Year of the Water Horse: A Memoir

by Janice Page

A warm and witty memoir about the ever-changing relationships between mothers, mothers-in-law, and daughters that traverses two continents and multiple generations of two very different yet connected families.

Janice Page hails Braintree, Massachusetts and a large Catholic brood. Her parents had a complicated marriage. Her five siblings each have their own sagas, and there is a destructive genetic force within the family’s blood lines that over generations has caused much heartbreak.

And then there is the large Chinese family of Janice’s husband, James, equally cinematic and sweeping with a rich complicated history of its own. There is a daring escape from war zones, a lost child, immigration to a new world, and a bittersweet reunion after decades of separation.

Janice met James fresh out of college while waitressing part time at Mandarin Garden, that only Chinese restaurant in Braintree. He had just arrived in America from Taiwan. The two work to bridge the divide between them—emotionally, culturally and geographically—and as they build their lives together. From Taiwan to Los Angeles, from her mother's own bipolar disorder to a language barrier with her mother-in-law, Janice finds herself constantly searching for the feeling of home. Janice believes she can close the circle when she embarks on her own journey to become a mother herself. When she and James adopt a baby girl from James’s ancestral region of China, the two close a circle that had been open for generations on both sides, finding home at last.

Filled with humor and heart, wisdom and healing mother wounds, Year of the Water Horse is a profound and compelling story with a deeply satisfying ending that will resonate long after the final page.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Adoption

272 pages, Hardcover

Published December 2, 2025

Reviews

[Hank Stuever · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir, by my friend Janice Page, is so finely threaded, quietly powerful, and very rare indeed, in that it doesn't want to be summarized in a tweet. The memoir genre has become somewhat constricted. If it's not a famous-person memoir (usually ghostwritten or heavily co-authored) or confessional, then it's a tale of some misery (addiction, travail, journey, recovery, event, crime, etc.), packaged in a way that Jenna and friends can squeeze into the third hour of the "Today" show. (And listen, TV producers: I would dearly love to see this book on one of your shows!) We've almost gotten to the point where the universality in most of our life stories is considered lovely but unmarketable. No hook! No elevator pitch! (Or, in the business Janice and I work in, no nutgraf!)

But "Year of the Water Horse" opens strongly. You're reading a story about a complicated working-class Boston brood. Then you think, oh, it's actually going to be a funny tale about a White girl expanding her South Shore world by working in her town's only Chinese restaurant and learning a thing or two about schezuan spices. Then it's a cross-cultural love story, and from there it broadens, and then broadens again, into another family's complications, and the international adoption process. In a way, aren't most of us just trying to tie it all together, make sense of the random beauty of how our lives played out? Trust this book. It has something to tell you, at its own perfect pace.

Here's an excerpt that ran in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just started reading the first chapter. I'm already annoyed. It feels like the author had to self-censure and couch the casual racism of mid-60s Massachusetts in a long excuse/explanation. A few paragraphs later, the author goes out of her way to tell us she thought Sidney Poitier was cute.

Girl, you're trying too hard.

We know what the racial blindspots were in suburban all-white New England. You don't have to spell out your youthful ignorance is not a reflection of your present mindset. The woke brigade is not coming for you.

That overcorrective detour distracted from an otherwise compelling story. I hope it won't be a recurring issue in the rest of the book.

The two-star rating is provisional. It could be bumped up later.

[LG · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a general pricipal, I'll say more people write memoirs than should. The fact is not everyone has something "real" to say that is eye-opening or expands your world view or explores what's important, or whatever else you might say looking at the lives of others brings. I'd also say that fictional stories are often more impactful than real life.

This story, though, could easily have been dreamed up and written as fiction, and probably would have been even more believable! It's hard to imagine what more could have been thrown at Janice Page. A LOT of hard stuff. And a lot of love.

I love listening to audio books narrated by the author, and this is no exception. Her own words, her own voice. A well told and hopeful "story". I highly recommend.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to the audiobook. It was narrated by the author and done extremely well. I found the majority of the book to be very interesting, including the family history of cancer and the BRCA gene, the adoption of her daughter and I absolutely loved her husband James. There were just a few parts here and there that lost me and seemed to ramble a little….but overall I really enjoyed it and found it to be an excellent book.

[Patty Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Family love

A well written memoir of the dynamics and tragedies of this family. It was one of the first books in a while that I was not able to put down.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible memoir. Great writing and I experienced a range of emotions while reading Page’s story. In the interest of full disclosure, I know the author and some family members mentioned in her book. It can sometimes be really uncomfortable rating a book by someone you know, but in this case it was easy. It’s a great book. Page pulls together some amazing threads between the two family histories (hers and her husband’s).