The Woman Warrior : Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

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Summary: The Woman Warrior-- a remarkable book!
Review: The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is truly a remarkable book. The style of writing is simple and easy to understand. It is a very important book for all women to read and learn from. This book was given some bad reviews on this site but don't listen to them. This is an inspiring story about the life of a magnificant woman. The lessons that she learns are critical to understanding the Chinese-American women. I have read this book three times and I plan to read it many more times. It has truly changed my perspective on the Chinese-American culture.

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Summary: Absorbing, moving and very personal tale
Review: Judging by the extremes of the other reader comments, it appears that this book is either very much your cup of tea or absolutely not - there's not much in between. However, given that most of the negative (and, tellingly, ungrammatical and misspelt) comments seem to come from school students, this is perhaps understandable. I remember having D.H. Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers' forced on me at school and loathing it. I guess the moral is that this is not a book for teenagers -- it's rather too deep; I almost certainly wouldn't have enjoyed it myself at that age. However, for anyone who has spent any time abroad, or has any interest in Chinese culture it will be a fascinating and moving experience. If you like this, you might want to try 'Talking to High Monks in the Snow' by Lydia Minatoya, which covers a similar theme but from a Japanese-American point of view.

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Summary: an amazing book
Review: I love this book. I am amazed at the negative reviews I see for this book -- how could you not love it? I did actually read it as a high schooler and as a college student, and was impressed more every time I read it again. The way she writes, and the ways her stories about the lessons she has learned about becoming a "woman warrior" are subtly and powerfully told are truly moving. One of my favorite quotes, which I have to say has been important to me in my own life..."Perhaps I could make myself a warrior like the swordswoman who drives me." This is one of the most important books I have ever read on and about Asian and Asian-American women breaking the silence that holds them back and keeps them quiet. From the one-and two-stars I see here, I guess it might be a book to be read when one is older, or has more of an understanding of the deep complexities of discovering identity and of the politics of gender and race and people of color in this country. But I don't think that's over every ninth-grader's (or even college student's!) head.

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Summary: horrible, awful, disgusting, and a waste of time
Review: I had to read this book for my tenth grade GT English class. I thouht it was absolutley awful, and also really disgusting. The narrator changes every 10 pages and starts telling a totally different story, all of which are boring. You never have any idea what is going on in this book. Reading it was a huge waste of time.

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Summary: Well-written, but boring and mind-numbing.
Review: I am a ninth grader (so you probably won't take me too serioiusly) and I just finished reading this book for school. I found it to be well-written, but it just couldn't keep my attention for long. I found it to be boring and all of the characters seemed to be in a strange mental state, especially the mother. Also, the book greatly confused me, espically the purpose of all the ghosts and the "talk-story" that her mother kept telling. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys contemplating the meaning of books for hours and getting really confused, but otherwise, it seems useless to read this book.

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Summary: A book full of evil thoughts
Review: I read this book for a college course. The book is verymind-disturbing. The thoughts are very psyched. Anthing, good, bador neutral in nature, bacomes a sickness. "No Name Woman" and "Shaman" are the unrational cries of a girl for being a Chinese in a society with low Chinese visibility(mentally). Mistaken the reason to be being a Chinese, she wished to be whiteouted eagerly. In all, it's a book to be covered with dust, a book shouldn't come to our classroms.

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Summary: Very boring and inconsistent novel
Review: I was practically fighting with this book, not wanting to read it, but I had to for my college english assignment. I found the book not interesting at all, and it took me forever to finish it. I didn't like how the author jumps from one place to another at all. I just don't think the transition from her life story to her tales was smooth at all. Thank God I finnally finished the book. Don't read it if you don't have to!!!!

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Summary: Vivid! Powerful! I was transformed to another world!
Review: I first read this book in college. Kingston has truly created a rich narrative. It transformed me to another world. I thoroughly believe that anyone will be able to empathize with the Fa Mu Lan's journey. It not only conveys the message about a particular culture or gender, but also the message of one's struggle through life and search for strength. The stories that seem to be sometimes worlds apart are interlaced throughout the book in such a vivid fashion. I couldn't put this book down. I remember one thing that touched me was when the narrator said that insanity is repeating the same stories over and over again. That was like a point of reference, the link between different worlds. I think that one way to understand that is how we interpret the different events in our lives creates our various experiences. The more stories we tell ourselves, and the more stories we listen to, the more we begin to understand different ways of seeing things and the stronger we become. Life is not just about what is physically experienced, but how we think about our struggles and continue to push forward. Warrior Woman is truly a powerful work with a very positive role model especially for young women, but a lesson we should all take to heart.

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Summary: Trash
Review: This book was my summer reading for coming to the University of Pennsylvania. I thought it was one of the worst books I have ever read, due in part to the author's totally contrived writing style. Towards the end of the book, Kingston just plain helps her reader along. This constitutes extreme literary boredom. I, and I think about 90-95% of the freshman class here at Penn thought this was the most useless piece of trash we've read in a very long time.

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Summary: The Woman Warrior is the worst book I have ever read
Review: The Woman Warrior is the most monotonous, mind-numbing, and worthless piece of trash I have ever picked up. Every copy of this crappy piece of literature should be burned and sent personally to Maxine Hong Kingston.