{"id":50120,"date":"2022-12-14T11:12:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T16:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=50120"},"modified":"2022-11-25T22:26:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T03:26:49","slug":"why-didnt-you-tell-me-by-carmen-rita-wong-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/why-didnt-you-tell-me-by-carmen-rita-wong-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Didn&#8217;t You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-49907\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/10\/Why-Didnt-You-Tell-Me-Carmen-Rita-Wong-BookDragon-1-530x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"530\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/10\/Why-Didnt-You-Tell-Me-Carmen-Rita-Wong-BookDragon-1-530x800.jpg 530w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/10\/Why-Didnt-You-Tell-Me-Carmen-Rita-Wong-BookDragon-1.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/>\u201c\u2018Your life is like a telenovela!\u2019\u201d Carmen Rita Wong\u2019s daughter tells her after another complication in Wong\u2019s labyrinthine search for her biological father. Born to Dominican immigrant mother Lupe, Wong and older brother Alex called Lupe\u2019s estranged Chinese immigrant husband, Peter Wong, \u201cPapi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lupe was a single parent buffered by an extended Dominican family in 1970s Harlem until her second marriage to Italian American Marty, who moved the soon-to-be-growing brood to New Hampshire (\u201ca sea of whiteness\u201d). Marty eventually became \u201cDad\u201d to Wong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish I could tell you a loving story, a cross-cultural heart-filled fest of American melting-pot dreams \u2026 but no,\u201d Wong warns. Despite \u2013 or because of? \u2013 impossible odds, Wong survived her onerous upbringing, fought for an education (including an Ivy League degree), outlasted bad marriages, and created a successful media career on her own terms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[T]his who\u2019s-my-daddy business\u201d will \u2013 how could it not?! \u2013 loom as a defining challenge to an unintended mutable identity.<\/p>\n<p>Wong is her own best narrator, imbuing her already snappy prose with an enviable, energetic spectrum of emotions. Her onscreen and radio experiences have prepared her well, ensuring that she is both expert and empathic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.booklistonline.com\/Why-Didn-t-You-Tell-Me-\/pid=9767522\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Media,&#8221; <em>Booklist Online<\/em>, November 23, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c\u2018Your life is like a telenovela!\u2019\u201d Carmen Rita Wong\u2019s daughter tells her after another complication in Wong\u2019s labyrinthine search for her biological father. Born to Dominican immigrant mother Lupe, Wong and older brother Alex called Lupe\u2019s estranged Chinese immigrant husband, Peter Wong, \u201cPapi.\u201d Lupe was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,90,21,197,199,107,20,6535],"tags":[6608,6668,7631,10661,58,10,51,145,129,216,39,44,10660],"class_list":["post-50120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-caribbean-american","category-chinese-american","category-hapa","category-latinaox","category-memoir","category-nonfiction","category-repost","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-booklist-online","tag-carmen-rita-wong","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-mixed-race-issues","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-mystery","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-siblings","tag-why-didnt-you-tell-me"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Didn&#039;t You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/why-didnt-you-tell-me-by-carmen-rita-wong-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Didn&#039;t You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201c\u2018Your life is like a telenovela!\u2019\u201d Carmen Rita Wong\u2019s daughter tells her after another complication in Wong\u2019s labyrinthine search for her biological father. Born to Dominican immigrant mother Lupe, Wong and older brother Alex called Lupe\u2019s estranged Chinese immigrant husband, Peter Wong, \u201cPapi.\u201d Lupe was...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/why-didnt-you-tell-me-by-carmen-rita-wong-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-14T16:12:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-26T03:26:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/10\/Why-Didnt-You-Tell-Me-Carmen-Rita-Wong-BookDragon-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"906\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Didn't You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong [in Booklist] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/why-didnt-you-tell-me-by-carmen-rita-wong-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Didn't You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"\u201c\u2018Your life is like a telenovela!\u2019\u201d Carmen Rita Wong\u2019s daughter tells her after another complication in Wong\u2019s labyrinthine search for her biological father. 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