Publisher's Synopsis
"Go back to where you came from!"
A young, naive Taiwanese woman moves to the U.S. post-9/11, escaping her dysfunctional, suffocating family. Her newfound autonomy and freedom provide a welcome change from the intense control her family exerted over her in Taiwan. At the same time, she is confronted with a myriad of difficult and unexpected challenges. In a disarmingly personal way, Sara Wu takes us through her fascinating immigration story, offering insights along the way into the intersection of immigration, race, and gender. She also acts as a whistleblower to call out the ineptitude, and sometimes outright discrimination, on the part of both the mental health and the judicial systems. Through her own trials and travails, Wu calls attention to lesser-known issues of narcissistic abuse, parental alienation, and the dark side of child adoption. After a lifetime of invisible struggles, she finds healing where she least expects. American Stew is a heart-felt memoir about a woman's search for self-governance and freedom as she wades through a maze of intercultural dynamics, personal traumas, historical and societal traumas, and the institutions that fail her.
