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Loading... Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings (LOA #355) (Library of America, 355)by Maxine Hong Kingston
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  pomo58 | Mar 4, 2022 |  no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesLibrary of America (355)
"Since exploding onto the literary stage with The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston has, in book after book, made words sing and soar, search and scorch. But she is more than a writer's writer. She is writer as pioneer, writer as visionary, writer as bringer of peace. A champion, not so much of irony and wit as of love and compassion, she has often worked as much through aura as words--paradoxically cutting, as she does, a most singular and challenging swath. She is a gift to all, a national treasure and an American original." -- Gish Jen
"Maxine Hong Kingston made a stunning entrance on the American literary scene with the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning The Woman Warrior (1976), her "memoirs of a childhood among ghosts." An account of growing up Chinese American in Stockton, California, the book is at once an audacious feat of imaginative storytelling and a path breaking work of feminist autobiography, drawing on the myths, folktales, and family stories her mother brought over from China to make sense of a transformed life in the United States. "The Woman Warrior changed American culture," writes Hua Hsu in The New Yorker. "For those who understood where Kingston was coming from, it was encouragement that they could tell stories, too. For those who didn't, The Woman Warrior became the definitive telling of the Asian immigrant experience, at a time when there weren't many to choose from." -- No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)973.04951History and Geography North America United States United States Ethnic And National Groups Other Groups Asian Americans Chinese AmericansLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (5)
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Wikipedia in English
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I loved reading her rebuke to American reviewers in Cultural Mis-Readings by American Reviewers. What in lesser hands would have sounded like just complaining, Kingston turns it into a detailed argument using reviews both positive and negative illustrating various issues with their ideas on culture and who is labeled as what. I wish more writers would speak up so eloquently about issues they encounter with reviewers (and also interviewers).
My preference would have been to include a critical introductory essay, but that is not a negative about the book, just something I would have liked. The Note on the Texts near the back serves as a bit of contextualization and the section after it, Notes, offers a lot of useful notes to specific passages in the texts. Both of these sections add to the book, especially for anyone new to her work.
Highly recommended for both fans of Kingston as well as those new to her. Having these works collected in one volume allows me to quit using the well-worn copies on my shelf when I reread.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. (