Discount Shopping Online :: Books The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts : :

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
by: Maxine Hong Kingston

List Price: $13.95

Amazon.com's Price: $11.16

You Save: $2.79 (20%)
Prices subject to change.

Used Price: $0.01
Collectible Price: $12.95
Third Party New Price: $4.94

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 979.4053092
EAN: 9780679721888
ISBN: 0679721886
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: April 23, 1989
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: April 23, 1989
Sales Rank: 14026
Studio: Vintage

Related Items:

Editorial Review:

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

Amazon.com Review:
The Woman Warrior is a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American in Stockton, California. Maxine Hong Kingston (China Men) distills the dire lessons of her mother's mesmerizing 'talk-story' tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward. The author's America is a landscape of confounding white 'ghosts'--the policeman ghost, the social worker ghost--with equally rigid, but very different rules. Like the woman warrior of the title, Kingston carries the crimes against her family carved into her back by her parents in testimony to and defiance of the pain.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Eliptical Elusiveness Still Elucidates Immigration

The women ancestors of a geeky Chinese-American girl pile up impressive resumes, no worries ! They are kungfu heroines, joining peasant armies that overthrow the very Imperial throne. They are doctors who brave ghosts and come to America. They are mothers and grandmothers who remain staunchly Chinese in the face of the full press of American culture. They are sisters or aunts in Chinatown apartments or unknown relatives killed for following their hearts instead of the rules back in village China. Slowly, slowly, the background of the author (maybe) is depicted. You need some patience to realize what the author is doing. She doesn't give quarter. Readers who like everything spelled out will be disappointed. Ghosts play a big role in every section of the book. Ghosts train the warriors, ghosts oppose the student and the laundryworker. All Americans even appear as ghosts of a vast variety. Yes, ... Read More

Rating:

- Woman Warrior, a hauntingly lyrical memoir.
Woman Warrior is among the most gripping lyrical-memoirs I've read. It is author Maxine Kingston's Chinese ancestry that teaches her that girls are half-ghosts that walk a tight wire: one wrong step and they transcend into full-pledged ghosts, with all memory of their existence erased from time. Girls in the history of her Chinese culture are regarded much the way Middle Eastern women are regarded today: burdensome and dangerous. The Chinese saying "When fishing for treasures in the flood, be careful not to pull in girls," conveys a message repeated to Kingston throughout her girlhood.

Kingston is eternally haunted by one particular "no-name" ghost: her dead aunt, a woman shamed by her village, a woman forgotten, a woman whose name and memory are not uttered. Haunted by her nameless, faceless aunt, Kingston also finds herself displaced and alienated as she attempts to put together two worlds: her Chinese ... Read More

Rating:

- the power of memory
Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior is a powerful
gem about the relationship between the author and her
mother and other women in her family. It is a memoir
but reads like fiction. I loved this book and especially
how she utilizes symbols, particularly ghosts to represent
people from different backgrounds, whom the author draws
upon for wisdom, strength and remembrance.

I usually have a tough time with "literary" fiction but
the author writes in an almost conversational tone. I felt
like I was there as the author told her story. This is
an excellent book to read to learn about Chinese culture.

Rating:

- Brilliant!
An excellent book, funny, insightful, poignant. Ms. Kingston brilliantly conveys how cultures can clash within the minds of those who straddle them. After reading this book I bought half a dozen copies to give to close friends.

Discount Shopping Online Books and Publications

Books : The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Search the web for info about The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

Discount Shopping Online Books and Publications

Books : The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among GhostsBooks and Publications Average Rating:

Search the web for info about The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

Books : The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Books and Publications Average Rating: