FROM THE PUBLISHER

Since the publication of The Woman Warrior: Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Maxine Hong Kingston has become one of the best-known and most widely taught of living American authors, and has pioneered the now burgeoning field of Asian-American letters. Diane Simmons's critical and biographical analysis is the first book-length study of Kingston and her complete works, including the less well-known memoir, Hawai'i One Summer. In addition to thematically addressing Kingston's writing and extrapolating her political views, Simmons also undertakes to situate the work in the context of Chinese and Chinese-American history and experience, and to help the reader better appreciate Kingston's extensive use of Chinese mythology and literature. Simmons also addresses the attacks made upon Kingston by a small group of male Asian-American authors. It is Simmons's argument that throughout Kingston's work there is the desire to transform fear and subjugation into bold and beautiful action, and the insistence that it is possible that one may endure abuse but keep one's humanity intact. In addition to her detailed critical assessment of Kingston's writing and the varied responses it has garnered, Simmons offers the first extensive biographical essay on Kingston, as well as an in-depth interview with the author as an appendix.

FROM THE CRITICS

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