Jenny Reviews: The Woman Warrior

The Vitals

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Release Date: 23 April 1989
Page Count: 224
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Target Audience: Hard to say. It is on a lot of school reading lists, but I would say Adult.
Series: No

Summary (From Goodreads)
Sensitive account of growing up female and Chinese-American in a California laundry.

Notes on The Woman Warrior
This is the fourth book we have read in my CMLT 2500 class and it was definitely not everyone's favorite. To be honest, I agree with my students. This book is a memoir but with fantastical, magic realism-esqe components. It is broken down into 5 sections and is disjointed. The story does not flow the way one would expect; each of the 5 sections is its own story. The blurb from Goodreads tells you nothing about the book. (I wonder if it is because it is really difficult to describe what this book is about?) The book is about Kingston working out her Chinese-American identity and trying to figure out her mother and her talk-stories. It is well-written and is a great exploration of growing up multicultural, but it is not something I would read for fun. I gave it 3 stars because it is well-written and, I think, achieves its goal of exploring Chinese-American cultural identity. It is not, however, something I would recommend. Unless you are looking specifically for a story of growing up multicultural and are willing to take the time to work out the intricacies of the story line.

Overall Diagnosis

Memorable Quotes
“You're too young to decide to live forever.”

“I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.”