Customer Reviews

Golden Mountain: Beyond the American Dream

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Although it may seem the Golden Mountain is a "woman's book", I found it inspiring from a man's point of view. In its essense the book is about finding the courage to speak the truth to yourself and to the world about yourself, about your life. There was no sugar coating of even the most intimate details of her relationships. This to me is the greatest expression moral courage. The book is an antidote to denial. Its honesty is sometimes breathtaking.

I was also inspire by the radical transformation she underwent as a person. Her first forty odd years were spent in some way under someone elses control -- her mother, the men in her life, the expectations of her chinese heritage. She clear connected with a resevoir of strength and will deep within her that said she had a choice between freedom and suffocation. She chose freedom.

I have read a lot of books on the topic, historical background of Chinese women as a personal story. Fine. This one is lacking. The main character is annoying and just stupid. She does not learn from her mistakes for such a long time while the narrative is droning on and on.
what a disappointment.

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.

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.

After personally meeting the author at a family gathering, I was inspired to purchase the book. Once I started reading, I could not put it down. The story was amazing and just unfolded before your eyes. The descriptions of the scenery, the characters and such were so vivid and clear that you could easily put yourself in the scene and experience what they characters were experiencing. This book really opened my eyes up to the Chinese culture and gaining a better understanding and insight into the old times and new times of the Chinese culture.
This was very well written and I just finished it last night. The book cover was wonderful, very beautiful. Irene and David did a wonderful job and look forward to hearing more reviews about this wonderful book.

This is the best book I've read in a couple of years actually, I was fortunate to stumble across it at the library. I love reading culturally focused books, and I really enjoyed the unique format of this one, with the first several chapters telling the story of great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and then daughter Irene. It was interesting to eventually get the true perspective on the same events from all the different women, and understand why having learned their backgrounds. I hope the author is working on her next book, I'll be waiting for it. Thank you for a great story, I really enjoyed it.

I don't usually read oral histories. I was intrigued by the title of this one and being an immigrant myself, my curiosity got the better of me and I opened the cover to the first page, began to read and I was hooked. An oral history is supposed to take the reader on a journey through the subjects life. I enjoy traveling to different countries of the world. When I can't travel physically I enjoy traveling through the written word. This oral history took me on an incredible journey from Hong Kong through New York and all the way to West Coast. Laughter, tears, pain, elation were all vehicles that I rode on this journey. To see into the heart of another is to look in the mirror. I thank Irene Kai for sharing her thoughtful and well written journey. Order it now and allow it to transport you!!

To read the Golden Mountain is to be immersed in the Chinese culture, as seen through women's experience over a span of four generations. One feels the limitations, the consequences that follow from accepting spoken and unspoken traditions, and how this carries forward into the present. Though the outlook was bleak, the author has taken me with her on a journey, armed with an indomitable will, a sense of spirit and inner truth, to freedom.
I found this book fascinating on many levels.

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.

I was deeply moved by Irene's story. I felt so touched by each woman's life and their struggle with the cultural confines of their time. But Irene, finding her way through the maze of both the Chinese and American culturals, and the oppressive personal relationships, is a woman of strength and courage! Her truth and passion ultimately trimuph!