This memoir, which blends autobiography and folktale, dips back and forth in time between the past of Kingston’s ancestors in pre-Mao China, to her growing up Chinese-American in modern-day California, to the fantasy of an imagined life as a female avenger. As cultural critic John Leonard wrote in the New York Times’ 1976 review, the result is a book that is “fierce intelligence, all sinew, prowling among the emotions.”
The New York Times recently named “The Woman Warrior” as one of the 50 best memoirs of the last 50 years.