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A BOOK A WEEK: MOTHER ON FIRE BY SANDRA TSING LOH
Becky Holmes
Isthmus Daily Page
10/09/2009 6:00 pm
Sandra Tsing Loh is a writer, performance artist and public radio
commentator. I don't hear her much on radio but I do read her
pieces in the Atlantic. I've also never seen any of her one-woman
shows but would sure like to. In 2008 she published Mother on Fire,
a memoir about her life in Los Angeles, framed around her search for
an appropriate school for her kindergarten-age daughter.
This is a very funny book, filled with raw emotion and angst. Loh
takes on issues of class and status, money worries, stalled careers,
the mommy wars and the frantic pace of life in LA. She expertly
captures the desperate panic of educated, affluent, urban parents in
search of the perfect environment for their precious offspring.
Loh herself vacillates between being one of these super-obsessed types
and being a slacker mom, and freely admits her own contradictory
impulses. That's partly what makes the book so entertaining. One
day Loh is touring the $22,000-a-year private (pseudonymous) Wonder
Canyon School, where "children honor diversity, learn peaceful conflict
resolution and are taught music using the Orff-Schulwerk method."
Of course there is no diversity at Wonder Canyon; as Loh points out,
the children must honor it because they don't actually experience
it. The next day Loh is letting her daughters watch Disney
princess videos for the 82nd time and feeding them Kraft macaroni
and cheese. She is consumed with guilt for failing to provide Baby
Mozart and organic broccoli, all the while railing against the forces
that make her feel guilty. But despite how much Loh wants the Wonder
Canyon, there is no way that she and her husband can afford it on
the combined income of a journalist and a musician.
Thus Loh's daughter ends up at an L.A. public magnet school. It's
a better choice than the local elementary school, though she is the
only blonde in a sea of Central American and Armenian children. But w
~@~Ys school is a warm and loving place where the children thrive. As
a result of this revelation Loh becomes a public school activist and
runs a Web site for parents of children in L.A. public schools.
Loh's writing style takes a little getting used to. Her articles in
the Atlantic are straightforward magazine-style journalism, but Mother
on Fire is filled with exclamation marks! -- and interjections! Also
lots of $%^#@!!!!! Before writing this book, Loh performed a stage
version of Mother on Fire for seven months in Los Angeles. I imagine
the book reflects the style of the show. Was there a lot of ranting
and desperate proclaiming? I bet there was.
Becky Holmes
Isthmus Daily Page
10/09/2009 6:00 pm
Sandra Tsing Loh is a writer, performance artist and public radio
commentator. I don't hear her much on radio but I do read her
pieces in the Atlantic. I've also never seen any of her one-woman
shows but would sure like to. In 2008 she published Mother on Fire,
a memoir about her life in Los Angeles, framed around her search for
an appropriate school for her kindergarten-age daughter.
This is a very funny book, filled with raw emotion and angst. Loh
takes on issues of class and status, money worries, stalled careers,
the mommy wars and the frantic pace of life in LA. She expertly
captures the desperate panic of educated, affluent, urban parents in
search of the perfect environment for their precious offspring.
Loh herself vacillates between being one of these super-obsessed types
and being a slacker mom, and freely admits her own contradictory
impulses. That's partly what makes the book so entertaining. One
day Loh is touring the $22,000-a-year private (pseudonymous) Wonder
Canyon School, where "children honor diversity, learn peaceful conflict
resolution and are taught music using the Orff-Schulwerk method."
Of course there is no diversity at Wonder Canyon; as Loh points out,
the children must honor it because they don't actually experience
it. The next day Loh is letting her daughters watch Disney
princess videos for the 82nd time and feeding them Kraft macaroni
and cheese. She is consumed with guilt for failing to provide Baby
Mozart and organic broccoli, all the while railing against the forces
that make her feel guilty. But despite how much Loh wants the Wonder
Canyon, there is no way that she and her husband can afford it on
the combined income of a journalist and a musician.
Thus Loh's daughter ends up at an L.A. public magnet school. It's
a better choice than the local elementary school, though she is the
only blonde in a sea of Central American and Armenian children. But w
~@~Ys school is a warm and loving place where the children thrive. As
a result of this revelation Loh becomes a public school activist and
runs a Web site for parents of children in L.A. public schools.
Loh's writing style takes a little getting used to. Her articles in
the Atlantic are straightforward magazine-style journalism, but Mother
on Fire is filled with exclamation marks! -- and interjections! Also
lots of $%^#@!!!!! Before writing this book, Loh performed a stage
version of Mother on Fire for seven months in Los Angeles. I imagine
the book reflects the style of the show. Was there a lot of ranting
and desperate proclaiming? I bet there was.