Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (1976). In the April 20, 2023, issue of
the New York Review of Books, Cathleen Schine noted that The Woman Warrior was an
immediate best seller and quickly became part of the academic canon. . . . An entire generation of writers has cited Kingston as an influence.” The book “also introduced a new kind of narrative. The Woman Warrior did not easily fit into the traditional categories of memoir or novel, not even into the broad categories of fiction or nonfiction. Billed as a memoir, her book floatedunexpectedly, unapologetically into myth; then, just as unexpectedly and unapologetically, it landed forcefully back on earth.” We’ve lately been reading some works that aren’t pure novels but cut across genres. Kingston’s book is one, and as Schine says, “Her work has aged well.”