Maxine Hong Kingston is the daughter of Chinese immigrants who
operated a gambling house in the 1940s, when Maxine was born, and
then a laundry where Kingston and her brothers and sisters toiled
long hours. Kingston graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1962
from the University of California at Berkeley, and, in the same
year, married actor Earll Kingston, whom she had met in an English
course. The couple has one son, Joseph, who was born in 1963. They
were active in antiwar activities in Berkeley, but in 1967 the
Kingstons headed for Japan to escape the increasing violence and
drugs of the antiwar movement. They settled instead in Hawai'i,
where Kingston took various teaching posts. They returned to
California seventeen years later, and Kingston resumed teaching
writing at the University of California, Berkeley.
While in Hawai'i, Kingston wrote her first two books. The Woman
Warrior, her first book, was published in 1976 and won the
National Book Critics Circle Award, making her a literary celebrity
at age thirty-six. Her second book, China Men, earned the
National Book Award. Still today, both books are widely taught in
literature and other classes. Kingston has earned additional
awards, including the PEN West Award for Fiction for Tripmaster
Monkey, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in
Literature, and the National Humanities Medal, which was conferred
by President Clinton, as well as the title "Living Treasure of
Hawai'i" bestowed by a Honolulu Buddhist church. Her most recent
books include a collection of essays, Hawai'i One
Summer, and latest novel, The Fifth Book of Peace.
Kingston is currently Senior Lecturer Emerita at the University of
California, Berkeley.
In September 1991, Kingston (The Woman Warrior; China Men; etc.) drove toward her Oakland, Calif., home after attending her father's funeral. The hills were burning; she unwittingly risked her life attempting to rescue her novel-in-progress, The Fourth Book of Peace. Nothing remained of the novel except a block of ash; all that remained of her possessions were intricate twinings of molten glass, blackened jade jewelry and the chimney of what was once home to her and her husband. This work retells the novel-in-progress (an autobiographical tale of Wittman Ah Sing, a poet who flees to Hawaii to evade the Vietnam draft with his white wife and young son); details Kingston's harrowing trek to find her house amid the ruins; accompanies the author on her quest to discern myths regarding the Chinese Three Lost Books of Peace and, finally, submits Kingston's remarkable call to veterans of all wars (though Vietnam plays the largest role) to help her convey a literature of peace through their and her writings. Kingston writes in a panoply of languages: American, Chinese, poetry, dreams, mythos, song, history, hallucination, meditation, tragedy-all are invoked in this complex stream-of-consciousness memoir, which questions repeatedly and intrinsically: Why war? Why not peace? The last war on Iraq and the current one meld here, as do wars thousands of years old. Complicated, convoluted, fascinating and, in the final section, poignant almost beyond bearability, this work illumines one writer's experience of war and remembrance while elevating a personal search to a cosmic quest for truth. This is vintage Kingston: agent provocateur, she once again follows her mother's dictate to "educate the world." (Sept. 8) Forecast: As previous winner of the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Kingston has a commanding audience to rally for this long-delayed and -awaited book. Knopf plans a 50,000-copy first printing. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Acclaimed writer Kingston (The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts) has created a lyrical memoir of momentous events in her life-the death of her father and her mother, the destruction of her house by fire on the day she attended her father's funeral, the search for the ancient Chinese Books of Peace, and the organization of a series of writing workshops for Vietnam War veterans. Kingston explains that the Books of Peace were born when Chinese civilization came into being but then were lost. She works to find them, believing that their recovery may save the world from the never-ending horror of war. Kingston writes her own Book of Peace here, telling the story of a Vietnam War draft dodger. Her vivid portrayal of the too familiar elements of the Vietnamese conflict-war protests, peace demonstrations, AWOL GIs, and hippies-is disturbing and convincing. And the admirable goal of the writing workshops she conducted with the Vietnam vets was to help them "put that war into words, and through language make sense, meaning, art of it." With this memoir, Kingston continues her life's admirable task, given to her by her mother, of educating the world. Hence her powerful admonition: "In a time of destruction, create something." Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/03.]-Kathryn R. Bartelt, Univ. of Evansville Libs., IN Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
"A trenchant opus about surviving the fires of life. . .a
wonderful, mulitlayered work. Marvelous." --San Francisco
Chronicle
"Her prose . . . is masterly, at times nearly overwhelming
in its descriptive power. . . . The world--and not just the world
of literature--owes Maxine Hong Kingston a huge debt of gratitude."
- The Washington Post Book World
"Gorgeous. . . . [A] work of love and power-straight from
Kingston's brilliant and passionate heart-and her vision of peace
is undeniable. You have to see it, too."-Minneapolis
Star-Tribune
"A moving testament to Kingston's determination and compassion, and
a document of how one can survive pain, loss and the burden of
history." - San Jose Mercury News
"A strange, scarred thing, pieced together from
fragments, smelling of smoke and anguish. Its power lies in its
pain." --The New York Times Book Review
"Rich in empathy and moral conviction. . . . Kingston is . . . an
exuberant storyteller." --The New Yorker
"Astonishing. . . . Part fiction and part autobiography,
revery, prophecy, and how to manual. . . . Wherever we are in this
fifth book . . . Kingston is a lotus, a flowering of divine
intellect, and a bodhisattva, sticking around, one birth short of
nirvana, to ease our suffering." -Harper's Magazine
"A sharp, aching account. . . . [It] captivates . . . because of
the splashy urgency of its writing."-Los Angeles Times Book
Review
"Kaleidoscopic . . . Mesmerizing. . . . Employing language that is
a lush and vibrant lure skimming the still lake of our collective
experience as Americans who have attended far too many wars in far
too few years, Kingston reels in the big questions . . . and
displays them with both authority and care. The Fifth Book of
Peace is a big book, chock full of real, not self, importance."
--The Baltimore Sun
"Powerful. . . . Kingston's elegant arc from the person to the
global constitutes a profound act of humility and compassion."
-Pittsburg Post-Gazette
"I loved it-I couldn't stop reading it. Maxine Hong Kingston is one
of our best writers. The Fifth Book of Peace has the
generosity of spirit and the luminous prose we so urgently need in
this time of war after war." -Leslie Marmon Silko
"A passionate plea that draws on U.S. history and Buddhist wisdom
to argue for an all-inclusive and peaceful world."-People
Magazine
"Moving. . . . A richly various extended meditation on peace. . . .
The lesson embodied in The Fifth Book of Peace could not be
more timely." -Boston Globe
"An amazing testament to the existence of peace, even in the midst
of war. The book is a communal effort, beautifully orchestrated by
Hong Kingston and pieced together with open eyes. She doesn't
romanticize, doesn't ignore the failures of past peace movements,
but bravely searches for new possibilities." --Rocky Mountain
News
"Beautifully rendered. . . . Intelligent and poetic. . . . Kingston
gives readers entr?e into something powerful." --Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel
"Dense, complex, urgent. . . . Kingston is interested here in the
process of telling stories to come to a happy ending."
--Newsday
"Immediately striking about The Fifth Book of Peace is the
uncanniness with which it nails the anxiety of this nation. . . .
Kingston's stories and practices-and particularly her characters,
both real and imagined-have a refreshing authenticity." -The
Oregonian
"Intense, often moving. . . . [Kingston] lays down layers of
meaning, deftly weaving symbolism and imagery." --The Miami
Herald
"An arresting tour de force. . . . This is surely a better book
than the one [Kingston] lost." -Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"[An] uncompromising examination of the meanings of peace. . . .
Secrets and truths that lesser writers would take to their graves,
[Kingston] delivers with startling openness. . . . She has gathered
a community of the lost, the disempowered, the people who never get
to write alternative histories, and gifted them the fierce power of
her voice." -The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Her recounting of the fire is astonishing. She has a poet's eye
for description. . . . Kingston has . . . create[d] something good
out of painful memories." --Austin
American-Statesman
"Powerful. . . . Thoughtful and passionate." --Entertainment
Weekly
"Gripping. . . . [Filled] with bracing honesty. . . . Kingston has
written a moving, urgent book that discounts facile notions of
peace as a passive state." -Charleston Post &
Courier
"Satisfying. . . . Surreal, vivid detail."-Columbus
Dispatch
"Brilliantly imaginative. . . . Fine writing and intriguing
stories. . . . As always, Kingston is a superb stylist." -The
Sunday Star-Ledger
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