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American Woman

3.4 of 5 stars 3.40 · rating details · 512 ratings · 106 reviews

On the lam for an act of violence against the American government, 25-year-old Jenny Shimada agrees to care for three younger fugitives whom a shadowy figure from her former radical life has spirited out of California. One of them, the kidnapped granddaughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate in San Francisco, has become a national celebrity for embracing her captors' ideolog...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published September 7th 2004 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 2003)

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The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Pulitzer Prize Finalists

15th out of 59 books — 29 voters

Fiction Based on the Lives of Specific Persons

11th out of 16 books — 6 voters

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Aug 20, 2008 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jen by: Book Club

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Aug 21, 2008 Genevieve rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

This book has an incredibly interesting premise - a fictionalized account of Patty Hearst's life as a fugitive, told through the perspective of a fellow radical/ activist Wendy Yoshimura (called Jenny Shimura in the Book) - but there are some serious problems in the execution of the story. Several passages drone on with internal narratives focused on infinitesimal details, which actually serve to draw the reader away from the characterization of the protagonists instead of giving profound insigh...more

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Aug 26, 2008 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Historical fiction usually conjures up visions of sweaty English monarchs, or heaving soldiers reclaiming an embankment in some centuries-old war. But in American Woman, the author expertly recreates the "the patty hearst story" as "the jenny shimada" story. (That is, the story of the young woman who helped to care for Patty Hearst while in hiding.) The vaguely familiar celebrity story quickly becomes a more intimate story about struggle, isolation, justice, friendship, and identity. Those are a...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Amanda added it

American Woman is very well written, besides being extremely insightful and thought-provoking from both a psychological development and a political-historic perspective. Though it may seem strange to compare a woman of Korean decent with the achitypical Jewish-American writer, I see many parallels between Choi's book and the writing of Philip Roth. One of these was that the writing style is complex and rich enough to slow me down, something I respect a lot in a book. The language is beautiful an...more American Woman is very well written, besides being extremely insightful and thought-provoking from both a psychological development and a political-historic perspective. Though it may seem strange to compare a woman of Korean decent with the achitypical Jewish-American writer, I see many parallels between Choi's book and the writing of Philip Roth. One of these was that the writing style is complex and rich enough to slow me down, something I respect a lot in a book. The language is beautiful and complexly crafted so that I was forced to spend more time thinking about the central themes. Choi's book also reminded me of Roth's The Plot Against America, being a novel based on historical fact which explores the American psyche in mass and individually. American Woman is centers around a group of violent political activists in the late 60s and early 70s that kidnaps the young-adult daughter of a wealthy, well known family. A la Patty Hurst, the woman joins her captors and works with them to rob banks, escape the police, etc. At first I was worried that these characters, being based on real people (perhaps portrayed as they were by the mass media) would be charicature-ish or symbolic. On the contrary, Choi wears the events on which her novel is based as a loose garment, allowing them to provide a basic structure for the development of complex and sympathetic characters and explore issues of radicalism, feminism, revolution, and maturity. She explores in great depth the emotions and thoughts of a woman (Jenny) changing from a self-assured idealistic youth to a more realistic, hardened young adult who accepts consequences and sees her actions in a layered, realistic way. I think that this book struck a particular chord with me because of my experiences over the past three years teaching, especially now that I have decided to leave the "battlefield." In the book, Jenny feels a lot of guilt for wanting beauty and comfort in her life because she has thought for so long of these as unnecessary indulgences. I identify with many of these transitional feelings.(less)

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Nov 16, 2012 Thurston Hunger rated it 1 of 5 stars

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The early vague sense of a stalker following his prey (or unrequited or just unreturned love) gives way to an account of the Patty Hearst kidnapping. I actually read this for book club, so did not even know that was the vehicle for this novel.

And at least my edition surely shies away from trumpeting or even mentioning that connection. Perhaps as we are supposed to focus on the Wendy Yoshimura character, but she is drawn pretty much with blank thoughts, a bit of a repressed memory of her family/f...more
The early vague sense of a stalker following his prey (or unrequited or just unreturned love) gives way to an account of the Patty Hearst kidnapping. I actually read this for book club, so did not even know that was the vehicle for this novel.

And at least my edition surely shies away from trumpeting or even mentioning that connection. Perhaps as we are supposed to focus on the Wendy Yoshimura character, but she is drawn pretty much with blank thoughts, a bit of a repressed memory of her family/father (the most intersting subplot going here) and a idealistic pining for her imprisoned boyfriend.

We are repeatedly told how much she loves and longs for him, but never really get to feel much of that. Similarly the time on the lam with the Symbionese "army" has a lot of atmospheric passion, with precious little prose to back it up. Their communiques and writing perhaps omitted for legal purposes, or author's intention to drive our focus instead to....to.....

To what?

Towards the moping denoument of Wendy and Patty going Thelma and Louise but instead back to Berkeley and their apartment garden peace.
And to me the crucial moment where Wendy (I know I'm not using their psuedonyms here) decides not to abandon Patty (or Tanya or Pauline), that felt like it did not follow at all with the previous depiction of events in the book.

Again the story tying the rebellion of the time and the SLA against the Japanese internment of Wendy's father (in reality the real Wendy was evidently BORN in such a camp) that is quite interesting. The Wendy character just doesn't command much attention, it fails even compared to the Patty character, who was pretty hard to take, especially when she was around her comrades. Likely as the author, like many of us, doesn't exactly know what to make of Patty during that time. Even after Larry King interviews and such, it feels like she was more complicated if not complicit, than what she herself claims now.

Is the moral of the story, children should be seen and not Hearst?

Anyways, the SLA (people attacking the govt) versus Manzanar (govt attacking people) is at best loosely juxtaposed here and not really probed, or illuminated. All making for an extremely unrewarding read for myself, as is often the case on "based on a true story" work.
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Jul 12, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was particularly interested in this book because my own second novel (I hope!) is also about issues of class war and centers around a kidnapping. Choi's book is broadly based on one of the more well-known 20th century kidnappings, that of Patricia Hearst who famously came to sympathize with her captors (a phenomenon known as the Stockholm syndrome) and joined them in committing a bank robbery. Choi's fictional account, though, actually focuses more on a different character. Jenny, a young woma...more

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Feb 08, 2010 Felice rated it 3 of 5 stars

American Woman is by Susan Choi and was published by HarperCollins about 5/6 years ago. I do remember bringing the book home, being excited to read it and then? It's all a blank. Now? Consider that blank filled and me wondering what took me so long to read such a good book. I'm also wondering about who my neighbors might really be after reading American Woman. That isn't a question that has ever occurred to me before. I've lived here forever. My neighbors have lived here a long time and a half....more

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Aug 03, 2009 Derek Emerson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-books-read

This is the type of book I typically avoid, but before I had a chance to run I was drawn in by this engrossing account of one fugitive trying to help three more people continue their evasion of the police. I was not far into the book (okay, chapter two) when I realized I was in a fictional account of the Patty Hearst story. For those younger than myself, Hearst is the grandaughter of media giant William Randolph Hearst (see: Kane, Citizen) who was kidnapped by the unknown SLA in 1974, then becam...more This is the type of book I typically avoid, but before I had a chance to run I was drawn in by this engrossing account of one fugitive trying to help three more people continue their evasion of the police. I was not far into the book (okay, chapter two) when I realized I was in a fictional account of the Patty Hearst story. For those younger than myself, Hearst is the grandaughter of media giant William Randolph Hearst (see: Kane, Citizen) who was kidnapped by the unknown SLA in 1974, then became devoted to their cause and turned to robbing banks. All but three of the SLA were killed in a shootout and Hearst was arrested about a year later.

But Choi avoids some simple fictionalized version of an already bizarre event (this is a time when the idea of truth being stranger than fiction is clearly true). Instead, the "American Woman" is Jenny Shimada, a Japanese-American who is in hiding because of her interest in bomb making, which has put her boyfriend in jail. Shimada has been avoiding exposure by living in a small town doing renovation work for an older woman. Now she is recruited to help these three and we quickly see that all "radicals" are not cut from the same cloth. While she likes to blow up buildings, she does so when no one is in them and she makes sure they belong to the government. The SLA members have kidnapped an heiress and are as interested in armed warfare as they are about their principles, which seem stretched at best.

Choi does not judge any of her characters and all are especially well drawn. Shimada is a complex person who seems to have it all figured out one minute, and is completely lost the next. In other words, she is a real person (and yes, she too is based on a real person). Pauline, the Patty Hearst of the story, is interesting not because she is supposed to by Hearst, but because we see how someone taken out of their element and thrown into the extreme opposite responds. She goes from pampered college student to bound, blindfolded, and gagged in closet for days. Her relationship with two of her captors is abusive and dependent, yet she is also drawn to Jenny. What she is not drawn to is her past life -- at one point her and Jenny drive by her old house, but she has no desire to return. That part of her life is gone.

Which raises the question of what happens when we do disappear. When they are captured (oops, late spoiler alert for those who did not guess it) they refer to Pauline's year of hiding as "the lost year." But who lost the year? Pauline certainly did not. This plays out as a modern version of if a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound? Choi is playing with the idea of how our lives are and are not dependent on others involved with us, others viewing us, and others we pass by in life. While it seems obvious that losing track of others does not mean they have lost themselves, we often make that assumption -- "they fell off the face of the earth." As Choi is showing, life continues even when the circumstances change. Jenny and Pauline disappear for different reasons, their circumstances both change, and they themselves change, but that does not equate with being lost. But it does raises questions about how we define ourselves when those around us who do define us are gone. What makes make Jenny who she is and which is the "real" Pauline.

Choi's prose is full and worth a slow read. The book is cinematic in its layout and she paints clear pictures everywhere she goes. The last section of the book loses some of the hold after the tension has disappeared, but it adds another interesting note to the story in comparing how fame impacts what should be similar situations for two people.

Finally, we can return to Choi's title and spend time defining the two words of the title -- American and woman. In what ways is a Japanese-American raised in Japan for many years and an acknowledged bomber of American government properties an American? As the story unfolds the ideas of "woman" are also explored with a range of options considered. In other words, Choi leaves us a lot to think about.

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Feb 01, 2011 Kristen added it

I only read about three chapters of this book before calling it quits. I'd hoped it would be interesting. The story, although fiction, reimagines the events following the abduction of Patty Hearst by radicals in the 1970s. Patty was the gal that ended up adopting her kidnappers radical ideas.
The book was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize so I figured the writing would be good. A few reasons I stopped: 1. Bad language (horrible). 2 I despised both main characters after reading only three ch...more

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Aug 10, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: jo, Erik, Dayna (?)

Late in the novel, the central character ('60s radical & fugitive Jenny Shimada) imagines her way into the thoughts of a person affected by the SLA-analogue cadre of fugitives she's caretaking. She imagines Mr. Morton, in the middle of their fundraising robbery, turning in his glasses toward "a pretty young blond," but with the lenses revealing only a "watery, imprecise world," he doesn't recognize the gun in her hand.

Choi's novel is an interrogation of the watery, imprecise political and hi...more Late in the novel, the central character ('60s radical & fugitive Jenny Shimada) imagines her way into the thoughts of a person affected by the SLA-analogue cadre of fugitives she's caretaking. She imagines Mr. Morton, in the middle of their fundraising robbery, turning in his glasses toward "a pretty young blond," but with the lenses revealing only a "watery, imprecise world," he doesn't recognize the gun in her hand.

Choi's novel is an interrogation of the watery, imprecise political and historical realities which shape our identities and actions. Maybe "interrogation" is the wrong word--explication? Maybe even exaltation? Her characters (all fictional echoes of figures from the West Coast radical scene, particularly centered on the events of the Patty Hearst abduction) are afflicted by a false sense of perfect vision. They assume a clarity about their political beliefs and worldview that blinds them to the moral fuzziness of these ideals, of their selves and others, of the country. My favorite thing about the book is that it manages to blur our (my?) own orderly vision of the '60s and its politics, through an empathetic development of even the most cartoonishly obstinate characters (a doddering, bigoted old-money landowner in upstate New York; the swaggering, dimwitted guy bossing about the surviving remnants of the cadre). The book is the best kind of moral fiction in that it clearly limns the failings of action even as it refuses harsh judgment of any of the characters. Choi's vision is not blurry: from the precise, detailed evocation of land and event to her engagement with the mundane details of Jenny's internal consciousness (which, like the land described, slowly changes shape over the course of her history). Let's say she makes a case for the necessary watery imprecision of worldviews using a crystalline vision of the world she's written.

I also like the novel's structure. We know so much about these events and era--or, rather, assume we do--that it's hard to imagine seeing anything new. And yet I had no memory of Wendy Yoshimura, the woman buried in the news reports of Hearst's final capture; it is a crucial point, subtly developed through the novel, that our histories and stories are as much about forgetting as they are about recollection or preservation. (And it just hits me!: on the lam for her own crimes, Jenny is first found working in an old mansion, helping to 'preserve' and restore the joint to its old glories, as tours walk through.) The novel's structure is rather perfectly arranged to produce revelation, slowly teasing us to see what is there, rather than simply confirming what we already knew. (So, for instance, certain key details of Hearst's abduction do not emerge until late, late in the novel.)

This last point--as it also plays out in Choi's line-by-line style--might put some people off. In a novel full of people spouting theories and judgments about culture, race, class, America, violence, it might seem frustratingly or perplexingly detached. But as I noted above, I think Choi is skeptical of such clarities, and instead creates political and moral judgment through the steady accretion of detail, what one blurb called a very "fine-grained" attention to the way people live. It's a novel of ideas that emerge through the many (many, many) details of the events, ideas not shoved in your face like a gun but which only slowly come into focus, so that we're almost surprised. That can be frustrating for us readers, and challenging, and also lovely and compelling.

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Dec 07, 2008 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed it very much, and was interested to note the wide variety of ratings 1-5 stars. I got it because I specifically wanted to know more about the Patty Hearst story. Can anyone weigh in on this -- how closely does this book follow the true events? I was very surprised to see that it is all billed as "a novel" and there is not even a bibliography, although the author must have done extensive research. And my impression is that it is very true to the P.H. story. Why not list it as "historica...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Roxanne Russell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: pop

When I first started reading this novel, I felt the author's painstaking writing process in every sentence. Eventually, the story was interesting enough to overshadow the author's resounding typewriter. The protagonist is a protest bomber on the lam who gets mixed up in a communist kidnapping modeled on the Patty Hearst story. The friendship between the bomber and the kidnapped girl was a surprising centerpiece towards the end. The bomber's father's experience in Japanese internment camps become...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Tae Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well conceived and well structured, Susan Choi’s Pulitzer Prize nominated fiction novel "American Woman" was not exactly what I had expected.

In terms of the quality of her writing and the unraveling of the book’s story, the work was, in my mind, every bit worthy of a nod from the venerable and respected Pulitzer Prize board. What surprised me, though, was Choi’s remarkable ability to reach beyond what I can reasonably imagine to be the parameters of her own experience, to give life and detail t...more

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May 04, 2008 Madeline rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: assigned-reading, ugh

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was assigned to read this for a class, which means that I was basically guaranteed to hate it. (I have a bad history with required reading - see Summer of My German Soldier and The Old Man and the Sea)
The story focuses on Jenny Shimada, who is based on a real Japanese-American woman who worked for the SLA in the 70's and was involved in the Patty Hearst kidnapping. American Woman is a fictional account of what happened in the time between Patty Hearst joining her captors and the group being ar...more I was assigned to read this for a class, which means that I was basically guaranteed to hate it. (I have a bad history with required reading - see Summer of My German Soldier and The Old Man and the Sea)
The story focuses on Jenny Shimada, who is based on a real Japanese-American woman who worked for the SLA in the 70's and was involved in the Patty Hearst kidnapping. American Woman is a fictional account of what happened in the time between Patty Hearst joining her captors and the group being arrested. Hearst is in the book but is referred to as "Pauline" because I guess Susan Choi didn't want to get sued.
The parts of the story where Choi describes the activities of the SLA and how they evade the authorities are really interesting - because of this book, I now know how to travel across the US without getting caught by the feds - but everything else in the book basically sucks. Choi starts out the story from the perspective of some random SLA guy, and then suddenly switches the story to Jenny's point of view. Also, nearly every single character was either obnoxious or anger-inducing. Jenny seems to have been born without a personality, Rico and Yvonne (2 SLA fighters who kidnapped Pauline/Patty) are so annoying with all their "bring down the bourgeois" crap that I kept waiting for someone to punch them in the face, and don't even get me started on Pauline. Here's the thing: the big mystery of the Patty Hearst kidnapping is that no one knows if Patty actually believed in what the SLA preached, or if she was just faking it to survive. You'd think, that if someone was to write a fictional account of the kidnapping, the author would answer this question, right?
Wrong. I never, throughout the entire book, understood why Pauline even got up in the morning, much less knew how she thought or if she really believed in the SLA's ideals. Choi focuses too much attention on Jenny and never lets her audience into Pauline's head - ironically, she was the only one I really wanted to understand.
Also: the random episodes with Jenny's father and how he used to live in a Japanese internment camp were pointless and influenced the plot in no way. I think the only reason Choi even made Jenny's father a character in the story is because she needed to write her crap ending that came out of nowhere.
Honestly, this is basically how the book ends:
Jenny: so I got arrested for kidnapping Pauline, but then I got released after a few months and so I went to reunion at Manzanar with my dad. The end!
When I read that and realized the story was over, it made me want to throw the book into a food processor.

Read for: Freshman Year Seminar(less)

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May 23, 2008 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's not very often that I pick up a book and actually read it based solely on the back cover description. It almost always takes a recommendation from someone I know or overwhelming praise to bring new authors to light. This book is one that I picked up back at Barnes and Noble years ago in the advance readers copies. I have never read any of the books I picked up there, until now. This novel is a historically relevant psychological portrait of young radicals at different points in their lives....more

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Aug 03, 2011 Jessica Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars

At first, I didn't love this book. After having read about 100 pages, I was seriously dreading the next 250. Slowly, however, I became amused, and then before I knew it I was super involved in this novel about two young political fugitives. The character development is intense, the plot is riveting yet realistic, and the writing is superb. Perhaps the best element of this book is the skill with which Choi reveals the twists and turns of the plot, almost like a mystery, but far more complex. Havi...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Vaman rated it 3 of 5 stars

Generally OK. Technically precise. Seems like the type of writer that outlines her plot and then sticks to it, while searching the internet for Good Source Material and making a series of post-it nots and that their friends occasionally sigh knowingly at after an impromptu cocktail-party because she totally just needs a break right now from writing this fucking thing. Might have been more 'important' if it was released 20 years ago. Not sure earnest, historical realism really appeals to me anymo...more

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Jun 12, 2008 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is, in essence, a fictionalized account of Patty Hearst's life after being kidnapped and becoming a revolutionary. At a time when people are not outraged and radical in their dissent of our country's many problems and injustices, I found myself reading this book and wishing we had more liberal extremists who would stop at almost nothing to bring attention to our foreign policy, the disparity between the rich and the poor, etc. I'm not condoning or requesting violence but there is somet...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Virginia Walter rated it 3 of 5 stars

Loosely based on the events surrounding the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapping of Patty Hearst, this novel focuses on a fictional Japanese American woman, herself a fugitive from the law because of her role in earlier bombings of bank buildings, who is now involved in sheltering the kidnapped heiress and two of her captors. The paranoia of those years comes vividly to life here; the characters, less so.

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May 16, 2012 Jon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Pretty good - about the kidnapping of Patty Hearst. Got pretty into radicalism in the 60s and 70s, almost exposed it for some of its shortsightedness. Broken into four main sections, and by the end, it seemed like it was trying to make too many big points. But the relationships that develop between characters when hiding out from the law were interesting. Stockholm Syndrome is strange.

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Oct 19, 2011 Rebecca Stuhr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting and winding plot that looks at the radicalism of the Vietnam War era and in particular a group that closely resembles the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Patty Hearst kidnapping. The main character, is a third generation Japanese American whose father and grandparents were in the relocation camps. She is underground following the arrest of her partner and boyfriend. Together they carried out multiple bombings of selective service offices. The novel is about her exile, solitude, co...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this-- the lush physical descriptions and the myriad ways in which the characters (outlaws on the run) show that they're nervous have much to teach writers like me whose characters tend to do the same token movements all the time. Also, it's interesting to read a book set in the 70s that has so many parallels to 2009.

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Jul 08, 2012 Jgknobler rated it 3 of 5 stars

A fictionalized account of the doings of Wendy Yoshimura, a political terrorist in the Weathermen vein from the 1960's-1970's, as well as the more famous Patty Hearst. While the ins and outs of living on the lam are interesting to read about, the despicable qualities of some of the characters make for uncomfortable reading.

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May 14, 2010 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

It took me a while to get into this book. For the first 100 pages or so, I had no interest in any of the characters, and I gave up on the book. But the next day, I decided to read a couple of more chapters and see what happened, and it slowly drew me in. Choi's compassionate and subtle free indirect discourse allowed Jenny and Pauline to eventually get under my skin and begin to come alive as real people. I actually felt that I learned more about Patty Hearst from this fictionalized narrative th...more

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Jul 18, 2009 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jenny Shimada is a fugitive from justice for her part in anti-Vietnam war protest bombings when she is asked to look out for others on the run, including a kidnapped heiress. I did not want to read this--the Patty Hearst story seemed tiresome to me--but as I got into the story, I began to root for Jenny. Susan Choi is a beguiling writer.

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Dec 03, 2009 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Super interesting story telling the perspective of freedom fighters. Good moral: don't get so involved in one fight of principles that you give up all your other principles. The ending fell flat for me, and the book dragged a lot (very repetitive). But took me someplace I never would have gone otherwise.

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Mar 18, 2009 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

solid, well written, well paced. kept picturing this as a movie, like in scenes where it could shade towards sarcasm with the idealism of some of the characters, or not, not sure if that's a good thing- like it's not in the text, not sure if its intentional. read this b/c whitney know her and we might meet her, so for something i wouldn't have picked up randomly if was solid.

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Mar 04, 2009 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

How to parse a moment, a memory, a personality: Susan Choi's characters feel fully alive to the reader because of the details of their environment, understandings the reader inhabits of why/how the characters act, and because of the ways that Choi's wonderful prose breathes on the page.

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Sep 01, 2008 Ryan Mishap rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

The kidnapping of Patricia Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army is the ghost skeleton Choi drapes the flesh of this awesome novel over, She fictionalizes the spectacle and looks at it from the outsider perspective of her main protagonist: A Japanese-American woman living as a fugitive after her partner is imprisoned for the bombings of recruitment centers they did together during the Vietnam war. Set in the early seventies, she’s living in rural New York when an old comrade persuades her to...more

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Aug 23, 2009 Florence rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel was loosely based on the Patty Hearst and Symbionese Liberation Army sagas. The characters were well developed and background material provided details of what motivated their actions and helped to direct their destiny. But, for such a violent tale, it was curiously unveventful for long stretches.

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About Susan Choi

Susan Choi was born in South Bend, Indiana, and raised there and in Houston, Texas. She studied literature at Yale and writing at Cornell, and worked for several years as a fact-checker for The New Yorker.

Her first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, and her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize.

With David Remnick she c...more

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