"A brilliant memoir ... it is about being Chinese in the way A Portrait of the Artist is about being Irish; it is an investigation of soul, not landscape, its sources are dream and memory, myth and desire; its crises are the crises of a heart in exile from roots that bind and terrorise it ... Maxine Hong Kingston writes with bitter and relentless love. Her voice, now, is as clear as the voice of Ts'ai Yen, who sang her sad, angry songs of China to the barbarians. It is as fierce as a warrior's voice, and as eloquent as any artist's' JANE KRAMER/NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

I read and enjoyed this book many years ago - but now its time to let it go! Enjoy and let me know what you think, please :o)

UPDATE: Passed to Gooner on the journey to the Nottingham Meet on Saturday 27 March. Hope you enjoy it Chris and thanks for the great company :o)

Thanks for letting me have this one, KathyS, en route to Nottingham.

I will journal it as soon as I've read it, and I'm looking forward to starting on it soon. Thanks, too, for your company during a very enjoyable day.