SOURCE: "A Woman's Fight to Overcome Devastating Childhood Memories," in Chicago Tribune Books, March 23, 1997, Sec. 14.

[In the following review, Wiltz offers praise for Chao's deft handling of the destructive power of memory in Monkey King.]

Memory is a tricky thing; it won't be denied. Squash it down, stuff the pain into some dark place and it will emerge like a boil, turgid and tender, demanding in a loud voice to be attended to. Now.

When this happens, life can never be the same again. Old thoughts, beliefs, hopes and wishes fly every which way until they land in some crazy reconfiguration. Life can never be the same again—if you can even survive the onslaught of memory with mind, body and soul intact.

Such is the premise of Patricia Chao's lyrically written debut novel, Monkey King, which is told from the first-person perspective of a 27-ycar-Chinese-Amcrican woman fighting...