A poignant and beautiful memoir-in-verse that captures the wisdom that comes with age from the award-winning author of The Woman Warrior and China Men.
“[A] graceful meditation. . . . Achieves meaningful insights into the art of living.” —Boston Globe
“A gentle, meandering memoir, organized as a long poem. . . . Cinematic and sensual.” —San Francisco Chronicle As Maxine Hong Kingston reflects on sixty-five years, she circles from present to past and back, from lunch with a writer friend to the funeral of a Vietnam veteran, from her long marriage to her arrest at a peace march in Washington. On her journeys as writer, peace activist, teacher, and mother, she revisits her most beloved characters—Wittman Ah-Sing, the Tripmaster Monkey, and Fa Mook Lan, the Woman Warrior—and presents us with a beautiful meditation on China then and now.
The result is a marvelous account of an American life of great purpose and joy, and the tonic wisdom of a writer we have come to cherish.
Maxine Hong Kingston is the author of The Woman Warrior, China Men,and The Fifth Book of Peace, among other works. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award. She worked for many years as a senior lecturer in creative writing at UC Berkeley. Kingston lives in Oakland, California.
A poignant and beautiful memoir-in-verse that captures the wisdom that comes with age from the award-winning author of The Woman Warrior and China Men.
“[A] graceful meditation. . . . Achieves meaningful insights into the art of living.” —Boston Globe
“A gentle, meandering memoir, organized as a long poem. . . . Cinematic and sensual.” —San Francisco Chronicle As Maxine Hong Kingston reflects on sixty-five years, she circles from present to past and back, from lunch with a writer friend to the funeral of a Vietnam veteran, from her long marriage to her arrest at a peace march in Washington. On her journeys as writer, peace activist, teacher, and mother, she revisits her most beloved characters—Wittman Ah-Sing, the Tripmaster Monkey, and Fa Mook Lan, the Woman Warrior—and presents us with a beautiful meditation on China then and now.
The result is a marvelous account of an American life of great purpose and joy, and the tonic wisdom of a writer we have come to cherish.
Author
Maxine Hong Kingston is the author of The Woman Warrior, China Men,and The Fifth Book of Peace, among other works. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award. She worked for many years as a senior lecturer in creative writing at UC Berkeley. Kingston lives in Oakland, California.
