From Publishers Weekly
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."Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Revered memoirist, fiction writer, and "woman warrior" Kingston's long-awaited new book begins in 1991 when she and her family perform fire rites for her recently deceased father on the same day that a forest fire consumes her Oakland home, taking with it the only copy of the manuscript of a novel titled The Fourth Book of Peace, which was inspired by the ancient Chinese tale of three legendary Books of Peace deliberately burned by the powers-that-be. The Fifth Book of Peace, a radiant quartet of discrete sections rich in myth, metaphysics, social critique, and story, grew out of Kingston's struggle to come to terms with her daunting losses, and to transform her suffering into a new understanding of the suffering of everyone who survives violent upheaval and tragedy, especially in war. "Fire" is an intense report on the inferno. "Paper" recounts her search for the original Books of Peace. "Water" is a compelling and piquant novel about a Chinese American draft resister who leaves Berkeley for Hawaii during the Vietnam War. And "Earth" is a profoundly moving chronicle of the writing workshops Kingston organizes for war veterans. Wise, warm, empathic, and spellbinding, Kingston grapples with the spiritual toll of war and the elusiveness of peace in this many-faceted and involving spiritual meditation on the healing power of story and the challenge of acting on one's beliefs. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“A trenchant opus about surviving the fires of life. . .a wonderful, mulitlayered work. Marvelous.” “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.”
“Beautifully rendered. . . . Intelligent and poetic. . . . Kingston gives readers entr?e into something powerful.”
“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

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New Yorker

When, fourteen years ago, Kingston embarked on a sequel to her delightful novel “Tripmaster Monkey,” she called it “The Fourth Book of Peace,” echoing a half-remembered Chinese legend about Three Books of Peace. But the manuscript was destroyed in a fire—a suggestive occurrence to Kingston, because the books in the legend were also burned. Here she re-creates her lost fictional narrative and sets it alongside an account of her life after the fire, so that the Vietnam-era doings of her antic hero, Wittman Ah Sing, who moves to Hawaii to evade the draft, are juxtaposed with her own experience teaching writing workshops for veterans of Vietnam and other wars. The book is rich in empathy and moral conviction, but Kingston is such an exuberant storyteller that fans may regret that the fictional part remains unfinished.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews