Memoir Review: Year of the Tiger

Summary: This was a fun read that spanned a wide variety of topics and formats, constantly surprising me and teaching me new things.

I really loved this “genre-bending” memoir, full of essays, interviews, photos, and drawings. Essay collections in general have appealed to me lately. The short sections make them feel easy to pick up. Every element in this essay collection was enjoyable, informative and fun. Even the essays that described anger-inducing discrimination the author has faced were leavened by her delightful sense of humor. Although information was occasionally repeated across sections, the context was different enough that this never felt repetitive. I didn’t pay enough attention to be sure it was completely chronological, but there was a good sense of forward momentum and a logical grouping of essays by theme.

The topics of these essays appealed to me for many reasons. As someone involved in political activism, I appreciated learning from the author’s experience. The ways in which the author most obviously differs from me is that she’s a disabled Asian American woman. I was glad to learn about how this influenced her experience in the world, since that highlights a lot of systems that need to be changed. However, I especially liked learning about other ways that her life experience is different from mine. For instance, her daily routine currently involves waking in the afternoon and not going to sleep until sometimes 6 or 7am. I thought I was a night owl when I used to go to bed at 2am! The author primarily works at home, as do I, but her career requires very different skills from mine. Her techniques for conducing a good interview were fascinating to read about. I also admired the author’s ability to share moments that she found humbling and to simultaneously share and take pride in her strengths. There was to much to love in the essay collection. Another real winner from the review copies I’ve picked up this month!

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