soul at its shoulders and demand: "Why didn't you tell me?" What follows is Carmen's search for understanding of who she is as she peels back the layers of her mother's history and the secrets that seep out. Why Didn't You Tell Me? is a riveting and poignant story of Carmen's experience of race and culture in America and how it shapes who we think we are"-- - Baker & Taylor
When her immigrant motherâs long-held secrets are revealed, bring clarity to so much of her life, the author, after her mother passes away, searches to understand who she really is, in this story of race and culture in America and how they shape who we think we are. Illustrations. - Random House, Inc.
An immigrant motherâs long-held secrets upend her daughterâs understanding of her family, her identity, and her place in the world in this powerful and dramatic memoir
âRiveting . . . [Wong] tells her story in vivid conversational prose that will make readers feel theyâre listening to a master storyteller on a long car trip. . . . Hers is a heroâs journey.ââThe New York Times Book Review
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar, Kirkus Reviews
My mother carried a powerful secret. A secret that shaped my life and the lives of everyone around me in ways she could not have imagined.
Carmen Rita Wong has always craved a sense of belonging: First as a toddler in a warm room full of Black and brown Latina women, like her mother, Lupe, cheering her dancing during her childhood in Harlem. And in Chinatown, where her immigrant father, âPapiâ Wong, a hustler, would show her and her older brother off in opulent restaurants decorated in red and gold. Then came the almost exclusively white playgrounds of New Hampshire after her mother married her stepfather, Marty, who seemed to be the ideal of the white American dad.
As Carmen entered this new world with her new familyâLupe and Marty quickly had four more childrenâher relationship with her mother became fraught with tension, suspicion, and conflict, explained only years later by the secrets her mother had kept for so long.
And when those secrets were revealed, bringing clarity to so much of Carmenâs life, it was too late for answers. When her mother passed away, Carmen wanted to shake her  soul by its shoulders and demand: Why didnât you tell me?
A former national television host, advice columnist, and professor, Carmen searches to understand who she really is as she discovers her motherâs hidden history, facing the revelations that seep out. Why Didnât You Tell Me? is a riveting and poignant story of Carmenâs experience of race and culture in America and how they shape who we think we are.
