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Golden Mountain: Beyond the American Dream | 
 enlarge | Author: Irene Kai
Publisher: Silver Light Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $2.23
You Save: $12.72 (85%)
New (31) Used (38) Collectible (5) from $0.76
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 887120
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3rd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 375
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 097448900X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780974489001
ASIN: 097448900X
Publication Date: October 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Its a gripping tale of four generations of Chinese women who live and die under the restrictions of their culture. Read the story of the author growing up in Hong Kong and New York where she struggled to meld the American Dream with her ethnic background. She finally understands the true nature of dreams and what it means to live.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Uplifting Memoir of A Chinese Woman's Journey to Becoming Whole December 29, 2007
Irene Kai writes of her struggle to escape boundaries imposed upon her by her Chinese family while the words of her grandmother to be a dutiful daughter and wife haunt her throughout her journey. She writes of her great grandmother, her grandmother and her mother using the creative non-fiction device of imagined conversations.These conversations draw one immediately into the life of 19th and 20th century rural China, then, Hong Kong and New York. I particularly enjoy reading of overlapping time frames from the points of view of different people, and Kai does it well.
A child of a loveless arranged marriage, she is unwanted, unloved and abused physically and psychologically by her mother, who is struggling to find love. Kai's background material is especially important in helping us understand her mother and to understand Kai's radical rebellion in her teen and young adult years. She sweeps us into her wild, tumultuous exploration of art and sexuality. And when the rebellion is over, she becomes the dutiful wife, driven by her husband and her desire to leave behind all of her Chinese past. In doing so, she finally realizes that she, too, is neglecting her children, just as her mother did. Slowly, slowly, as she begins to discover herself, she finds the strength to leave her lavish life style and become attentive to her children and to her own needs. She reclaims parts of her own culture and becomes whole.
Especially poignant is Kai's struggle to balance her desire to always please her wounded mother with her need to protect herself and her children. The moment of courage when she looks into her mother's eyes and takes charge of her own life must ring as true for many other women as it did for me.
I would love to know more about this woman. Has she continued her art? How does she feel now? When she looks back, what are her feelings? Now that she has written this fascinating autobiography, will she let us into her life again?
Golden Mountain is an uplifting read.
by Judith Helburn
for StorycircleBookReviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Compelling story December 2, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I loved this compelling, richly textured, vividly descriptive story. Not only was I transported into Chinese culture over four generations of the author's family, but into how family patterns and cultural mores impact us all. I was also inspired by the hope in this book. The author transcends many obstacles, including family abuse, and courageously builds a meaningful, new life.
A Powerful Story of a Woman's Journey to Create Her Own Destiny December 1, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I loved this book. I could not put it down. The Golden Mountain is about Irene Kai's journey to claim her power and authenticity. It's a memoir of four generations of Chinese women, but it's really "every woman's" journey. It shows her transition from Hong Kong to the U. S., and how she breaks free from the restrictions of her ethnic background in a way that her mother and grandmother could not. In America, she achieves wealth and success as an artist and businesswoman. But Kai's story of what's possible doesn't end here. She eventually leaves her business and her marriage and moves to a small town. There, she explores and heals the family patterns she realized were still influencing her, even after she thought she had broken away from them. In the process, she creates a new life and a new dream, one that takes her beyond the American dream to live her own authentic destiny.
There's Always Hope November 30, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book enormously -- not only for what it taught me about Chinese culture -- but for what it taught me about the universality of women's experience in patriarchial cultures. As always, I am both awed and humbled by the resilience of the human spirit. Irene's story offers hope and inspiration to anyone who has ever felt trapped by circumstances.
 bland September 21, 2005
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Okay, may be the story is quite emotional, but it definitely did not come across that way. Lines such as "Won-hoy got married to a rich wife, and had 5 kids" goes on and on... giving the reader no motivation to continue.
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