Tripmaster Monkey

His Fake Book

Ebook
On sale Feb 09, 2011 | 352 Pages | 9780307787903

See Additional Formats
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • From the acclaimed author of The Woman Warrior and China Men comes a novel centered on the life of a Chinese-American hippie and aspiring playwright as he explores the complexities of identity, culture, and artistic ambition.

"A dazzling leap of imaginative sympathy [and] narrative magic."—The New York Times Book Review


Wittman Ah Sing is a young Chinese-American hippie in San Francisco during the late sixties. Named after America's quintessential poet, indomitably garrulous and free-spirited, Wittman is as American as James Dean. Yet he also bears a strking resemblance to Monkey, the trickster-saint of Chinese legend who helped bring the Buddhist scriptures from India.

Driven by his dream of writing and staging an epic production of interwoven Chinese novels and folktales, Wittman embarks on an extraordinary journey through an era as fantastic as his ambition. Tripmaster Monkey is by turns surreal; exuberantly charged with spectacle, violence, and Chinese "talk-story"; and wildly, bitterly funny. Kingston's masterful storytelling brings to life the struggles and triumphs of a young man caught between two worlds on a quest for self-discovery and cultural reconciliation.

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.

View titles by Maxine Hong Kingston

About

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • From the acclaimed author of The Woman Warrior and China Men comes a novel centered on the life of a Chinese-American hippie and aspiring playwright as he explores the complexities of identity, culture, and artistic ambition.

"A dazzling leap of imaginative sympathy [and] narrative magic."—The New York Times Book Review


Wittman Ah Sing is a young Chinese-American hippie in San Francisco during the late sixties. Named after America's quintessential poet, indomitably garrulous and free-spirited, Wittman is as American as James Dean. Yet he also bears a strking resemblance to Monkey, the trickster-saint of Chinese legend who helped bring the Buddhist scriptures from India.

Driven by his dream of writing and staging an epic production of interwoven Chinese novels and folktales, Wittman embarks on an extraordinary journey through an era as fantastic as his ambition. Tripmaster Monkey is by turns surreal; exuberantly charged with spectacle, violence, and Chinese "talk-story"; and wildly, bitterly funny. Kingston's masterful storytelling brings to life the struggles and triumphs of a young man caught between two worlds on a quest for self-discovery and cultural reconciliation.

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.

View titles by Maxine Hong Kingston

Books for National Depression Education and Awareness Month

For National Depression Education and Awareness Month in October, we are sharing a collection of titles that educates and informs on depression, including personal stories from those who have experienced depression and topics that range from causes and symptoms of depression to how to develop coping mechanisms to battle depression.

Read more

Horror Titles for the Halloween Season

In celebration of the Halloween season, we are sharing horror books that are aligned with the themes of the holiday: the sometimes unknown and scary creatures and witches. From classic ghost stories and popular novels that are celebrated today, in literature courses and beyond, to contemporary stories about the monsters that hide in the dark, our list

Read more

Books for LGBTQIA+ History Month

For LGBTQIA+ History Month in October, we’re celebrating the shared history of individuals within the community and the importance of the activists who have fought for their rights and the rights of others. We acknowledge the varying and diverse experiences within the LGBTQIA+ community that have shaped history and have led the way for those

Read more