A review by crystaltran
Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

this was a really eye opening read. i appreciate how blunt and direct alice wong is about disabilities, how it impacts her life, and how this current world is built solely for non disabled people. as someone without a disability, i learned a lot from these essays and it put me into a perspective that i don’t usually see from. 

alice’s story is really inspirational and hearing everything she’s experienced really reminds you not only how recent disability rights movements are but also how fiercely impressive and adaptive those with disabilities are. i think she does a good job of stressing in the beginning that this book is centered around her narrow point of view, and not every disabled person has the same experience. at the same time, there’s plenty of excerpts that feature other disabled activists, and it was really interesting to hear their stories and how different their lives are led; i almost wish we got to hear more about the collective in her life. 

while i did learn a lot from this and i do absolutely appreciate wong’s story, knowledge, and wisdom, the arrangement of the book did take away from it a bit. it was sectioned off into 6 or 7 distinct sections, but a lot of the essays in each one overlapped one another (both within the section and across sections). there was a lot of repetition of certain stories/points. she does include a good mix of different storytelling formats, such as essays, interview transcripts, and graphics, but we would often get the same point across all three which i think stunted the flow. 

that is to say, the book is undeniably wong’s voice and incredibly earnest. she doesn’t sugarcoat her rage and disappointment, and it’s refreshing to read from that angle. while the book could’ve used some editing, i think that also may have tampered with the authenticity of her words.