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I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Poetry (2011)In her singular voice—humble, elegiac, practical—Maxine Hong Kingston sets out to reflect on aging as she turns sixty-five.
Kingston’s swift, effortlessly flowing verse lines feel instantly natural in this fresh approach to the art of memoir, as she circles from present to past and back, from lunch with a writer friend to the funeral of a Vietnam veteran, from her long marriage (“can’t divorce until we get it right. / Love, that is. Get love right”) to her arrest at a peace march in Washington, where she and her "sisters" protested the Iraq war in the George W. Bush years. Kingston embraces Thoreau’s notion of a “broad margin,” hoping to expand her “I’m standing on top of a hill; / I can see everywhichway— / the long way that I came, and the few / places I have yet to go. Treat / my whole life as if it were a day.”
On her journeys as writer, peace activist, teacher, and mother, Kingston revisits her most beloved she learns the final fate of her Woman Warrior, and she takes her Tripmaster Monkey, a hip Chinese American, on a journey through China, where he has never been—a trip that becomes a beautiful meditation on the country then and now, on a culture where rice farmers still work in the age-old way, even as a new era is dawning. “All over China,” she writes, “and places where Chinese are, populations / are on the move, going home. That home / where Mother and Father are buried. Doors / between heaven and earth open wide.”
Such is the spirit of this wonderful book—a sense of doors opening wide onto an American life of great purpose and joy, and the tonic wisdom of a writer we have come to cherish.
Kingston’s swift, effortlessly flowing verse lines feel instantly natural in this fresh approach to the art of memoir, as she circles from present to past and back, from lunch with a writer friend to the funeral of a Vietnam veteran, from her long marriage (“can’t divorce until we get it right. / Love, that is. Get love right”) to her arrest at a peace march in Washington, where she and her "sisters" protested the Iraq war in the George W. Bush years. Kingston embraces Thoreau’s notion of a “broad margin,” hoping to expand her “I’m standing on top of a hill; / I can see everywhichway— / the long way that I came, and the few / places I have yet to go. Treat / my whole life as if it were a day.”
On her journeys as writer, peace activist, teacher, and mother, Kingston revisits her most beloved she learns the final fate of her Woman Warrior, and she takes her Tripmaster Monkey, a hip Chinese American, on a journey through China, where he has never been—a trip that becomes a beautiful meditation on the country then and now, on a culture where rice farmers still work in the age-old way, even as a new era is dawning. “All over China,” she writes, “and places where Chinese are, populations / are on the move, going home. That home / where Mother and Father are buried. Doors / between heaven and earth open wide.”
Such is the spirit of this wonderful book—a sense of doors opening wide onto an American life of great purpose and joy, and the tonic wisdom of a writer we have come to cherish.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 18, 2011
About the author
Maxine Hong Kingston
46 books620 followersBest known works, including
The Woman Warrior
(1976) and
China Men
(1980), of American writer Maxine Hong Kingston combine elements of fiction and memoir.
She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the third of eight children, and the first among them born in the United States. Her mother trained as a midwife at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton. Her father had been brought up a scholar and taught in his village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Tom left China for America in 1924 and took a job in a laundry.
Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are The Woman Warrior (1976), awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and China Men (1980), which was awarded the 1981 National Book Award. She has written one novel, Tripmaster Monkey, a story depicting a character based on the mythical Chinese character Sun Wu Kong. Her most recent books are To Be The Poet and The Fifth Book of Peace.
She was awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal by President of the United States Bill Clinton. Kingston was a member of the committee to choose the design for the California commemorative quarter. She was arrested in March 2003 in Washington, D.C., for crossing a police line during a protest against the war in Iraq. In April, 2007, Hong Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for her most recent novel Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), edited by Maxine Hong Kingston.
She married actor Earl Kingston in 1962; they have had one child, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei, born in 1964. They now live in Oakland.
Kingston was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at Emma Willard School in September 2005.
She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the third of eight children, and the first among them born in the United States. Her mother trained as a midwife at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton. Her father had been brought up a scholar and taught in his village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Tom left China for America in 1924 and took a job in a laundry.
Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are The Woman Warrior (1976), awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and China Men (1980), which was awarded the 1981 National Book Award. She has written one novel, Tripmaster Monkey, a story depicting a character based on the mythical Chinese character Sun Wu Kong. Her most recent books are To Be The Poet and The Fifth Book of Peace.
She was awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal by President of the United States Bill Clinton. Kingston was a member of the committee to choose the design for the California commemorative quarter. She was arrested in March 2003 in Washington, D.C., for crossing a police line during a protest against the war in Iraq. In April, 2007, Hong Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for her most recent novel Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), edited by Maxine Hong Kingston.
She married actor Earl Kingston in 1962; they have had one child, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei, born in 1964. They now live in Oakland.
Kingston was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at Emma Willard School in September 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
October 15, 2018
I will try to find the words for this amazing masterpiece by one of the greatest treasure of American culture.
January 21, 2015
I read this book in one sitting. I had a hard time putting it down, and found myself not wanting to be interrupted by phone calls, or the vagaries of living. A memoir of reflections on her life as she faces her 65th birthday, the book travels to China, to Washington DC where she was arrested, to the fire that destroyed her home years ago.
This is a gentle book, an inspiring book. Often, when I read such a book, especially as well written as this one, I thrill for having read it, and despair of ever writing anything again. This book has inspired me to write my own memoir as I face my 72d birthday coming sooner than expected ;-)
I Love a Broad Margin to My Life is a free verse poem, filled with music as she writes about her life, where she's been, what she's done, the whys, and the wherefores. There are many tidbits of fun and useful information scattered freely throughout. Did you know the meaning of the word karma is work, not doom? She lists reasons to live and take joy in life.
If you are a reader of Thoreau, as she is, you will recognize the title as a line from one of his books. The saying hangs over her desk. It will soon hang over mine, and this book will always be close to my hand, and bound within my heart. I am not sure what Thoreau meant when he wrote that line, or what MH Kinston meant when she adopted it, let alone what a 'broad margin to my life' means to you, but to me, it means to surround myself with space to think, to write, to create, to quilt, to learn, to be, to live. Thank you, Ms. Kingston for showing the way.
This is a gentle book, an inspiring book. Often, when I read such a book, especially as well written as this one, I thrill for having read it, and despair of ever writing anything again. This book has inspired me to write my own memoir as I face my 72d birthday coming sooner than expected ;-)
I Love a Broad Margin to My Life is a free verse poem, filled with music as she writes about her life, where she's been, what she's done, the whys, and the wherefores. There are many tidbits of fun and useful information scattered freely throughout. Did you know the meaning of the word karma is work, not doom? She lists reasons to live and take joy in life.
If you are a reader of Thoreau, as she is, you will recognize the title as a line from one of his books. The saying hangs over her desk. It will soon hang over mine, and this book will always be close to my hand, and bound within my heart. I am not sure what Thoreau meant when he wrote that line, or what MH Kinston meant when she adopted it, let alone what a 'broad margin to my life' means to you, but to me, it means to surround myself with space to think, to write, to create, to quilt, to learn, to be, to live. Thank you, Ms. Kingston for showing the way.
July 28, 2012
Way back in high school, Ms. Sundstrom's AP American Literature class introduced me to Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, which opened my eyes to a different kind of literature, one where the politics of national and ethnic identity lie side by side with imagery and narrative. Here was a woman who looked like me, writing about Chinese Americans struggling to be a part of our nation's fabric while questioning how to be authentically "Chinese"....indeed, what that even means. I went on to read her other books, especially China Men and Tripmaster Monkey, books which specifically addressed the challenges specific to Asian men. So I was quite excited to see her latest, I Love a Broad Margin to My Life, sitting on my reserve shelf at the library.
There is less narrative to this long prose poem of a book, and more memoir-like glimpses of Kingston's life, particularly her marriage to her Caucasian husband. She writes about a trip to Guangzhou, China taken long after her first journeys back to her family's homeland, noting the changes that the economy has brought to her parents' villages, more TVs and paved roads. Kingston dovetails this memoir with the story of her old character Wittman Ah Sing, who has left his non-Chinese wife to revisit China. In between, Kingston weaves vignettes of watching war on the small screen and getting arrested for protesting in front of the White House. ("How can it be that all the cops are men, / and all for Peace women? I can’t live / in such a world. I don’t want to keep / living out the myth that men fight / and women mother.") In the end, it is a meditation about aging, revisiting home, and accepting that the concepts of identity and home must evolve. Most of all, it is about redemption in a marriage; the author and her character both return to their respective spouses because "can't divorce until we get it right. / Love, that is. Get love right."
I was, overall, pleased to have the time and space to enjoy and sink deep into Kingston's words. It's not a quick read but a rewarding one.
There is less narrative to this long prose poem of a book, and more memoir-like glimpses of Kingston's life, particularly her marriage to her Caucasian husband. She writes about a trip to Guangzhou, China taken long after her first journeys back to her family's homeland, noting the changes that the economy has brought to her parents' villages, more TVs and paved roads. Kingston dovetails this memoir with the story of her old character Wittman Ah Sing, who has left his non-Chinese wife to revisit China. In between, Kingston weaves vignettes of watching war on the small screen and getting arrested for protesting in front of the White House. ("How can it be that all the cops are men, / and all for Peace women? I can’t live / in such a world. I don’t want to keep / living out the myth that men fight / and women mother.") In the end, it is a meditation about aging, revisiting home, and accepting that the concepts of identity and home must evolve. Most of all, it is about redemption in a marriage; the author and her character both return to their respective spouses because "can't divorce until we get it right. / Love, that is. Get love right."
I was, overall, pleased to have the time and space to enjoy and sink deep into Kingston's words. It's not a quick read but a rewarding one.
June 30, 2011
"Before I had language, before I had stories, I wanted to write.
That desire is going away.
I've said what I have to say.
I'll stop, and look at things I called
distractions. Become reader of the world,
no more writer of it. Surely, world
lives without me having to mind it.
A surprise world! When I complete
this sentence, I shall begin taking
my sweet time to love the moment-to-moment
beauty of everything. Every one. Enow."
I have nothing to say really. Books are to read not write about for me anyway. Maybe she would give herself a 3 star review. I'd be interested to know.
It's great writing. I couldn't follow a lot of it, my mind is a distraction. I have more of the music of Stefani Sun permeating my thoughts than words. A lot of it very personal. But great writing. My mind is muddy puddle and song ripples though it. Having read this book now more than ever makes me want to visit China.
That desire is going away.
I've said what I have to say.
I'll stop, and look at things I called
distractions. Become reader of the world,
no more writer of it. Surely, world
lives without me having to mind it.
A surprise world! When I complete
this sentence, I shall begin taking
my sweet time to love the moment-to-moment
beauty of everything. Every one. Enow."
I have nothing to say really. Books are to read not write about for me anyway. Maybe she would give herself a 3 star review. I'd be interested to know.
It's great writing. I couldn't follow a lot of it, my mind is a distraction. I have more of the music of Stefani Sun permeating my thoughts than words. A lot of it very personal. But great writing. My mind is muddy puddle and song ripples though it. Having read this book now more than ever makes me want to visit China.
February 11, 2011
This is memoir in verse--really not my thing, but I admire Kingston's
Woman Warrior
so much that I stuck with it.
"Before I had language,
before I had stories, I wanted to write.
That desire is going away.
I've said what I have to say.
I'll stop, and look at things I called
distractions. Become reader of the world,
no more writer of it. Surely, world
lives without me having to mind it.
A surprise world! When I complete
this sentence, I shall begin taking
my sweet time to love the moment-to-moment
beauty of everything. Every one. Enow."
"Before I had language,
before I had stories, I wanted to write.
That desire is going away.
I've said what I have to say.
I'll stop, and look at things I called
distractions. Become reader of the world,
no more writer of it. Surely, world
lives without me having to mind it.
A surprise world! When I complete
this sentence, I shall begin taking
my sweet time to love the moment-to-moment
beauty of everything. Every one. Enow."
May 2, 2011
It makes you want to say to her "Sing me another story like that. And don't leave out any of it--not the sad parts or the funny asides, not the sweetness or the harshness, not the history lessons, not any of those people..."
May 29, 2016
Kingston's latest book: another wonderful read and work of art. Kingston says more about her aunt who died in the well (No Name Woman), the woman warrior and Fa Mulan, her mother, her father, the cities in China where her parents lived, her life as an adult. Highly recommended.
Read
September 2, 2019Hard to pigeon-hole. A big hearted series of journeys from America back in space and time to both China and Vietnam. Auto-biographical and wildly imaginative, vividly expressive and strong. A unique reading experience.
May 12, 2011
In this fascinating and unforgettable memoir, Maxine Hong Kingston, an award-winning second generation Chinese-American writer and pacifist, shares the story of her past life and the experiences of her family in the United States and her extended relatives in her ancestral village in China, along with an extension of the story of Wittman Ah Sing, the protagonist of her novel Tripmaster Monkey. What makes this a unique read is that it is in verse form, often in the Chinese talk-story form that Kingston uses in her earlier books The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts and China Men.
The book begins in the present, as Kingston reflects on her upcoming 65th birthday in "Home":
I am turning 65 years of age.
In 2 weeks I will be 65 years old.
I can accumulate time and lose
time? I sit here writing in the dark—
can't see to change these penciled words—
just like my mother, alone, bent over her writing,
just like my father bent over his writing, alone
but for me watching. She got out of bed,
wrapped herself in a blanket, and wrote down
the strange sounds Father, who was dead,
was intoning to her. He was reading aloud
calligraphy that he'd written—carved with inkbrush—
on his tombstone. She wasn't writing in answer.
She wasn't writing a letter. Who was she writing to?
Nobody.
This well-deep outpouring is not for
anything. Yet we have to put into exact words
what we are given to see, hear, know.
Mother's eyesight blurred; she saw trash
as flowers. ‟Oh. How very beautiful.”
She was lucky, seeing beauty, living
in beauty, whether or not it was there.
In "Leaving Home", Wittman Ah Sing, an aging Chinese-American free spirit, decides to travel to China, alone from his wife:
"I need
to get to China, and I have to go
without helpmeet. I've been married to you
so long, my world is you. You
see a thing, I see it. The friends you
like, I like. The friends you can't
stand, I can't stand. My
perception is wedded to your perception.
You have artist's eyes. I'd wind up
seeing the China you see. I want
to see for myself my own true China."
In "Viet Nam Village" she writes about her experiences as a pacifist, including an all-woman demonstration against Operation Iraqi Freedom in front of the White House, for which she, Alice Walker, and others were arrested and temporarily detained. In this section, she compares her arrest with those of her father's, many years in the past:
I had nothing apposite to say, but
had to talk. "Now I'm on the trip
my father went on. In a paddy wagon to jail.
I'm reliving his arrests. I'm knowing his feelings.
Scared. Helpless. He wondered what would become
of him. Maybe deportation. They're driving
him to the border, never to see his family again.
Oh, but my father wasn't committing civil
disobedience like us. He committed crime,
ran gambling, half the take in the city.
It was his job—go to jail, regularly.
Once a month, they raided the gambling house,
and took just one guy, my father.
He was all alone in the paddy wagon
riding through the streets and out of town.
It was okay. By the end of the night, he
was home. They let him go. He gave them money
and whiskey and cigarettes, and they let him go.
He gave them a fake Chinese name,
a different Chinese name every time;
he doesn't have a record." BaBa
used to say, "I want the life
you live." Now I'm living
the life he lived.
In "Mother's Village", she travels with her husband, a "white demon", to her mother's ancestral village, where she learns about her family's past history. She is treated like royalty, not from her status as a famous American writer, but because she is a descendant of a former emperor of the region:
"Your names are here," said the mayoress, pointing
to branches nearest the door. A fear
went through me, that fear when I am about
to learn something. I asked carefully,
"Were we soldiers? Were we servants?"
I would've asked, "Were we courtiers?"
but didn't know courtier. Most likely,
we were courtiers. "No! No! You emperor!
You emperor!" You who left for America,
became American, you forget everything.
You forget who you are. Emperor!
Chew Sung Emperor. Emperor of the Northern Sung.
Emperor of the Southern Sung. A teacher of English
took my hand, bowed over it, and said,
laughing, "Your majesty."
As she leaves her ancestral village, she sits next to a younger woman from her village, who is leaving China for the first time to reunite with her husband in America:
Once I was on an airplane beside
a village girl in the window seat. At takeoff
I asked her, "Where are you going?"
"Waw!" She shouted in surprise, and grabbed
ahold of my hand, "You speak like me!"
"Yes, I speak Say Yup language."
"Are you from the village?" "No, my MaMa
and BaBa came from Say Yup villages.
They left for New York. They lived in New York,
then California. I was born in California."
I feel like a child, younger than this girl; I'm
telling about parents as if I still had them;
I'm talking in my baby language. "Waw!"
she exclaimed, loud as though yelling across fields.
"Iam going to New York! I
am meeting my husband in New York. He's
waiting for me in New York. He works
in a restaurant. He's rented a home. He sent
for me, and waits for me." She did not
let go of my hand; I held hers tightly
as we flew the night sky. She looked
in wonder at webs of lights below.
I'm hard pressed to put into words how much I enjoyed I Love a Broad Margin to My Life, but I would say that this is easily one of the best works of verse I've read. Maxine Hong Kingston is my favorite living American writer, and this book confirms my love of and respect for her work.
The book begins in the present, as Kingston reflects on her upcoming 65th birthday in "Home":
I am turning 65 years of age.
In 2 weeks I will be 65 years old.
I can accumulate time and lose
time? I sit here writing in the dark—
can't see to change these penciled words—
just like my mother, alone, bent over her writing,
just like my father bent over his writing, alone
but for me watching. She got out of bed,
wrapped herself in a blanket, and wrote down
the strange sounds Father, who was dead,
was intoning to her. He was reading aloud
calligraphy that he'd written—carved with inkbrush—
on his tombstone. She wasn't writing in answer.
She wasn't writing a letter. Who was she writing to?
Nobody.
This well-deep outpouring is not for
anything. Yet we have to put into exact words
what we are given to see, hear, know.
Mother's eyesight blurred; she saw trash
as flowers. ‟Oh. How very beautiful.”
She was lucky, seeing beauty, living
in beauty, whether or not it was there.
In "Leaving Home", Wittman Ah Sing, an aging Chinese-American free spirit, decides to travel to China, alone from his wife:
"I need
to get to China, and I have to go
without helpmeet. I've been married to you
so long, my world is you. You
see a thing, I see it. The friends you
like, I like. The friends you can't
stand, I can't stand. My
perception is wedded to your perception.
You have artist's eyes. I'd wind up
seeing the China you see. I want
to see for myself my own true China."
In "Viet Nam Village" she writes about her experiences as a pacifist, including an all-woman demonstration against Operation Iraqi Freedom in front of the White House, for which she, Alice Walker, and others were arrested and temporarily detained. In this section, she compares her arrest with those of her father's, many years in the past:
I had nothing apposite to say, but
had to talk. "Now I'm on the trip
my father went on. In a paddy wagon to jail.
I'm reliving his arrests. I'm knowing his feelings.
Scared. Helpless. He wondered what would become
of him. Maybe deportation. They're driving
him to the border, never to see his family again.
Oh, but my father wasn't committing civil
disobedience like us. He committed crime,
ran gambling, half the take in the city.
It was his job—go to jail, regularly.
Once a month, they raided the gambling house,
and took just one guy, my father.
He was all alone in the paddy wagon
riding through the streets and out of town.
It was okay. By the end of the night, he
was home. They let him go. He gave them money
and whiskey and cigarettes, and they let him go.
He gave them a fake Chinese name,
a different Chinese name every time;
he doesn't have a record." BaBa
used to say, "I want the life
you live." Now I'm living
the life he lived.
In "Mother's Village", she travels with her husband, a "white demon", to her mother's ancestral village, where she learns about her family's past history. She is treated like royalty, not from her status as a famous American writer, but because she is a descendant of a former emperor of the region:
"Your names are here," said the mayoress, pointing
to branches nearest the door. A fear
went through me, that fear when I am about
to learn something. I asked carefully,
"Were we soldiers? Were we servants?"
I would've asked, "Were we courtiers?"
but didn't know courtier. Most likely,
we were courtiers. "No! No! You emperor!
You emperor!" You who left for America,
became American, you forget everything.
You forget who you are. Emperor!
Chew Sung Emperor. Emperor of the Northern Sung.
Emperor of the Southern Sung. A teacher of English
took my hand, bowed over it, and said,
laughing, "Your majesty."
As she leaves her ancestral village, she sits next to a younger woman from her village, who is leaving China for the first time to reunite with her husband in America:
Once I was on an airplane beside
a village girl in the window seat. At takeoff
I asked her, "Where are you going?"
"Waw!" She shouted in surprise, and grabbed
ahold of my hand, "You speak like me!"
"Yes, I speak Say Yup language."
"Are you from the village?" "No, my MaMa
and BaBa came from Say Yup villages.
They left for New York. They lived in New York,
then California. I was born in California."
I feel like a child, younger than this girl; I'm
telling about parents as if I still had them;
I'm talking in my baby language. "Waw!"
she exclaimed, loud as though yelling across fields.
"Iam going to New York! I
am meeting my husband in New York. He's
waiting for me in New York. He works
in a restaurant. He's rented a home. He sent
for me, and waits for me." She did not
let go of my hand; I held hers tightly
as we flew the night sky. She looked
in wonder at webs of lights below.
I'm hard pressed to put into words how much I enjoyed I Love a Broad Margin to My Life, but I would say that this is easily one of the best works of verse I've read. Maxine Hong Kingston is my favorite living American writer, and this book confirms my love of and respect for her work.
March 30, 2023
“Solitaries, too, claim their places - the top of the round bridge, the island of grass, the room behind a curtain of weeping willow. Free to make whatever expressions you like. Dance like nobody else. I join this group and that one, get easily into step, not worried, in sync, out of sync, nobody’s looking at me.”
A mournful, optimistic look at getting older. Realising how much of your life has passed you by without losing perspective of everything that’s happened. The good that you’ve put into the world balanced out by the mountain of mistakes.
I’m not one for free verse but this book FLOWED so nicely that I couldn’t put it down. So absurdly atmospheric thanks to its stream of consciousness style. I never feel more immersed than when I’m reading Maxine Hong Kingston’s work because it always aligns precisely with how my brain works.
It’s insightful, reflective, flawed and it’s genuinely quite affecting that I’m never going to be able to read a new book of hers for the first again.
IS IT TIME FOR A REREAD YET
A mournful, optimistic look at getting older. Realising how much of your life has passed you by without losing perspective of everything that’s happened. The good that you’ve put into the world balanced out by the mountain of mistakes.
I’m not one for free verse but this book FLOWED so nicely that I couldn’t put it down. So absurdly atmospheric thanks to its stream of consciousness style. I never feel more immersed than when I’m reading Maxine Hong Kingston’s work because it always aligns precisely with how my brain works.
It’s insightful, reflective, flawed and it’s genuinely quite affecting that I’m never going to be able to read a new book of hers for the first again.
IS IT TIME FOR A REREAD YET
Read
September 21, 2012 From Publishers Weekly
Told in free verse reminiscent of one of Kingston's idols, Walt Whitman, this uncommon memoir of the artist at 65 is informed by the wide margins on the pages of the Chinese editions of her works (margins her father used to write in). Kingston revisits characters, like Wittman Ah Sing, the monkey from her first novel, and themes from her books: her pacifist, feminist activism; the challenge of stereotypes; East and West. Though this homage to aging, with wisdom gained through a freewheeling reflection on family, the past, fate (karma, we're reminded, means "work," not "doom"), and self-reliance (which is a translation of Kingston's Chinese name, Ting Ting), often rambles, it also has the cohesion and intricate logic of a musical composition. The artist is a mental traveler, presenting her life as a dreamlike journey that culminates in a listing of "my dead," some 50 names, which both pulls Kingston toward oblivion ("Each one who dies, I want to go with you") and inspires seven reasons to live. The desire to create recedes ("I regret always writing, writing") as the memoirist sees herself becoming "reader of the world," a "surprise world" that frees her from the need to create it with words. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Starred Review The title is from Thoreau, and it is the perfect credo for Kingston, a gentle advocate for justice and peace, an innovative creator of unconventional, mythic, and captivating tales. The very structure of her affecting memoir involves broad margins as Kingston channels musings and memories into one long, streaming poem. Some may quail at the prospect of a narrative-in-verse, but Kingston’s language is so natural, lucid, and subtly rhythmic, reading it is as effortless as breathing. Revered for the candor of her groundbreaking creative nonfiction, beginning with The Woman Warrior (1976), and her playful and profound fiction, Kingston gracefully entwines both genres as she reflects on turning 65, shares piquant stories of family, and catches up with her characters, especially Wittman Ah Sung, who first appeared in Tripmaster Monkey (1989). Kingston’s descriptions of the timeless beauty and evolving struggle of village life in China are mystical and incisive, while wry humor shapes her account of being arrested during a 2003 peace demonstration at the White House. Looking back to her California childhood as the daughter of immigrants, Kingston remembers wanting to ask others, “How do you feel being you?” That is the writer’s great question, and the wellspring of Kingston’s artistry and deep compassion. --Donna Seaman
October 2, 2012
My Maxine. I read the last 20 pages of this book against a warm sunset at San Francisco's Ocean Beach. All of the Western San Francisco locals who could sneak away from work were present to play tourist in their own city and enjoy a rare warm day.
On the walk there, I stubbornly hoped this would not be Maxine Hong Kingston's last book and that she would give us one last gift or series of gifts, but sitting on a beach boardwalk bench as the book closed, the author ended up all the story lines of her characters and concluded her memoir with "enow" (enough). It was then when I realized I was being selfish. Here is a woman who is 65 years old and worked so hard at her craft who would actually like to enjoy life and live in the moment--instead of recording every moment. Live free and in peace Maxine. I shall miss your work.
You've inspired me write in printed novel form, stories of my own imaginary friends who dwelt in my graphic novels. It's wonderful how much I can dig so much deeper in prose. Should they leave my desk, but not my imagination like your Whitman, I hope they'll greet me in my after life. For as you taught me, to an author, characters and the worlds they create are every bit as real in the subconscious as living beings are in the material world. And isn't the Collective Subconscious where we all transverse to in the end?
Thank you for your beautiful body of work Hong Ting Ting,
Ashanti
On the walk there, I stubbornly hoped this would not be Maxine Hong Kingston's last book and that she would give us one last gift or series of gifts, but sitting on a beach boardwalk bench as the book closed, the author ended up all the story lines of her characters and concluded her memoir with "enow" (enough). It was then when I realized I was being selfish. Here is a woman who is 65 years old and worked so hard at her craft who would actually like to enjoy life and live in the moment--instead of recording every moment. Live free and in peace Maxine. I shall miss your work.
You've inspired me write in printed novel form, stories of my own imaginary friends who dwelt in my graphic novels. It's wonderful how much I can dig so much deeper in prose. Should they leave my desk, but not my imagination like your Whitman, I hope they'll greet me in my after life. For as you taught me, to an author, characters and the worlds they create are every bit as real in the subconscious as living beings are in the material world. And isn't the Collective Subconscious where we all transverse to in the end?
Thank you for your beautiful body of work Hong Ting Ting,
Ashanti
February 2, 2013
Hong Kingston’s book is a brilliantly penned memoir written in a fluid, narrative poetry genre. She has perfected “turning a phrase” into a campaign all its own, while toting Thoreau and Whitman as running mates. The author reflects on turning 65, takes us on an extended journey into self, and eventually onto China, all while sojourning scenes from earlier transmigrations. The manuscript is not only a memoir, but also the author’s own liberal sentiments in poesy form.
Kingston’s belief in reincarnation and her respect for those who do not share her views, keeps the reader on their toes. She shares cultural experiences with a primal pentameter that may equal or surpass anything her readers have ever experienced; telling stories that are gritty, simplistic and energetic all in one breathe.
Those unfamiliar with the author’s previous work may find in the style a tiresome promenade. The spontaneous rants include cultural phonemes and characters created in previous writings. However, the book’s layout is clean and minimally stylized. The ragged paper edge gives the hardback the feel of a collectible, an excellent gift for Kingston fans and poetry lovers.
Kingston’s belief in reincarnation and her respect for those who do not share her views, keeps the reader on their toes. She shares cultural experiences with a primal pentameter that may equal or surpass anything her readers have ever experienced; telling stories that are gritty, simplistic and energetic all in one breathe.
Those unfamiliar with the author’s previous work may find in the style a tiresome promenade. The spontaneous rants include cultural phonemes and characters created in previous writings. However, the book’s layout is clean and minimally stylized. The ragged paper edge gives the hardback the feel of a collectible, an excellent gift for Kingston fans and poetry lovers.
Read
June 11, 2011I Love a Broad Margin to My Life is a memoir-prose work of literature written by Maxine Hong Kingston. In it she describes her life in China and then as an Asian-American. She discloses myths and proves to be a story teller like many of those that belong to generations before her. As Kingston vastly approached her 60's, she found it was time to reflect on her life as thus refers to it as the "broad margin" in her book. Her illustrious use of metaphors and moral views allow the reader to think philosophically about his or her life giving them a sense of placement and purpose. She incorporates Chinese allusions that give us incentive into the culture.
Similar to Silko, Kingston paints a lovely picture for the readers on a big canvas. The structure of the book furthermore contributes to the regal that is Kingston's story. I recommend this story to those who would enjoy Silko's memoir. Apart from Silko's story, however, it requires a passion and appreciation for poetry.
Similar to Silko, Kingston paints a lovely picture for the readers on a big canvas. The structure of the book furthermore contributes to the regal that is Kingston's story. I recommend this story to those who would enjoy Silko's memoir. Apart from Silko's story, however, it requires a passion and appreciation for poetry.
January 4, 2017
Even though Kingston's verse is lush and suspends us in imagery in the way that only poetry can, it loses the sharp, efficient power that her earlier "Woman Warrior" embodied. In that first memoir, Kingston re-wove stories of Chinese women in such defiantly stylistic ways, and also innovatively re-interpreted and mythicized the texture of Chinese culture. This memoir, though loosely written in stream-of-consciousness, doesn't feel any more personal than the first.
Still, not many writers leap between verse and prose, and Kingston is still gracefully inventive: there is something about her stylistic "Asian" syntax that I once found unsettling but now find comforting and for some reason a glow of pride.
Still, not many writers leap between verse and prose, and Kingston is still gracefully inventive: there is something about her stylistic "Asian" syntax that I once found unsettling but now find comforting and for some reason a glow of pride.
April 22, 2011
This is the first memoir in verse I have read. What a unique lady! I haven't read The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, but I have read some other powerful work from women writers in the 60s and 70s. I loved the facts about life as a Chinese American and her visit back to China were dispersed through the writing and can only image how difficult it must have been to prune your life into such succinct words. Clearly my memoir will never be like this. I need parenthesis around parenthesis to explain everything!
October 7, 2012
in the tradition of the "long poem" (h.d., pound, eliot, wc williams) 'tho critics ( " reviewers " ) may never make the association, this one is an epic and a memoir,
to be read aloud by candlelight ...
to ones you love ( including yourself ).
i laughed a dozen times and wept several.
each time i thought it had reached its peak, i was tricked because around the corner awaited a yet greater surprise.
the ending rivals don quixote or the tempest.
what can i tell you ?
http://poetryflash.org/archive/?s=rev...
to be read aloud by candlelight ...
to ones you love ( including yourself ).
i laughed a dozen times and wept several.
each time i thought it had reached its peak, i was tricked because around the corner awaited a yet greater surprise.
the ending rivals don quixote or the tempest.
what can i tell you ?
http://poetryflash.org/archive/?s=rev...
July 13, 2011
I'm very much into reading memoirs, and I do like having a broad margin in my life, but I did not enjoy this book. The free verse style of writing was hard to read. I love punctuation and paragraphs. Also, the content was of no interest. There is, however, always new information: Eighty out of every one hundred people live in cities. Interesting thought: "Women are better at living than man is.
Read
August 6, 2016Those who are familiar with Maxine Hong Kingston's work may appreciate this memoir in verse. As much as I loved THE WOMAN WARRIOR long years ago, I had trouble staying focused on this book, despite the wonderful title (from a Thoreau quotation). I kept thinking that if I had read every single other book she had written, I would understand the context more clearly, but as much as I admire this author, this was not the book for me to read at this point.
March 16, 2011
As unfamiliar as eastern music chords, as exotic as orchids, yet this book feels strangely attached to my heartstrings. The discomfort at the freeform prose I felt in the identical way I feel discomfort with my own careening thought processes. Diamond bright insight, soft rain of family love, sharp edges of do, do, do in a lifetime are all here in a garden of experiential blooms.
August 29, 2011
Short:
The words and pictures oozed underfoot, and I felt grounded in nothing. I rarely give up on books entirely — at the very least, I’ll read the first sentence of every paragraph — but I gave up on this a quarter of the way through.
Less short:
http://www.librarienne.com/2011/08/29...
The words and pictures oozed underfoot, and I felt grounded in nothing. I rarely give up on books entirely — at the very least, I’ll read the first sentence of every paragraph — but I gave up on this a quarter of the way through.
Less short:
http://www.librarienne.com/2011/08/29...
September 2, 2012
Painfully bad. Obscenely, aggressively naive.
I persevered until:
I persevered until:
I felt love palpable and saw love manifest -- it's pink. ... I could open my arms wide and gather up great big pink balls of Peace and hurl them east toward Iraq... also threw pink balls of Peace to the Iraqi children, to protect them...Grotesque and offensive.
April 13, 2016
I read this alongside her other works, "The Woman Warrior" and "China Men." Kington's prose from the other works is put into effect with "I Love a Broad Margin to My Life." Written in poetry/prose, the piece delivers an eloquence that seems a little bit forced in some places, but accurately reflects the development of Kingston's life.
Shelved as 'half-read'
August 14, 2011i liked this, a lot more than i expected. but i had to return it, overdue. i am going to read her other (non 'woman warrior') stuff before i re-check it out, so i can get it. lots of meditations on 'tripmaster monkey', which i might have ignored due to that 90s band.
March 12, 2016
This book, which I thought was a factual auto-biography, soon turned into a wonderful story which much illuminate the important ??? of her life rather than all of the exact details. Wonderful prose/poetry.
May 4, 2011
This was an interesting book and I need to read it again. A bit confusing for me as to who was speaking in each chapter.
Want to read
February 7, 2011Read about this here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/...
February 9, 2011
Magical, lyrical, and often very, very funny. The fates of the Tripmaster Monkey and the Woman Warrior might break your heart, though.
February 16, 2011
Memoir written in verse covers trips to China with her husband and son and her views of her ethnic homeland and culture.
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