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The Fifth Book of Peace
A long time ago in China, there existed three Books of Peace that proved so threatening to the reigning powers that they had them burned. Many years later Maxine Hong Kingston wrote a fourth Book of Peace, but it too was burned—in the catastrophic Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire of 1991, a fire that coincided with the death of her father. Now in this visionary and redemptive work, Kingston completes her interrupted labor, weaving fiction and memoir into a luminous meditation on war and peace, devastation and renewal.
403 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2003
46 people are currently reading
813 people want to read
About the author
Maxine Hong Kingston
59 books659 followersBest known works, including
The Woman Warrior
(1976) and
China Men
(1980), of American writer Maxine Hong Kingston combine elements of fiction and memoir.
She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the third of eight children, and the first among them born in the United States. Her mother trained as a midwife at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton. Her father had been brought up a scholar and taught in his village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Tom left China for America in 1924 and took a job in a laundry.
Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are The Woman Warrior (1976), awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and China Men (1980), which was awarded the 1981 National Book Award. She has written one novel, Tripmaster Monkey, a story depicting a character based on the mythical Chinese character Sun Wu Kong. Her most recent books are To Be The Poet and The Fifth Book of Peace.
She was awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal by President of the United States Bill Clinton. Kingston was a member of the committee to choose the design for the California commemorative quarter. She was arrested in March 2003 in Washington, D.C., for crossing a police line during a protest against the war in Iraq. In April, 2007, Hong Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for her most recent novel Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), edited by Maxine Hong Kingston.
She married actor Earl Kingston in 1962; they have had one child, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei, born in 1964. They now live in Oakland.
Kingston was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at Emma Willard School in September 2005.
She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the third of eight children, and the first among them born in the United States. Her mother trained as a midwife at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton. Her father had been brought up a scholar and taught in his village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Tom left China for America in 1924 and took a job in a laundry.
Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are The Woman Warrior (1976), awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and China Men (1980), which was awarded the 1981 National Book Award. She has written one novel, Tripmaster Monkey, a story depicting a character based on the mythical Chinese character Sun Wu Kong. Her most recent books are To Be The Poet and The Fifth Book of Peace.
She was awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal by President of the United States Bill Clinton. Kingston was a member of the committee to choose the design for the California commemorative quarter. She was arrested in March 2003 in Washington, D.C., for crossing a police line during a protest against the war in Iraq. In April, 2007, Hong Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for her most recent novel Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), edited by Maxine Hong Kingston.
She married actor Earl Kingston in 1962; they have had one child, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei, born in 1964. They now live in Oakland.
Kingston was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at Emma Willard School in September 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
August 10, 2008
i find this book amazing beyond words. if i had written it, i would think that my life work is done and i'd start preparing for death. okay, this is way too morbid. let me just say that i read this book at a point in my life when life really sucked, and by the time i finished it life was a large, generous, calm river teeming with colorful boats, peace, and possibilities.
i taught it and no one liked it. there must be truly few of us who find this book amazing. at least read the first stunning chapter.
i taught it and no one liked it. there must be truly few of us who find this book amazing. at least read the first stunning chapter.
May 2, 2014
This might well be my favorite of Kingston's works, and that's saying a great deal. Her language is simultaneously lyrical and grounded, a perfect weaving for a narrative that is itself a patchwork of truth and fiction. She examines themes of loss and resurrection, peace and turmoil, object and idea. In short, it is a work that examines the space where oppositions come together to create life.
September 10, 2023
3.5/3.75?The narrative of this is very stream of consciousness, she flits about making mental leaps before picking up the thread again in a way that works well to mimic the experiences she's going through - particularly with the experience of making her way through burned streets during the wildfire at the start, the sparking cable lines, so tense!
I found the Water section the most challenging to get through. Wittman can be a deeply frustrating character who is insufferable from time to time. With the plot of this section being so biographical, it's hard to tell what is deliberately constructed to evoke response and what is just an expression of Kingston and her beliefs.
There are some really vivid moments in this that will stay with me, particularly the snorkeling scene and Taña painting the Hawaiian women as the descriptions were ao vivid and technicolour. I also had some really great buddy reading discussions about art, peace, memoir, nature and more. My favourite discussion to come out of this was, are humans capable of curating peace? We have the ability to dream in meaningful ways, to write and create poetry and art, but are we capable of sitting in silence and capturing the peace of nature (although nature is obviously violent in its own way but it's violent for survival, unmeditated? It doesn't hurt for grand ideas, it just sometimes has wildfires that destroy all your possessions but it's not targeted, it just is beyond our control and comprehension)
Whilst I can see that the author has put a lot of interesting construction and details in, I do find it hard to connect with this fully on an emotional level, hence the lower rating, but I do see how some people will absolutely adore this.
I found the Water section the most challenging to get through. Wittman can be a deeply frustrating character who is insufferable from time to time. With the plot of this section being so biographical, it's hard to tell what is deliberately constructed to evoke response and what is just an expression of Kingston and her beliefs.
There are some really vivid moments in this that will stay with me, particularly the snorkeling scene and Taña painting the Hawaiian women as the descriptions were ao vivid and technicolour. I also had some really great buddy reading discussions about art, peace, memoir, nature and more. My favourite discussion to come out of this was, are humans capable of curating peace? We have the ability to dream in meaningful ways, to write and create poetry and art, but are we capable of sitting in silence and capturing the peace of nature (although nature is obviously violent in its own way but it's violent for survival, unmeditated? It doesn't hurt for grand ideas, it just sometimes has wildfires that destroy all your possessions but it's not targeted, it just is beyond our control and comprehension)
Whilst I can see that the author has put a lot of interesting construction and details in, I do find it hard to connect with this fully on an emotional level, hence the lower rating, but I do see how some people will absolutely adore this.
March 22, 2010
This book just took me in. It starts out with the fire in the Oakland Hills. She is coming home from her father's funeral and finds the hills and her home on fire. she loses the first hundred or so pages of a book she was writing. the middle of the book is her attempt to recreate that story. the rest of the book is about a writing group she begins for veterans of war. It is moving and much of it is what she says about writing, and going deeper and healing. AND she talks about being "Eldest Sister" and what it means in chinese culture. Suddenly, the "lucy" bossy sister person in be fell into place. I AM Eldest Sister. It means something. It felt right and I can't define it. But, I like my bossy self better for it (within moderation...)And I liked reading about how she sees things differently as she gets older. The book just took me in, I was supposed to read it.
February 10, 2012
Unstructured, but good. You really have to be in the mood for a meandereing story. The first part is great, but you will need a glass wone wine to slow your mind down to appreciate the rest of the book lest you miss all the hidden treasures. Whittman Ah Sing has always been difficult to fathom, yet strangley compelling. Crafty monkey...
July 18, 2017
I thought I would enjoy this book more than I did, but it began to feel so much like a vanity piece that I put it aside and read something else for a week. Just reading the first chapter was such a slog, I am doing something I rarely do and that is to give up on it.
October 29, 2019
This is an oddly constructed memoir. It required a lot of patience to trust Kingston and follow her through the first three sections of this book: Fire, Paper, and Water. But trust me when I tell you that the final section title "Earth" makes it all worth it.
I feel like Vintage Books did Kingston a huge disservice in the summaries they provide of each of the sections. Or perhaps they are Kingston's summaries, but they don't accurately reflect the contents of each section.
The only section that I felt was slightly out of of place was the recreation of her burned manuscript, the fiction of the family leaving the U.S. I assume Kingston wanted to include it because of the glimpse it provides, awkward as it may be, of a few people vying for peace in their small sphere of influence. Also, I haven't read her other work entitled "Tripmaster Monkey" which is a work of fiction about Wittman Ah Sing. If I had read that, his continued adventures in this section might have some added significance. If you have read "Tripmaster Monkey" is your interpretation of this section different than mine?
As I said, the highlight of this memoir for me is the final section "Earth". It isn't so much what the table of contents describes as "a nonfiction during which the author and her husband live in temporary homes while their new house is being built." And it is so much more than Kingston "sending out a call to war veterans to help write a literature of peace." This section is a vivid explication of Kingston's endeavor's to work with Vietnam war veteran's in pursuing a dialogue with their grief through writing. We are introduced to several vivid, lovable, dynamic veterans and we get a glimpse of the terrible burden that we carry. The highlight of this section is their journey to Plum Village to meet with the great teacher Thich Nhat Hahn. His advice to them truly encapsulates the promise of this "Book of Peace." "Because suffering is not enough," he says. "We can learn a lot from suffering, but life has also the other side- wonderful, refreshing, healing. All of us have to learn to touch that aspect of life. Ah, when there is a tree dying in our garden, don't make it as if the whole garden is dying. That's not fair, that's not just, that's not wise." Which isn't to say that Hahn is dismissing grief and pain. Rather, I think he is rephrasing a strategy taught by his cohort Sister Chan Khong earlier in the memoir when she says, "But that [painful memory] still remains in your consciousness, is come up from time to time. And when it's come up, you have to say Hello. You say: Hello, you are there, but you are no longer a burden, you are an old friend. You say, 'Hello, my little fear.' 'Hi, my anger.'"
I feel like Vintage Books did Kingston a huge disservice in the summaries they provide of each of the sections. Or perhaps they are Kingston's summaries, but they don't accurately reflect the contents of each section.
The only section that I felt was slightly out of of place was the recreation of her burned manuscript, the fiction of the family leaving the U.S. I assume Kingston wanted to include it because of the glimpse it provides, awkward as it may be, of a few people vying for peace in their small sphere of influence. Also, I haven't read her other work entitled "Tripmaster Monkey" which is a work of fiction about Wittman Ah Sing. If I had read that, his continued adventures in this section might have some added significance. If you have read "Tripmaster Monkey" is your interpretation of this section different than mine?
As I said, the highlight of this memoir for me is the final section "Earth". It isn't so much what the table of contents describes as "a nonfiction during which the author and her husband live in temporary homes while their new house is being built." And it is so much more than Kingston "sending out a call to war veterans to help write a literature of peace." This section is a vivid explication of Kingston's endeavor's to work with Vietnam war veteran's in pursuing a dialogue with their grief through writing. We are introduced to several vivid, lovable, dynamic veterans and we get a glimpse of the terrible burden that we carry. The highlight of this section is their journey to Plum Village to meet with the great teacher Thich Nhat Hahn. His advice to them truly encapsulates the promise of this "Book of Peace." "Because suffering is not enough," he says. "We can learn a lot from suffering, but life has also the other side- wonderful, refreshing, healing. All of us have to learn to touch that aspect of life. Ah, when there is a tree dying in our garden, don't make it as if the whole garden is dying. That's not fair, that's not just, that's not wise." Which isn't to say that Hahn is dismissing grief and pain. Rather, I think he is rephrasing a strategy taught by his cohort Sister Chan Khong earlier in the memoir when she says, "But that [painful memory] still remains in your consciousness, is come up from time to time. And when it's come up, you have to say Hello. You say: Hello, you are there, but you are no longer a burden, you are an old friend. You say, 'Hello, my little fear.' 'Hi, my anger.'"
July 15, 2012
Review published in the New Zealand Herald, November 2003
The Fifth Book of Peace
Maxine Hong Kingston
(Secker & Warburg, $34.95)
Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson
This is a book to read in large chunks. A few pages before bed makes it hard to get into. Don’t expect a plot. Don't expect a novel, or autobiography, or memoir – it's the Chinese form of 'talk-story', a collage of mythical, real and imaginary worlds.
Maxine Hong Kingston searches in vain for the lost books of peace of Chinese mythology. Did they really exist? She writes her own – The Fourth Book of Peace – but it's burnt to ashes in a bushfire that devastates her house, so she writes this, The Fifth Book of Peace.
After this memoir-type opening, the author switches to a novella embedded in the middle of the book, set during the Vietnam War. Chinese American Wittman Ah Sing leaves California for Hawai'i to dodge the draft, accompanied by his wife and son. How can he kill, let alone people who look like him? Through Wittman's hippie idealist eyes, in a stream-of-consciousness style, we see the inter-racial relationships in his new neighbourhood, peace demonstrations, and a church sanctuary for Vietnam deserters.
Then the book flips back to memoir: Kingston leads writing workshops for war veterans, incorporating meditation. This choppy, diary-like section is peppered with outpourings from the vets trying to come to terms with their traumatic experiences years after the events.
The book culminates in a TV crew filming the author at the village where Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh lives and teaches. The author writes: "I wanted the BBC to show the world a multicultural, multiracial America. Every time we go to war, we're in schizophrenic agony. Whoever the enemy is, they're related to us." There are brief references to the war in Iraq, September 11, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but here Vietnam is the symbol for the universal experience of war.
The sentiments are laudable, but this rambling 400-page treatise loses momentum, and lost my interest. A more severe edit would have eliminated repetition and the dross of detail.
The Fifth Book of Peace
Maxine Hong Kingston
(Secker & Warburg, $34.95)
Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson
This is a book to read in large chunks. A few pages before bed makes it hard to get into. Don’t expect a plot. Don't expect a novel, or autobiography, or memoir – it's the Chinese form of 'talk-story', a collage of mythical, real and imaginary worlds.
Maxine Hong Kingston searches in vain for the lost books of peace of Chinese mythology. Did they really exist? She writes her own – The Fourth Book of Peace – but it's burnt to ashes in a bushfire that devastates her house, so she writes this, The Fifth Book of Peace.
After this memoir-type opening, the author switches to a novella embedded in the middle of the book, set during the Vietnam War. Chinese American Wittman Ah Sing leaves California for Hawai'i to dodge the draft, accompanied by his wife and son. How can he kill, let alone people who look like him? Through Wittman's hippie idealist eyes, in a stream-of-consciousness style, we see the inter-racial relationships in his new neighbourhood, peace demonstrations, and a church sanctuary for Vietnam deserters.
Then the book flips back to memoir: Kingston leads writing workshops for war veterans, incorporating meditation. This choppy, diary-like section is peppered with outpourings from the vets trying to come to terms with their traumatic experiences years after the events.
The book culminates in a TV crew filming the author at the village where Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh lives and teaches. The author writes: "I wanted the BBC to show the world a multicultural, multiracial America. Every time we go to war, we're in schizophrenic agony. Whoever the enemy is, they're related to us." There are brief references to the war in Iraq, September 11, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but here Vietnam is the symbol for the universal experience of war.
The sentiments are laudable, but this rambling 400-page treatise loses momentum, and lost my interest. A more severe edit would have eliminated repetition and the dross of detail.
September 11, 2023
REREAD (2023)
“It takes a year to create twenty minutes of peace. It feels as if, for those twenty minutes, all wars do cease”
I love this book even more than I already did. Having to go through this book as a buddy read has allowed me to figure out exactly why this book struck me so much the first time through.
The poetic prose. The evocative repetition of theme. Even the way it dawdles through, around and over the point only adds to its potency for me.
Do stories have more power than non-fiction? What even is non-fiction but a construction anyway? How is it possible to find peace in a world that’s so hell-bent on destroying itself?
I could write essays about this book. I will write poems about this book. I will discuss this book with anyone who wants to.
I can’t say with any confidence that I have a concrete definition for what peace is after reading this, but one thing I can say for certain is that I will be reading this book again.
ORIGINAL READ (2022)
“For this day, I have made some of the world as I like it. May it last.”
Maxine Hong Kingston writes the way that I think. Not in the sense that I agree with everything that she says, but reading her work makes me feel like I’m not alone.
This book is profound, banal, eloquent and simple all tied up with a stream of consciousness bow. I loved returning to Wittman Ah Sing from “Taskmaster Monkey” and surprised myself with how glad I was to see that he hadn’t changed in the years that had passed; his slightly ineffectual but yet well-intentioned pomposity still shone through.
I loved the breakdown of this book into each section and was genuinely sad when I reached the end. I can’t wait to see what else she’s written, but also want to savour every moment.
“It takes a year to create twenty minutes of peace. It feels as if, for those twenty minutes, all wars do cease”
I love this book even more than I already did. Having to go through this book as a buddy read has allowed me to figure out exactly why this book struck me so much the first time through.
The poetic prose. The evocative repetition of theme. Even the way it dawdles through, around and over the point only adds to its potency for me.
Do stories have more power than non-fiction? What even is non-fiction but a construction anyway? How is it possible to find peace in a world that’s so hell-bent on destroying itself?
I could write essays about this book. I will write poems about this book. I will discuss this book with anyone who wants to.
I can’t say with any confidence that I have a concrete definition for what peace is after reading this, but one thing I can say for certain is that I will be reading this book again.
ORIGINAL READ (2022)
“For this day, I have made some of the world as I like it. May it last.”
Maxine Hong Kingston writes the way that I think. Not in the sense that I agree with everything that she says, but reading her work makes me feel like I’m not alone.
This book is profound, banal, eloquent and simple all tied up with a stream of consciousness bow. I loved returning to Wittman Ah Sing from “Taskmaster Monkey” and surprised myself with how glad I was to see that he hadn’t changed in the years that had passed; his slightly ineffectual but yet well-intentioned pomposity still shone through.
I loved the breakdown of this book into each section and was genuinely sad when I reached the end. I can’t wait to see what else she’s written, but also want to savour every moment.
abandoned
September 24, 2012I couldn't finish this book. That's a first for me. Maybe in a time when I can enjoy it somewhere other than the Metro, I'll reread it; but I'm not promising anything.
This is a journey. It's more than the book Kingston lost in a fire. The reader gets the rewritten version of her lost text - a family moving to Hawaii in order to avoid the draft. Two artists raising their child to love and not fight, and they are surprised by their "welcoming" and stay. I assume the chapters following "Water" explore the importance of the text and siginificance of a book of peace - what it means on a personal level. My guesses probably make me an ignorant and impatient reader, though.
Kingston's sentences are simple but deliberate. She writes to create an image in the reader's mind. Her style is a mixture of Asian, European, and American writing; the writing itself is forward and explanatory, while the style is personal.
As a predominantly contemporary American reader attempting to expand her range, I knew this was different than anything I've read. At best, I've read straightforward English, Indian, and Chinese fiction, and I thought I could hack it. This requires more than looking at words and enjoying language or a story. Kingston is an experienced writer who knows how to explore multiple realms of writing to create metaphorical depth, understanding in her reader, and a solid story.
This is a journey. It's more than the book Kingston lost in a fire. The reader gets the rewritten version of her lost text - a family moving to Hawaii in order to avoid the draft. Two artists raising their child to love and not fight, and they are surprised by their "welcoming" and stay. I assume the chapters following "Water" explore the importance of the text and siginificance of a book of peace - what it means on a personal level. My guesses probably make me an ignorant and impatient reader, though.
Kingston's sentences are simple but deliberate. She writes to create an image in the reader's mind. Her style is a mixture of Asian, European, and American writing; the writing itself is forward and explanatory, while the style is personal.
As a predominantly contemporary American reader attempting to expand her range, I knew this was different than anything I've read. At best, I've read straightforward English, Indian, and Chinese fiction, and I thought I could hack it. This requires more than looking at words and enjoying language or a story. Kingston is an experienced writer who knows how to explore multiple realms of writing to create metaphorical depth, understanding in her reader, and a solid story.
June 2, 2015
I met Maxine at a post-play party and a few days later, while taking shelter from the pouring rain in the SF public library, this book seemed to jump off the shelf. It was the perfect time in my life to find the book.
She was working on the "4th Book of Peace" for years, and then the entire manuscript was burned in the Oakland fires. The first chapter, her description of running through the hills, trying to save her book, is impossible to put down. It's incredibly poignant and I think speaks volumes to me about loss, what is important in life, transitions, letting go.
Another section of the book is her attempt at re-creating the "4th Book of Peace," a work of fiction about a family moving to Hawaii to dodge the draft in the 60s. It's incredibly lyrical, lush and beautiful, and incorporates a lot of elements of magical realism.
I skipped ahead to the last section, too (so I could read about some of the people I was going to meet at a post-play discussion)--true story about her starting a writing group for war veterans (most of whom had no previous writing experience). Equally riveting.
Maxine Hong Kingston can write fiction and non-fiction amazingly well. I love how each of her seemingly disjointed stories fits together in the end in this book. And she tackles relevant issues with grace and a constant tone that invites the reader to explore the depths of her own experience.
She was working on the "4th Book of Peace" for years, and then the entire manuscript was burned in the Oakland fires. The first chapter, her description of running through the hills, trying to save her book, is impossible to put down. It's incredibly poignant and I think speaks volumes to me about loss, what is important in life, transitions, letting go.
Another section of the book is her attempt at re-creating the "4th Book of Peace," a work of fiction about a family moving to Hawaii to dodge the draft in the 60s. It's incredibly lyrical, lush and beautiful, and incorporates a lot of elements of magical realism.
I skipped ahead to the last section, too (so I could read about some of the people I was going to meet at a post-play discussion)--true story about her starting a writing group for war veterans (most of whom had no previous writing experience). Equally riveting.
Maxine Hong Kingston can write fiction and non-fiction amazingly well. I love how each of her seemingly disjointed stories fits together in the end in this book. And she tackles relevant issues with grace and a constant tone that invites the reader to explore the depths of her own experience.
April 15, 2012
Reread this book after years away from it. I so liked The Woman Warrior and this novel/memoir is one fine book, too.
Kingston takes readers into the loss of her home in Oakland CA, prey to a huge wildfire. She tries to recover treasured family items, as well as the draft of The Fourth Book of Peace, to little avail. A professor at Berkeley, she finds some comfort in friends and family, but is determined to find the Book of Peace.
The next segment traces the journey of the the Ah Sing family (Tana, Wittman and son Mario) from CA to Hawaii to avoid the draft. There they seek peace living a life of giving poverty, art, writing and trying to find ways for Vietnam veterans to find peace. They try to help create sanctuary for soldiers. Results are a mixed bag.
The last part tracks Kingston's plan to regularly gather veterans from Vietnam and America - and writers and activists - in CA, NYC and France- to explore ways to let violent pasts go in a positive, helpful way by bonding together in peace and Buddhist meditation. This effort works well for men and women who remained true to the group and its teachings.
Maxine Hong Kingston, with her husband Earll Kingston, stay true to their beliefs in firm pacifism.
Kingston takes readers into the loss of her home in Oakland CA, prey to a huge wildfire. She tries to recover treasured family items, as well as the draft of The Fourth Book of Peace, to little avail. A professor at Berkeley, she finds some comfort in friends and family, but is determined to find the Book of Peace.
The next segment traces the journey of the the Ah Sing family (Tana, Wittman and son Mario) from CA to Hawaii to avoid the draft. There they seek peace living a life of giving poverty, art, writing and trying to find ways for Vietnam veterans to find peace. They try to help create sanctuary for soldiers. Results are a mixed bag.
The last part tracks Kingston's plan to regularly gather veterans from Vietnam and America - and writers and activists - in CA, NYC and France- to explore ways to let violent pasts go in a positive, helpful way by bonding together in peace and Buddhist meditation. This effort works well for men and women who remained true to the group and its teachings.
Maxine Hong Kingston, with her husband Earll Kingston, stay true to their beliefs in firm pacifism.
April 7, 2014
The Fifth Book of Peace is split into four parts, Fire, Paper, Water, and Earth. The first two sections and the last chronicle Kingston's journey from her house burning down with her unfinished manuscript for a novel entitled the Fifth Book of Peace, and how this loss inspired her to create a writer's workshop for war veterans, specifically of the Vietnam War, to write their own books of peace. These are great, the writing is interesting, the stories of the devastating loss of Maxine's home and those of the vets are interesting, compelling, and heartbreaking.
The Water section is a short recreation of the manuscript that was lost. This isn't so great, and I'm not sure why the author included it. The characters are for the most part unsympathetic and whiny, you are never sure if she intends them to be a satire of the peace movement, or if she genuinely feels the way that they do. The timeline isn't very clear, one day will pass, then another scene will pick up that must be months later, but there isn't a clear delineation, it's written as if it;s the very next day.
The fiction is disappointing, but the memoir is full of hope. Read Fire Paper and Earth, skip the Water.
The Water section is a short recreation of the manuscript that was lost. This isn't so great, and I'm not sure why the author included it. The characters are for the most part unsympathetic and whiny, you are never sure if she intends them to be a satire of the peace movement, or if she genuinely feels the way that they do. The timeline isn't very clear, one day will pass, then another scene will pick up that must be months later, but there isn't a clear delineation, it's written as if it;s the very next day.
The fiction is disappointing, but the memoir is full of hope. Read Fire Paper and Earth, skip the Water.
April 28, 2007
I have stories to tell about this book, which I'll spare for now. But I found this book for $1 on the shelves of a bookstore in the Poconos, bought a few copies, and have dispersed them hence. There's something about the combination of fiction and non-fiction in this particular book, from the story of how Kingston lost the book she was writing in the flames of the Oakland fire that consumed her house to how she was coping with her father's death before that...
And I think the way she was able to work with veterans in writing workshops where they explored whatever they felt like exploring was incredible - there was something about this book that really touched me in many ways. I still think that Tripmaster Monkey was her best, and perhaps that's because her fiction glides a bit more than her non-fiction in places, but her writing is top-notch in this book, and its many stories overlap in a way that's altogether compelling.
And I think the way she was able to work with veterans in writing workshops where they explored whatever they felt like exploring was incredible - there was something about this book that really touched me in many ways. I still think that Tripmaster Monkey was her best, and perhaps that's because her fiction glides a bit more than her non-fiction in places, but her writing is top-notch in this book, and its many stories overlap in a way that's altogether compelling.
May 21, 2018
I am developing a mental category for lesser books of great writers. It made me want to go back and read The Woman Warrior and Tripmaster Monkey. Well, the beginning of the book made me want to go back and read more of Maxine Hong Kingston. The second and third sections weren't as strong. The first part is Kingston's memoir of losing her house to a terrible fire right as she was coming back from funeral rituals for her father. It was strongly emotional writing, full of word play. The second section of the book was an attempt to reconstruct a manuscript she lost in the fire. The third section was about her activism creating writing workshops for Vietnam veterans. The second two sections felt like notes for a book rather than like two books. They also made me love Kington even more, because the problem with them was how she was trying to capture every individual person's story.
February 26, 2010
This book is really 3 books
the book of how she lost her book in the Oakland Fire
the book re-written (our heros from Tripmaster Monkey)
and the book of her work with veterans.
She is very wise and her brain works in some of the strange ways mine does, and my friends and colleagues from the Bay Area. But sadly she writes in one long constant steady rhythm that lulls me to sleep and makes it hard to finish all 400 pages. I'm always glad when I read a chunk, but I have been reading it off and on for a couple of years now, and just can't seem to finish.
Still not quite finished- put it back on the shelf though. So much good stuff in there, but hard to get the energy to read it through to the end.
the book of how she lost her book in the Oakland Fire
the book re-written (our heros from Tripmaster Monkey)
and the book of her work with veterans.
She is very wise and her brain works in some of the strange ways mine does, and my friends and colleagues from the Bay Area. But sadly she writes in one long constant steady rhythm that lulls me to sleep and makes it hard to finish all 400 pages. I'm always glad when I read a chunk, but I have been reading it off and on for a couple of years now, and just can't seem to finish.
Still not quite finished- put it back on the shelf though. So much good stuff in there, but hard to get the energy to read it through to the end.
October 26, 2008
Although all of Kingston's books have had an impact on me, this had the greatest. Maybe it's because I grew up in Oakland, and although I didn't live there when the fire happened, the area is familiar to me, as Stockton, where she had been to her father's funeral.
The book is about loss and not really re-birth, but re-finding. She takes a journey with Vietnam Veterans and they all discover something within themselves. It became very emotional for me. Even though I knew people who had been in the war, and some who had died in Vietnam, I felt like an outsider going to college while others were fighting. This brought it all home to me in a way that's hard for me to put in words.
I bought a copy for my local library. It seems like an important book for people to read.
The book is about loss and not really re-birth, but re-finding. She takes a journey with Vietnam Veterans and they all discover something within themselves. It became very emotional for me. Even though I knew people who had been in the war, and some who had died in Vietnam, I felt like an outsider going to college while others were fighting. This brought it all home to me in a way that's hard for me to put in words.
I bought a copy for my local library. It seems like an important book for people to read.
February 11, 2011
Interesting combination of fiction and memoir from a Berkeley professor who lost her home in the Berkley/Oakland Hills fire in 1991 as well as the book she was writing at the time - "The Fourth Book of Peace". Here she recreates the history of the original 3 books of Peace, the fictional story of the Fourth Book and her experience working for peace as she conducts writing workshops for veterans and incorporates mindfulness meditation, Buddhist traditions and more.
The vets' writings based on their varying experiences (mostly Vietnam era) are moving as they confront emotional and psychological wounds, each attempting to reconcile with an inner Peace. It rekindled memories I have of friends and family members who were and may remain scarred by those experiences.
The vets' writings based on their varying experiences (mostly Vietnam era) are moving as they confront emotional and psychological wounds, each attempting to reconcile with an inner Peace. It rekindled memories I have of friends and family members who were and may remain scarred by those experiences.
May 11, 2018
I am calling it read but I only skimmed through a lot of it. The Water section I almost skipped entirely. I love Woman Warrior but could not get into this book. Its style is sort of stream of consciousness so maybe I was not in the right frame of mind. I enjoyed the first part, about the fire and losing her father and her family but then it started to not make sense and was difficult to read. I gave it a 3 because I like her and the overall concept. Just not this book. Maybe I'll try again in a few years. I blame all our distractions. If I was on a desert island I am sure I would savor every word.
March 8, 2008
This is a book about war and peace and loss. I'd read other books by this author and saw this one, which starts out with her losing the novel she'd been writing. Her house burned down, her whole neighborhood burned down. The book is about the fire and the process of rewriting the lost book, with the rewritten book included. The writing has magical elements. It's a really compelling book that made me think a lot about war and peace and what it means to have peace, especially when you have been at war.
February 5, 2009
So far, not bad. I have been a Kingston fan ever since
The Woman Warrior
, and in this newest book she still straddles that terrifyingly blurry line between fiction and nonfiction. Her narrator tends to wander to and from matters of her family, literature, opposition the 1991 Gulf War...but the writing is strong, literary and engaging. I look forward to seeing where she goes with this.
October 6, 2011
One section of this is fictional and takes place in Hawaii during the Vietnam War. The rest is non-fiction and discusses ideas of peace, community and loss. She talks about the loss of her house and manuscript to a fire in Oakland. Also her involvement with a combination creative writing and meditation workshop with Vietnam veterans. Her writing is so different - fragmented and trippy, but still graceful and powerful.
March 10, 2018
SPOILER ALERT: This is the last paragraph in the book. I am not the type of person to read the last page first, but I think this is so beautiful I had to share it and I don't think it spoils anything about the rest of the book.
"Children, everybody, here's what to do during war: In a time of destruction, create something. A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment."
-Maxine Hong Kingston
"Children, everybody, here's what to do during war: In a time of destruction, create something. A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment."
-Maxine Hong Kingston
September 13, 2007
I got to have lunch with the author, actually.
But anyway, this is really good. Mrs. Kingston has a very strange and yet unique style of writing. Her sentences are sometimes short, brief, yet meant to provoke a pause for thought. You'll pause quite often to think with this book.
We need more books of peace. Go write one.
But anyway, this is really good. Mrs. Kingston has a very strange and yet unique style of writing. Her sentences are sometimes short, brief, yet meant to provoke a pause for thought. You'll pause quite often to think with this book.
We need more books of peace. Go write one.
November 5, 2019
I've been reading this book for...3 or 4 years. It's very complex and moves in and out of space and time and it's something you need the time to just sit and read. It's not a causal read at all. I am determined to finish it this summer because it is beautifully written and I do want to see how the stories pan out.
October 10, 2018
In this memoir, Kingston describes suffering through a California wildfire that destroyed her home and all of her work on a new book. Devastated, she goes to stay with her mother and reminisces as well as philosophies. It is a well done book with many thought-provoking ideas. It is not light reading, but I felt it was definitely worth the eff
ort.
ort.
December 14, 2019
Had to put this one down because it was SO BORING. I tried to finish but I just couldn't. The beginning when she's talking about the fire was good, but I think she should have just forgotten about that story she lost in it. It had interesting pieces about Hawaii and Hawaiian, Chinese culture and language but the story was stagnant. It doesn't DO anything. Maybe I'll try to finish it someday.
June 18, 2008
a memoir that fits in nicly with my current reading list of books about China. She refers to aspects of Chinese history - that I leared about recently. There is a reason to read in depth - new information soon becomes comfortable, old information.
May 27, 2011
This book has been incredible for me to read. It's achingly beautiful and carries such a strong message of peace. Peace in a deeper way than I have ever understood peace. Please read this book. Especially in this time of war, we need this book.
May 19, 2014
2.5 stars. Hong Kingston is a wonderful writer, and she does talk story so artfully. Her message is compelling and the descriptions of loss are profound, but the disorganization of the book detracts greatly from this.
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