Ugly Dumpling: A Memoir

For readers of Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, an Asian American coming-of-age story about growing up in poverty with a mother living with mental health issues, and about the redemptive power of love. When Elaine Hsieh Yu arrives in Hawai‘i from Hong Kong at the age of four, her family’s hopes for stability quickly unravel. Her father, rigid and demanding, drifts in and out of her life. Her mother, loving but volatile, is at times neglectful. From an early age, Elaine understands that adults are not always able to protect or provide. Ugly Dumpling follows Elaine’s journey from growing up poor, Asian, and largely invisible in Honolulu and East Los Angeles to raising her children in Silicon Valley.