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The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Other Writings
The child of Chinese immigrants, Maxine Hong Kingston grew up in California and was an unknown writer living in Hawaii when she made her stunning entrance on the American literary scene with The Woman Warrior (1976). Her “memoirs of a childhood among ghosts” was not only an account of growing up poor and Chinese American in the San Joaquin Valley but also an audacious feat of imaginative transformation, drawing on ancient myths and the family stories her mother brought over from China. A companion to The Woman Warrior, which she called her “mother-book,” Kingston’s “father-book,” China Men (1980), spreads out across a broad geographical and historical canvas to envision the lives of her male relatives who immigrated to America. Taken together, The Woman Warrior and China Men offer a profound, kaleidoscopic, genre-defying narrative of the American experience. Kingston’s third book, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1990), is the wildly inventive story of Wittman Ah Sing, a Berkeley graduate student whose experience of the San Francisco Beat scene transforms his understanding of his own Chinese heritage. Rounding out the volume are a series of essays from 1978 reflecting on Kingston’s life in Hawaii and hard-to-find pieces about the creative process and Kingston’s account of how most of the reviewers of The Woman Warrior fell prey to lazy stereotypes about the “exotic” and “inscrutable” East. Library of America’s Kingston volume is edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his debut novel The Sympathizer and a former student of Kingston’s.
- GenresLiteratureMemoir
1056 pages, Hardcover
Published March 1, 2022
3 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Maxine Hong Kingston
58 books655 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 5, 2022
This Library of America edition presents a collection of fiction, essays and articles by Maxine Hong Kingston published between 1978 and 1989, edited here by author Viet Thanh Nguyen. It’s headed up by Hong Kingston's now-canonical, award-winning and controversial, debut novel The Woman Warrior which blends a kind of proto-autofiction with conventional fiction and flights of fantasy. It’s narrated by a Chinese American woman, born during WW2, who’s looking back on her youth and childhood. The book’s composed of a series of interlinking stories in which the narrator tells of her upbringing as the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and her relationship with her mother whose storytelling shaped her vision of a China she’s never known. These are tales of love and grief; families fractured and reunited; strange imaginings of dragons, restless hungry ghosts and fearsome women. Some material draws from real life, other aspects tap into mythology and classical Chinese literature. In the child’s mind the fantastical bleeds into reality, as she dreams of another life in the China of her ancestors. But as she grows up the mythic recedes replaced by a realisation of her own position as the daughter of rigidly conventional parents, always second place to her brother. Meanwhile her parents grieve their lost world, cut off from their past by Mao’s policies. Told in dense prose, packed with rich imagery, it’s a keenly-observed, intense piece, filled with moments of trauma and the recollection of immense loss.
China Men – Hong Kingston’s second novel plays with genre conventions as she turns her attention to men’s experiences of being Chinese American. Here the narrator tells of BaBa her father and the generations of men who came before him. It’s a difficult, uncomfortable piece which doesn’t shy away from violence. The central characters deal with a harsh environment in which racism and stereotypes threaten to dominate their existence, but these are not idealised figures, they too are capable of prejudice: shown here in their attitudes towards Japanese communities, further fuelled by wartime propaganda, and BaBa’s appalling treatment of those he considers “other” such as the so-called ‘gypsies’ who attempt to use his laundry. Although this doesn’t have the force, or the immediacy, of its predecessor, it’s still a powerful, visceral feat of storytelling.
Tripmaster Monkey – A highly-referential, frenetic subversion of the Beat tradition played out through the experiences of poet and dramatist Wittman Ah Sing as he attempts to forge a path through the white American counterculture of the 1960s.
Hawai’I one summer – A collection of essays from the late 1970s, most of which appeared as newspaper columns while Hong Kingston was living and working in Hawaii, and trying to process the fallout from wars and conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. They’re very personal pieces dealing with everything from high school reunions to snapshots of San Francisco’s Chinatown, dishwashing to protesting the Vietnam War, as well as providing a fascinating glimpse of the beginnings of an organised movement of Asian American writers.
Essays, Reviews and Poems – a bit of a mish-mash of articles including reviews of Joan Didion and some illuminating discussions of the reception of Hong Kingston’s work in the late 1970s.
An excellent introduction to the body of work that launched the now-acclaimed, writer and activist, complete with detailed notes and useful background material.
Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher Library of America for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
China Men – Hong Kingston’s second novel plays with genre conventions as she turns her attention to men’s experiences of being Chinese American. Here the narrator tells of BaBa her father and the generations of men who came before him. It’s a difficult, uncomfortable piece which doesn’t shy away from violence. The central characters deal with a harsh environment in which racism and stereotypes threaten to dominate their existence, but these are not idealised figures, they too are capable of prejudice: shown here in their attitudes towards Japanese communities, further fuelled by wartime propaganda, and BaBa’s appalling treatment of those he considers “other” such as the so-called ‘gypsies’ who attempt to use his laundry. Although this doesn’t have the force, or the immediacy, of its predecessor, it’s still a powerful, visceral feat of storytelling.
Tripmaster Monkey – A highly-referential, frenetic subversion of the Beat tradition played out through the experiences of poet and dramatist Wittman Ah Sing as he attempts to forge a path through the white American counterculture of the 1960s.
Hawai’I one summer – A collection of essays from the late 1970s, most of which appeared as newspaper columns while Hong Kingston was living and working in Hawaii, and trying to process the fallout from wars and conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. They’re very personal pieces dealing with everything from high school reunions to snapshots of San Francisco’s Chinatown, dishwashing to protesting the Vietnam War, as well as providing a fascinating glimpse of the beginnings of an organised movement of Asian American writers.
Essays, Reviews and Poems – a bit of a mish-mash of articles including reviews of Joan Didion and some illuminating discussions of the reception of Hong Kingston’s work in the late 1970s.
An excellent introduction to the body of work that launched the now-acclaimed, writer and activist, complete with detailed notes and useful background material.
Thanks to Edelweiss and publisher Library of America for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
October 23, 2023
What’s most notable here is the persistence and layering of origin on a “new” life in a distant place—these people may have left China, but they superimpose it quite regularly on the new new world.
July 16, 2022
This review refers to the Library of America edition of Maxine Hong Kingston rather than Kingston’s writing itself. Perhaps best known for her 1976 The Woman Warrior, this collection gives readers an opportunity to explore more of her work, and includes China Men (1980) and Tripmaster Monkey: his fake book (1989). Also included are a selection of her essays and other writings. Thus this volume is particularly useful for those unfamiliar with her writing and who want to read more. It would, however, have benefited from an introduction and perhaps some notes/footnotes.
March 27, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Library of America for an advanced copy of this new important collection.
Library of America has been instrumental in collecting popular works of fiction and nonfiction by renowned writers with lesser known works essays and articles that might have fallen to the wayside that give a much broader portrait of an author for fans and new readers to enjoy and appreciate. Maxine Hong Kingston has joined these ranks with her collection from the Library Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings (LOA #355). This features not only her award winning works and fiction, but smaller essays and remembrances of her life, goals and being the author and woman she continues to be.
The collection includes her first book and National Book Critics Award winner The Warrior Woman, a biography, autofiction of the lives and roles of the women in her life her mother and their difficulties in America. The China Men, focuses on her father and the problems that Chinese men had in America and its long effect on his life. This also won the National Book Award. Tripmaster Monkey is a novel about a beat poets attempt to write the great Chinese American story, in 1960's San Francisco. Also included are essays detailing her life and childhood in Hawai'i, influences in life and writing, and criticisms on the numerous criticisms she received for writing her books.
The books are very well- written with details that brings the reader not just into the story, but into a different way of thinking that the reader might not be used to. Kingston's nonfiction and her fiction are both mythic and yet real, which elevates it and makes the writing stay with the reader. Kingston expands on the idea of self, belonging and what makes us what we are, and how we are valued. How far can on go when writing about a time that most people don't remember or never even knew, nor contemplated.
Branded as a feminist author, Kingston seems to me as a reader more for everyone who has empathy, which is being lost both in writing and even more in the world. I know from bookselling that The Warrior Women is still on many summer reading lists, well probably not in Texas anymore, but I feel that she is a writer who has been forgotten, and that is unfortunate. Kingston's writing seemed to be ahead of its time, and I think that time is now, and Kingston should be discussed more. A very good choice by the Library of America.
Library of America has been instrumental in collecting popular works of fiction and nonfiction by renowned writers with lesser known works essays and articles that might have fallen to the wayside that give a much broader portrait of an author for fans and new readers to enjoy and appreciate. Maxine Hong Kingston has joined these ranks with her collection from the Library Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings (LOA #355). This features not only her award winning works and fiction, but smaller essays and remembrances of her life, goals and being the author and woman she continues to be.
The collection includes her first book and National Book Critics Award winner The Warrior Woman, a biography, autofiction of the lives and roles of the women in her life her mother and their difficulties in America. The China Men, focuses on her father and the problems that Chinese men had in America and its long effect on his life. This also won the National Book Award. Tripmaster Monkey is a novel about a beat poets attempt to write the great Chinese American story, in 1960's San Francisco. Also included are essays detailing her life and childhood in Hawai'i, influences in life and writing, and criticisms on the numerous criticisms she received for writing her books.
The books are very well- written with details that brings the reader not just into the story, but into a different way of thinking that the reader might not be used to. Kingston's nonfiction and her fiction are both mythic and yet real, which elevates it and makes the writing stay with the reader. Kingston expands on the idea of self, belonging and what makes us what we are, and how we are valued. How far can on go when writing about a time that most people don't remember or never even knew, nor contemplated.
Branded as a feminist author, Kingston seems to me as a reader more for everyone who has empathy, which is being lost both in writing and even more in the world. I know from bookselling that The Warrior Women is still on many summer reading lists, well probably not in Texas anymore, but I feel that she is a writer who has been forgotten, and that is unfortunate. Kingston's writing seemed to be ahead of its time, and I think that time is now, and Kingston should be discussed more. A very good choice by the Library of America.
September 10, 2022
Thank you to Netgalley and to the Library of America for this ARC.
This has been my very thorough introduction to Maxine Hong Kingston’s work, and, at 1,000+ pages, it’s taken me months to read. I decided to co-read it with Julia H. Lee’s Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (cover below), which is very helpful, and which I plan to finish reading today.
Maxine Hong Kingston is an American author, the descendant of Chinese immigrants. The LOA anthology includes The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Hawai’i One Summer, and other writings, including essays and reviews—notably, for me, Kingston’s important essay, Cultural Mis-readings by American Reviewers. That essay is critical of perceptions and receptions of her work that attempted to limit her perspective to her Chinese-ness (which she resented, being born in Stockton, California), or to attempting to make her work the definitive single story of Chinese Americans (again, inaccurate).
Kingston’s work is engrossing, and I found her style entertaining. There has been some debate—with little clarification from the author herself—about whether books like The Woman Warrior and China Men are fiction, or non-fiction. Events in those books appear to be a mix of history, memoir, fiction, myth and legend, and tongue-in-cheek speculation—all of which delighted me. I think if one lets go of the need to stick a genre label on the work, as the author appears to prefer, it becomes possible to enjoy the stories on their own terms—which I did.
I will spend some time digesting all I learnt about writing and perspective from Kingston’s work and worldview. I recommend her work, both the “novels” and her essays, which clarify her perspective a little more. I also recommend the book I mentioned above to bring context to Kingston’s work. Kingston’s Wikipedia page is also useful for information about her life and writing.
My particular recommendations from this anthology in order of preference:
The Cultural Mis-readings essay
China Men
The Woman Warrior
What didn’t work for me:
Tripmaster Monkey, mainly because I enjoyed neither the style, nor the protagonist.
Also check out this (2001?) essay by Judy Huang on Frank Chin’s criticism of Kingston’s work, on the Dartmouth website.
My rating of the anthology: 9/10.
This has been my very thorough introduction to Maxine Hong Kingston’s work, and, at 1,000+ pages, it’s taken me months to read. I decided to co-read it with Julia H. Lee’s Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (cover below), which is very helpful, and which I plan to finish reading today.
Maxine Hong Kingston is an American author, the descendant of Chinese immigrants. The LOA anthology includes The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Hawai’i One Summer, and other writings, including essays and reviews—notably, for me, Kingston’s important essay, Cultural Mis-readings by American Reviewers. That essay is critical of perceptions and receptions of her work that attempted to limit her perspective to her Chinese-ness (which she resented, being born in Stockton, California), or to attempting to make her work the definitive single story of Chinese Americans (again, inaccurate).
Kingston’s work is engrossing, and I found her style entertaining. There has been some debate—with little clarification from the author herself—about whether books like The Woman Warrior and China Men are fiction, or non-fiction. Events in those books appear to be a mix of history, memoir, fiction, myth and legend, and tongue-in-cheek speculation—all of which delighted me. I think if one lets go of the need to stick a genre label on the work, as the author appears to prefer, it becomes possible to enjoy the stories on their own terms—which I did.
I will spend some time digesting all I learnt about writing and perspective from Kingston’s work and worldview. I recommend her work, both the “novels” and her essays, which clarify her perspective a little more. I also recommend the book I mentioned above to bring context to Kingston’s work. Kingston’s Wikipedia page is also useful for information about her life and writing.
My particular recommendations from this anthology in order of preference:
The Cultural Mis-readings essay
China Men
The Woman Warrior
What didn’t work for me:
Tripmaster Monkey, mainly because I enjoyed neither the style, nor the protagonist.
Also check out this (2001?) essay by Judy Huang on Frank Chin’s criticism of Kingston’s work, on the Dartmouth website.
My rating of the anthology: 9/10.
March 4, 2022
This collection of Maxine Hong Kingston's writings is a treat for those familiar with her work and a great source for those unfamiliar. My familiarity is primarily with The Woman Warrior and China Men, having read each multiple times while in school decades ago. I had read but not studied her other fiction but what I loved here were some of her essays and other writings.
I loved reading her rebuke to American reviewers in Cultural Mis-Readings by American Reviewers. What in lesser hands would have sounded like just complaining, Kingston turns it into a detailed argument using reviews both positive and negative illustrating various issues with their ideas on culture and who is labeled as what. I wish more writers would speak up so eloquently about issues they encounter with reviewers (and also interviewers).
My preference would have been to include a critical introductory essay, but that is not a negative about the book, just something I would have liked. The Note on the Texts near the back serves as a bit of contextualization and the section after it, Notes, offers a lot of useful notes to specific passages in the texts. Both of these sections add to the book, especially for anyone new to her work.
Highly recommended for both fans of Kingston as well as those new to her. Having these works collected in one volume allows me to quit using the well-worn copies on my shelf when I reread.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I loved reading her rebuke to American reviewers in Cultural Mis-Readings by American Reviewers. What in lesser hands would have sounded like just complaining, Kingston turns it into a detailed argument using reviews both positive and negative illustrating various issues with their ideas on culture and who is labeled as what. I wish more writers would speak up so eloquently about issues they encounter with reviewers (and also interviewers).
My preference would have been to include a critical introductory essay, but that is not a negative about the book, just something I would have liked. The Note on the Texts near the back serves as a bit of contextualization and the section after it, Notes, offers a lot of useful notes to specific passages in the texts. Both of these sections add to the book, especially for anyone new to her work.
Highly recommended for both fans of Kingston as well as those new to her. Having these works collected in one volume allows me to quit using the well-worn copies on my shelf when I reread.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
February 9, 2022
Maxine Hong Kingston is one of my favorite writers of all time and, in my opinion, has changed literary history. This compilation of her writers, some renowned, others you may not have read before, are a treasure that speaks on a personal and universal - from feminism and culture to love of language. There is something mythical about her work, especially one of her most famous "The Woman Warrior" (1976), which has an interesting blend of reviews from acclamation to being allegedly "insensitive". In addition, some writing process insights may be insightful to writers!
Thank you, NetGalley, Library of America, and Maxine Hong Kingston, for this ebook for my honest review.
I just reviewed Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings (LOA #355) by Maxine Hong Kingston. #MaxineHongKingstonTheWomanWarriorChinaMenTripmasterMonkeyOtherWritingsLOA355 #NetGalley
Thank you, NetGalley, Library of America, and Maxine Hong Kingston, for this ebook for my honest review.
I just reviewed Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings (LOA #355) by Maxine Hong Kingston. #MaxineHongKingstonTheWomanWarriorChinaMenTripmasterMonkeyOtherWritingsLOA355 #NetGalley
November 10, 2024
Love this writer. Sad that there isn't more. Not all the books in this collection are five stars for me but all together it should be more. Worlds within worlds, fresh takes on external worlds, fresh takes on ancient Chinese mythic worlds, brilliantly set against and within American worlds.
Wish there was more!
Wish there was more!
January 4, 2024
I may come back to this later, but I just couldn't relate or get into any of the stories I tried. There is some beautiful writing. This is for you if you like stories where you have no idea what's going on.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a digital review copy.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a digital review copy.
November 14, 2022
The Woman Warrior: 4 stars
China Men: 4 stars
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book: 2 stars
China Men: 4 stars
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book: 2 stars
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews