Woman Warrior

Rating:
Summary: strange, poetic
Review: This is a dreamlike memoir that evokes the state of being a stranger in a strange land. What I especially like is that there is nothing sentimental about the book, but there is humor as well as pathos.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: Told from a point of view of a young woman growing up Chinese in California, this is a spiritual and compelling autobiography. Kingston's family originally lived in China and later came to the U.S. It tells of how the women in the Chinese culture are treated like they don't mean anything. There is a saying in China that it is better to raise geese than girls. Girls are not important to them. Her family does not care if she makes A's- she is a girl.
Kingston struggles with her identity because she was mistreated because she was a "worthless" girl. She is a woman warrior because she has gone through life strongly with dignity. She described her personality, her mind, and her gender by 'talk stories'. She stands up for her beliefs about women and how they can be just as strong, if not stronger, than men.
She shows her mother's feelings about her Aunt who killed herself in the well because she had shamed the family by becoming pregnant while her husband was away. Her father would not admit to having a sister because of the humiliation she caused them. This story is compelling and detailed. There is an introduction of how women were portrayed in China.
Kingston is frightened early on because she feels that women are being watched to make sure they are behaving the right way for this patriarchal society.

Rating:
Summary: growing up Chinese - American
Review: Told from the perspective of a Chinese - American woman growing up in San Fransisco's Chinatown, it is a unique blend of fiction and non-fiction. The novel brdges the gap between the culture left behind and the one being created in America. Although Kingston is inacurrate in several depictions of Chinese culture, the novel is a true representation of her childhood experiences

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Tale of Chinese-American Life in the 1940's
Review: When I read The Woman Warrior, I was amazed by the quality of the detail with which Maxine Hong Kingston describes life in San Francisco's China Town during the 1940's. As she tells the story of her life, she simultaneously integrates old myths into her story. The story is truly moving. It is very easy to read, and gives the reader a flavor of Chinese culture. Definately one of the better books that I read last year.