Jack Wang
Author of Pride and Prejudice (Cozy Classics)
About the Author
Image credit: Jack & Holman Wang (twin brothers & co-authors)
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Works by Jack Wang
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- Gender
- male
- Relationships
- Wang, Holman (twin)
- Short biography
- Jack Wang received a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto, an M.F.A. from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in creative writing from Florida State University. For the 2014 academic year, he held the David T. K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. His work has appeared in Prism International, the Malahat Review, the New Quarterly, the Humber Literary Review, and Joyland. Originally from Vancouver, Wang is an associate professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, where he lives with his wife, the novelist Angelina Mirabella, and their two daughters.
- Nationality
- Canada
- Birthplace
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Places of residence
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Associated Place (for map)
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Discussions
Special edition of Pride and Prejudice for the youngest readers in I Love Jane Austen (January 2013)
Reviews
Jack Wang’s first collection of short fiction, We Two Alone, is a superior example of the form, beautifully crafted, emotionally resonant, and dramatically satisfying. Wang’s characters are primarily Chinese nationals and the sons and daughters of Chinese immigrants, people who are struggling to acclimatize to shifting geopolitical environments and/or deal with crises that threaten their way of life and sometimes their very survival. Racism is present in many of these stories, either show more hovering menacingly in the background or playing a dominant role in the lives of Wang’s characters. For instance, “The Valkyries” takes place in Vancouver and Banff shortly after the end of the First World War. Teenage orphan Nelson, who lives in Vancouver’s Chinatown and works in a laundry, loves hockey and is highly skilled, but being Chinese he’s denied the opportunity to play in an organized men’s league. Instead, when he discovers a women’s league, he assumes a disguise, passes himself off as “Nelly,” and becomes one of the stars for his team, the Valkyries. But when his deception is uncovered, the price he pays goes far beyond a mere settling of scores. A remarkable feature of Wang's fiction is his ability to convincingly evoke an assortment of cultural and historical contexts. In “The Nature of Things,” it is 1937. Young Chinese couple Frank and Alice must flee Shanghai because of the escalating hostilities with Japan. Frank, an American-educated physician, puts his pregnant wife on a train to safety but refuses to leave the city himself because of his work. From this point the story chronicles Alice’s desperate yearning and fears for her husband after the Japanese invasion, and her eventual realization that she will never see him again. The narrator of “The Night of Broken Glass” is recalling the time just prior to World War II when he, his father and stepmother lived in Vienna. The narrator’s father is a Chinese diplomat, versed in the ways of the world, wily and pragmatic, and the story tells of the father’s careful navigation of shifting political winds when the Nazis move into Austria and begin victimizing Jews, minorities and foreign nationals. “Everything in Between,” set in South Africa at the beginning of the Apartheid era, describes a Chinese family’s efforts to live a normal life under exceedingly challenging circumstances. “Bellsize Park” takes place in contemporary England and poignantly depicts the doomed relationship of two students: Peter, who is Chinese, and Fiona, who is English. And in “All Hallows” divorced Ernie’s irresponsible nature is thrown into sharp relief when he takes his children, Ben and Toby, trick-or-treating the day after Halloween because he’d failed to show up the night before as he’d promised. As good as these stories are, the outstanding piece in this collection is the masterful novella from which the volume takes its title. Leonard and Emily, both actors, are divorced. Leonard, in his late forties and still hunting for the Big Break, is entering a premature cognitive decline, which he recognizes because it is the same disorder that left his mother debilitated before her death. As he struggles with worsening symptoms, he recalls his years married to Emily, who finally gave up on the dream, retired from acting and left Leonard when he refused to do the same. Wang chronicles their life together from beginning to end: the shared aspirations, thwarted idealism, the minor triumphs countered by heartrending setbacks that marked their marriage and their careers. In the end, a crisis brings Leonard and Emily together one more time to enact a final scene before Leonard slips into the darkness and is unable to remember what they meant to each other. There is an effortless and seamless quality to Jack Wang’s writing that is particularly impressive. The nuts and bolts of craft, the scaffolding of plot, never intrude on the reader’s experience. In each of these tales Wang generates considerable narrative momentum by introducing his characters in place, slowly revealing their hopes and fears as he ramps up the stakes and the tension, and then letting the drama unfold in a manner that is patient and never forced. There is nothing cheap or maudlin going on here. Wang frequently elicits an emotional response from the reader, but without exception this reaction arises naturally out of the drama we’re witnessing. We Two Alone is a thoroughly engaging volume of short fiction by an exceptionally talented author. These are near flawless tales of personal struggle and modern angst: deeply empathetic, humane stories by a writer whose command of form and technique is unfailing. show less
The Riveter: A Sweeping Cross-Cultural Love Story of Sacrifice and Dreams in WWII Vancouver by Jack Wang
Jack Wang's first novel, THE RIVETER (2025) has obviously been meticulously researched insofar as the history of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and its role in D-Day and subsequent jumps and fighting across France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, as well as its formation and early training in Canada and the United States (Fort Benning) and England. Into this historical account, Wang has inserted his protagonist, paratrooper Private Josiah ("Joe") Chang, and this in a time when show more Chinese-Canadians were often not allowed to enlist. Chang was a lumber man in the tall timber of British Columbia from age 12 to 22, when his father, who had raised him, was killed by a falling tree. Looking for a change, he moves to Vancouver and begins working as a riveter in a shipyard. There he meets Poppy, a beautifl white girl from a privileged background who likes to party and sees in Joe, initially, something of the forbidden. Their relationship deepens, and they fall in love. Racism rears its ugly head, and there is a fight in the shipyard and Joe beats a man bloody. He hops a train and flees to Toronto where he joins the Army and volunteers into Canada's very first airborne unit. He and Poppy keep in touch and see each other again briefly before Joe deploys overseas with his unit. They exchange letters for the next couple of years as Joe fights his way across Europe, losing friends along the way, but always remaining faithful to Poppy until his return to Vancouver after the war. From there things quickly go south and Joe retreats to the deep woods of the Cariboo region, builds a cabin and lives alone.
The historical data here, as the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion moves across Europe, is minutely detailed, with multiple mentions of all the tiny towns and villages the unit moves through, as well as the use of various weapons and how Joe uses them in numerous skirmishes and patrols. Even brands of cigarettes and the popular music of the time get their due. But here's the thing. In spite of (or maybe because of) all these details, the story seemed to move at a glacial pace, making me impatient for something to happen. And the love story element could have been lifted from a Hallmark movie script, often landing into sentimentality and sappiness. This was particularly true of the ending, which nearly ruined the whole book for me. I mean this was about an interracial couple who would have undoubtedly faced a myriad of problems in the 1940s. And yet there was very little about that element of the story. Oh, and there's a sweet old dog in the story too (for the Hallmark fans). And, again, the ending itself was just way too contriived and, yes, sappy.
I wanted so badly to like this book, but, well ... Sorry, Mr Wang. The love story part just did not work for this old reader. But for the historical aspect, I will recommend it to students of history and the Canadian role with the Allies in WWII.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less
The historical data here, as the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion moves across Europe, is minutely detailed, with multiple mentions of all the tiny towns and villages the unit moves through, as well as the use of various weapons and how Joe uses them in numerous skirmishes and patrols. Even brands of cigarettes and the popular music of the time get their due. But here's the thing. In spite of (or maybe because of) all these details, the story seemed to move at a glacial pace, making me impatient for something to happen. And the love story element could have been lifted from a Hallmark movie script, often landing into sentimentality and sappiness. This was particularly true of the ending, which nearly ruined the whole book for me. I mean this was about an interracial couple who would have undoubtedly faced a myriad of problems in the 1940s. And yet there was very little about that element of the story. Oh, and there's a sweet old dog in the story too (for the Hallmark fans). And, again, the ending itself was just way too contriived and, yes, sappy.
I wanted so badly to like this book, but, well ... Sorry, Mr Wang. The love story part just did not work for this old reader. But for the historical aspect, I will recommend it to students of history and the Canadian role with the Allies in WWII.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less
Jack Wang's We Two Alone is a somewhat melancholic collection of stories, but one that offers readers a wealth of interesting characters and situations. The stories explore life for Chinese expatriates and their families in a variety of times and settings. There's the diplomat posted to Germany as Hitler is rising to power, a young boy who dreams of playing professional ice hockey, and an aging pair of never-quite-got-their-big-break actors, among others. It's this variety that makes the show more book particularly compelling as we see the commonalities and differences among these people. This is a book to read when you're feeling reflective, open to considering life's nuances and the big impacts of small moments.
I received an electronic ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. show less
I received an electronic ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. show less
This is an adorable, beautifully illustrated board book version of Pride and Prejudice which is designed to allow the classics to be shared with small children, but which will undoubtedly be appreciated by Austen fans of all ages. The story is efficiently reduced to twelve words—friends, sisters, dance, mean, sick, muddy, yes?, no!, write, read, walk, marry—and four characters—Jane, Bingley, Lizzy and Darcy. The book would make an excellent, creative jumping off point for reading aloud show more to kids—either you stick to the original storyline or you use the words and images to create something new. I can see myself reading this to my wee niece in a few years! The illustrations are beautiful photographs of little felt versions of the characters—I think my favourite is muddy Lizzy on the cover. show less
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