The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (Vintage International)

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • With this book, the acclaimed author created an entirely new form—an exhilarating blend of autobiography & mythology, of world & self, of hot rage & cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its innovative portrayal of multiple & intersecting identities—immigrant, female, Chinese, American. “A classic, for a reason” – Celeste Ng via Twitter As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother’s “talk stories.” The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother’s tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingston’s sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured myths & memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new understanding of her family’s past & her own present.Maxine Hong Kingston is senior Lecturer for Creative Writing at the University of California, Berkeley. For her memoirs & fiction, The Fifth Book of Peace, The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, & Hawai’i One Summer, Kingston has earned numerous awards, among them the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the PEN West Award for Fiction, an American Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters Literature Award, & a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the rare title of “Living Treasure of Hawai’i.” Amazon.com ReviewThe Woman Warrior is a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American in Stockton, California. Maxine Hong KingstonReviewMaxine Hong Kingston grew up in two worlds. There was "solid America," the place her parents emigrated to, & the China of her mother's "talk-stories." In talk-stories women were warriors & her mother was still a doctor in China who could cure the sick & scare away ghosts, not a harried & frustrated woman running a stifling laundromat in California. But what is story & what is truth? In China, a ghost is a supernatural being; in America it is anyone who is not Chinese. In addition, underlying even the most exciting talk-stories of Chinese women warriors is the real oppression of Chinese women: "There is a Chinese word for the female 'I' - which is 'slave.' " In an attempt to figure out her world, Maxine Hong Kingston finds herself creating stories of her own, filling in the blanks her mother has not told her because her daughter is, after all, not true Chinese & thus cannot be completely trusted. Can these new stories explain why she had trouble speaking in the American schools? Can they help her understand the aunt who committed adultery & whose existence is denied? The new stories refuse to fall into traditional forms, & the realizations that come from them often bring out a beautiful, passionate anger that practically burns through the pages. This is powerful, experimental writing, a combination of love, hate, frustration, & sheer beauty. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out . -- From NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An exhilarating blend of autobiography and mythology, of world and self, of hot rage and cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identities—immigrant, female, Chinese, American. • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER “A classic, for a reason.” —Celeste Ng, bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts , via Twitter As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother’s “talk stories.” The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother’s tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingston’s sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured myths and memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new understanding of her family’s past and her own present. NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • With this book, the acclaimed author created an entirely new form—an exhilarating blend of autobiography and mythology, of world and self, of hot rage and cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identities—immigrant, female, Chinese, American. “A classic, for a reason” – Celeste Ng via Twitter As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother’s “talk stories.” The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother’s tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingston’s sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured myths and memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new understanding of her family’s past and her own present. NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER#160; NATIONAL BESTSELLER #160;With this book, the acclaimed author created an entirely new forman exhilarating blend of autobiography and mythology, of world and self, of hot rage and cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identitiesimmigrant, female, Chinese, American.#160; A classic, for a reason Celeste Ng via Twitter As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mothers talk stories. The fierce and wily women warriors of her mothers tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingstons sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured myths and memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new understanding of her familys past and her own present "A classic, for a reason" -- Celeste Ng via Twitter. In her award-winning book The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston created an entirely new form--an exhilarating blend of autobiography and mythology, of world and self, of hot rage and cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic in its innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identities--immigrant, female, Chinese, American. As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother's "talk stories." The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother's tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingston's sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured myths and memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new understanding of her family's past and her own present The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is Kingston's disturbing and fiercely beautiful account of growing up Chinese-American in California. The young Kingston lives in two worlds: the America to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother's "talk stories." Her mother tells her traditional tales of strong, wily women warriors - tales that clash puzzlingly with the real oppression of women. Kingston learns to fill in the mystifying spaces in her mother's stories with stories of her own, engaging her family's past and her own present with anger, imagination, and dazzling passion. A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity.

A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her childhood that have shaped her identity.

A first-generation Chinese-American woman recounts growing up in America within a tradition-bound Chinese family, and confronted with Chinese ghosts from the past and non-Chinese ghosts of the present A memoir of the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants who lived within the traditions and fears of the Chinese past as well as the realities of the alien modern American culture About the Author Other Books by this Author Title Page Dedication Contents No Name Woman White Tigers Shaman At the Western Palace A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe Copyright A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity. From the Trade Paperback edition