The Fifth Book of Peace is a 2003 book by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Knopf. Part-fiction, part-memoir, the book was written in response to Kingston's house fire in 1991 and additionally contains her thoughts about war, specifically the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, among others.
In September of 1991, Kingston attended her fatherâÂÂs funeral. Afterward, she returned to Oakland, California only to discover that her neighborhood and house were on fire. At the time, Kingston had been writing the manuscript for The Fourth Book of Peace, a sequel to Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, but it, along with many of KingstonâÂÂs other possessions, didnâÂÂt survive. In the end, the fire killed 25 people.
In The Fifth Book of Peace, Kingston partially rewrites the lost sequel, following her protagonist Wittman Ah SingâÂÂs adventures in Hawaii, while also elaborating on her own personal experiences with regard to the fire and her meditations on war past and present, specifically the Vietnam War. The book, in its final section, also concerns KingstonâÂÂs experiences teaching writing workshops to veterans, a practice she began inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh after her house fire; over 200 veterans have taken part since. The book also involves the experiences of those who were arrested alongside Kingston during a demonstration against the Iraq War outside of the White House in 2003.
Publishers Weekly wrote: âÂÂKingston writes in a panoply of languages: American, Chinese, poetry, dreams, mythos, song, history, hallucination, meditation, tragedyâÂÂall are invoked in this complex stream-of-consciousness memoir, which questions repeatedly and intrinsically: Why war? Why not peace?â The reviewer called the book âÂÂComplicated, convoluted, fascinating, and, in the final section, poignant almost beyond bearabilityâ and saw it as âÂÂvintage KingstonâÂÂ. Kirkus Reviews said the parts about KingstonâÂÂs family were the most âÂÂoriginal and compellingâ while finding the final section about KingstonâÂÂs writing workshops for veterans to be underwhelming.
In a briefly noted review, the New Yorker called the book âÂÂrich in empathy and moral convictionâ and lauded KingstonâÂÂs storytelling to the point of regret that the original manuscript for The Fourth Book of Peace was never recovered. Meanwhile, Polly Shulman, writing for the New York Times, stated that KingstonâÂÂs juxtaposition of fiction and memoir was disappointing in The Fifth Book of Peace, especially in comparison to her previous works, such as The Woman Warrior, which were âÂÂremarkableâ in execution.