Baby Essentials for New Parents

"MA IN ALL CAPS" is a laugh-out-loud hilarious "ma-moir" about an irrepressible woman known to the world as "Ma." It's a family saga with an unforgettable tiger mom holding center stage, epic and sweeping in its storytelling, yet as intimate as a son's love for his ailing mother. The book blends the styles of David Sedaris and Amy Tan, transporting readers into the world of the Chinese Kuo clan.

Ma is the opinionated matriarch of the Kuo family, the scion of a once wealthy and powerful Chinese clan that lost everything during two devastating wars and has been struggling to regain its former glory. Through her unfiltered storytelling spanning five generations, three centuries, and two continents, Ma brings readers into the Kuo family, leaving them amazed by her wit and bluntness while charming them with her inimitable way of looking at and judging the world.

The author, Jay Kuo, acknowledges the challenges of writing a family memoir. Telling the truth, warts and all, might risk resentment from family members, while getting the facts wrong could spark arguments for years. "MA IN ALL CAPS" is an ambitious undertaking, born from the author's collection of verbatim conversations with Ma, which were widely shared on social media and received enthusiastic feedback.

The project evolved as Kuo realized that Ma was far more than the unintentionally funny, ever judgmental, and chronically pushy Chinese mother archetype. She was a woman who had lived many lives, facing the bitter days of deprivation and war as a child, and later experiencing the golden years of promise, love, and family as a mother and grandmother, often with little support from anyone else.

"MA IN ALL CAPS" is a collection of Ma's near fantastical but amazingly true stories, which intertwine with the tales of two nations, China and the U.S., as they came into their own just as Ma did. As a memory piece, the book blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction, as the author acknowledges the tricks that time can play on memory.

The result is a complex heroine – the eldest daughter of an ambitious couple tied to the political class in China, raised surprisingly as a Catholic by her devout mother, blending Chinese tradition with Christian priggishness. Readers have found the stories gripping, with high stakes of war, death, and love, and have also gained insights into pre-communist China and the politics of the era.

Kuo wrote "MA IN ALL CAPS" with future generations of Kuos in mind, so that they can learn about the indefatigable Ma, a force of nature that defined the family. He hopes that through laughter and a few lumps in the throat, Ma's spirit will grace readers and live on in their memories, long after they have turned the final page.

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