Book summary

Maya Lin writes about what followed after her sculpture was chosen for the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington when she was a Yale undergraduate in 1982. Caught up in controversy about her Asian heritage, her youth, and her gender, Lin was forced to defend herself to the government, veterans' organizations, and the press. She also writes about her early life, her creative sources, and her subsequent projects.

Media reviews

"In a frank first-person account written as her profoundly affecting minimalist sculpture neared completion (published here for the first time), Lin reveals the inner strength that saw her through the harrowing procedure, with its ugly undertones of prejudice against an Asian-American woman. The result was an overwhelming popular and critical success, but one not without problems for the artist."