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ISBN:0436233932
Maxine Hong Kingston English
Author: Maxine Hong Kingston
ISBN13: 978-0436233937
Title: The Fifth Book Of Peace
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ePUB size: 1923 kb
FB2 size: 1699 kb
DJVU size: 1972 kb
Language: English
Publisher: Secker & Warburg (2003)
Pages: 5

The Fifth Book Of Peace by Maxine Hong Kingston



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Redirected from The Fifth Book of Peace). Maxine Hong Kingston (Chinese: 湯婷婷; born Maxine Ting Ting Hong; October 27, 1940) is a Chinese American author and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese Americans.

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. 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.

Topics Kingston, Maxine Hong, Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975, Authors, American, Draft resisters, Peace. Publisher New York : Alfred A. Knopf. Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; ; americana. Digitizing sponsor Internet Archive. Contributor Internet Archive.

Many years later Maxine Hong Kingston wrote a Fourth Book of Peace, but it too was burned-in the catastrophic Berkeley-Oakland Hills fire of 1991, a fire that coincided with the death of her father. Maxine Hong Kingston.

Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace exhibits a journey through human conscience. Kingston lost the manuscript to her Fourth Book of Peace in a house fire in 1991, and through the process of reviving or regurgitating the contents of the book, she came up with The Fifth Book of Peace. The book has quite a number of notable passages, and one particular passage may possibly sum up the book: "Peace begins in thought. Thoughts enworded go from mind to mind, and mind makes the world.

Many years later Maxine Hong Kingston wrote a Fourth Book of Peace, but it too was burned–in the catastrophic Berkeley-Oakland Hills fire of 1991, a fire that coincided with the death of her father. 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.

Maxine Hong Kingston can write fiction and non-fiction amazingly well. 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

Maxine Hong Kingston is the author of WOMAN WARRIOR and CHINA MEN. This site is maintained by th. .Mad people have only one story that they talk over and over'. from THE FIFTH BOOK OF PEACE (2003). Posted by the author's publisher). Vintage Books & Anchor Books. Many years later Maxine Hong Kingston wrote a Fourth Book of Peace, but it too was burned–in the catastrophic Berkeley-Oakland Hills fire of 1991, a fire that coincided with the death of her father. com. the-fif. 9780679760634.

The narrative style of The Fifth Book of Peace will seem familiar to those who’ve read Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir The Woman Warrior. A deliberation on violence, peace and loss, the book shifts fluidly between fiction and nonfiction, wending its way through story, philosophy, history and testimony. In Fire, the book’s first nonfiction section, Kingston’s house has burned to the ground. She’s lost the jade heirloom bracelets her mother brought from China and her book manuscript ( The Fourth Book of Peace ), and she seeks solace from her mother. Don’t hun things, admonishes Brave Orchid,. Vairāk no: Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.

Reviews: 7
lucky kitten
wonderful book from a fantastic author
Nikobar
A new favorite book - rich, deep, big.
Andromakus
Using Kingston for a sophomore comp class.
Skrimpak
It's hard to define the genre of this 2003 book, the latest by this well-known Chinese-American author who is best known for her early work "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts", the story of her girlhood in San Francisco. Years have passed and she has several other books to her credit. From the photo on the book jacket I see her hair is now gray and know that and she has lived through a changing America. The 70s and the peace movement have influenced her. And basically, this is what her book is about, told through the eyes of her Buddhist faith and her deep believe in peace.

The book is 402 pages long and is divided into three sections. Each one is different and yet connected. The first section is pure memoir, written with an artist's touch. It's the story of the fire in her Oakland community in the early 1990s and how her home burned to the ground. Among other things, a manuscript for a novel was destroyed. She has rewritten that novel which is the second, and longest, section of the book. The third sections tell of her experiences in running writing workshops for veterans, and this section could be classified as "self-help". Hence there is confusions of genres which makes it difficult for libraries and booksellers to categorize this book.

The entire work might be thought of in the context of literature in response to war and can be viewed as an epic journey, as our heroine must conquer obstacles and develop much self knowledge as she brings her message of peace to the world. She's well versed in the classics and there are constant references the Odyssey and other literary works as well as symbolism from all of the world's religions. In the first and last sections, the writer, herself, is in the center as she searches for community and finds possibilities for peace by creating communities that go far beyond the bonds of family and geography.

Sometimes her writing was a little too descriptive for me. For example, a tree might be beautiful but a description of several paragraphs slowed down the action. But I did relate to her sense of loss regarding her manuscript. And I really did like the novel she finally wrote in which a fictional couple, running away from the Vietnam draft, move with their young son to Hawaii and form a community of war protestors, including Vietnam soldiers who are fleeing the war. It was a bit preposterous but it was a good story, well told and I particularly loved the Hawaii she described. The last section inspired me as a writer and I found I even started using one of her techniques called "walking meditation" to let myself discover some of my personal writing needs.

I find the theme of war and peace in the context of Vietnam a little outdated. So much has happened since then as our world has changed. And, in a way, she is still locked in the thinking of the 70s. The anti-war message is a good one even though I think she is a bit naïve. However, she certainly is doing her part in trying to make positive changes. She uses her gift of writing to do this. I applaud her for her efforts. She actually makes the concept of "peace" seem possible. That is a good thing.
Heraly
Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace exhibits a journey through human conscience. Kingston lost the manuscript to her Fourth Book of Peace in a house fire in 1991, and through the process of reviving or regurgitating the contents of the book, she came up with The Fifth Book of Peace. The contents of this book was inspired by Kingston's personal experiences, such as the loss of her father, coincidently, Kingston returned home from her father's funeral only to see her neighborhood in a blaze of fire, as well as Vietnam Veterans' accounts of the war and during a writer's workshop that Kingston hosted.

The Fifth Book of Peace derives from Kingston's own view of war from a noncombatant and rather bistander perspective intertwines the issue of war and human suffering that come from thought and memory -- World War II, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the first Iraq War. Possibly, she is attempting to encourage thinking and awareness. It is the overtones of education that Kingston states are the purpose or reason for being, "Educate America. Teach everybody"(60). Although these are the words taken from her mother as she asks Kingston about her purpose in life, "What have you done to educate America? Have you finished educating the world yet? You go educate America?" (60)

The book is divided into three enormous chapters that can be considered three separate books. There is plenty of information within these chapters that change in tone, and may take some quiet reading time to discern which parts are fiction and which parts are autobiographical. The first chapter, Fire, is the introduction to The Fifth Book of Peace, and presents an inkling of where the book will proceed. There is much dialogue between the characters in the book, as well as dialects and ethnic references to describe the characters and people that helped Kingston write the book.

The book has quite a number of notable passages, and one particular passage may possibly sum up the book: "Peace begins in thought. Thoughts enworded go from mind to mind, and mind makes the world. Peace, illusive, abstract, negative Yin, dream, would take a long writing-out to make real. Its book has to be longer than war books -- longer than a bumper sticker, longer than a sound bite. As we read, neuropeptides in the brain grow longer, longer than in nonreaders. Though becomes body. Sudden fast change is a method of war. The logic of peace has to be spoken out at length" (54).

I recommend this book for the pure purpose of expanding your mind or to add another perspective to the meaning of war.
Pedar
"If a woman is going to write a Book of Peace, it is given her to know devastation". Thus begins Maxine Hong Kinston's meditative part autobiography, part fiction, part lost spiritual text. This is a deeply poetic book that is framed by an incident of fire that led to many losses of lives and property, including the author's house and most of the material of her work-in-progress novel, "the fourth book of peace". After the fire, she decided to write anew about peace. From a different perspective. Kingston whose "woman warrior" stands as a great source of spiritual strength for many narrates the personal voyages she undertook through the course of this book, and peppers them with her quiet strength and wisdom. Towards the end, she concludes, "I am coming up with a new rule for living: Only do things that make you happy, and you will create a peaceful world."
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