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itsmeashleygee 's review for:
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
by Maxine Hong Kingston
Really conflicted about this one. It’s been on my TBR list since 2003, when I read the book’s opening essay, No Name Woman, in my freshman lit class in college. This is The Woman Warrior’s strongest essay, dealing with themes of family, legacy, feminism, motherhood, and immigrant families in a really powerful, memorable way. Images from this essay stuck with me for 14 years, and they were just as moving today as they were then.
The remaining 4 essays/short stories aren’t as deftly crafted, and have more a sprawling feel, as if Kingston was trying to contain all of her life experiences in the 40 pages of a single essay. The result is that there are some truly poignant moments on the pages, but they’re so disjointed that they lose their impact.
I’m torn also by the criticisms Kingston received by her Chinese contemporaries—they panned this book as an inaccurate portrayal of China and Chinese immigrants, as one that fed stereotypes and American ideas of China rather than disrupted them.
The remaining 4 essays/short stories aren’t as deftly crafted, and have more a sprawling feel, as if Kingston was trying to contain all of her life experiences in the 40 pages of a single essay. The result is that there are some truly poignant moments on the pages, but they’re so disjointed that they lose their impact.
I’m torn also by the criticisms Kingston received by her Chinese contemporaries—they panned this book as an inaccurate portrayal of China and Chinese immigrants, as one that fed stereotypes and American ideas of China rather than disrupted them.