michaeloconnor's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
lilcoppertop's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
sarapalooza's review against another edition
4.0
灵山 / Soul Mountain
高行健 / Gao Xingjian
.
“Things just happen behind me and there is always a mysterious eye, so it is best for me just to pretend that I understand even if I don’t. Pretending to understand, I still don’t understand. The fact of the matter is I comprehend nothing, I understand nothing. This is how it is.” - Gao
Gao is a writer comfortable with the undefinable, patient when encountering the absurd. I picked up this book at King Books in Detroit and have long been wanting to get to it. One thing I love about used books, are the secondhand bonuses. The flyleaf of this book is inscribed with a personalization – “a story of more than meer China for your 71st birthday with love.”
This book is filled with some gorgeous descriptions of the natural beauty of China. Gao’s story is fascinating. He was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and told he would only live a few more months, only to win a reprieve when a subsequent examination revealed him to be cancer free! He was facing the threat of being sent to a prison farm for some of his writings, so he packed a bag and traveled though the Sichuan area “off the grid” for five months, before moving to Paris.
Soul Mountain is filled with folktales, travelogues, and strange streams of consciousness. Gao also uses three different points of view to tell his story. The tale is epic and I appreciate being able to travel to China from my sofa!
#gaoxingjian #soulmountain #灵山
高行健 / Gao Xingjian
.
“Things just happen behind me and there is always a mysterious eye, so it is best for me just to pretend that I understand even if I don’t. Pretending to understand, I still don’t understand. The fact of the matter is I comprehend nothing, I understand nothing. This is how it is.” - Gao
Gao is a writer comfortable with the undefinable, patient when encountering the absurd. I picked up this book at King Books in Detroit and have long been wanting to get to it. One thing I love about used books, are the secondhand bonuses. The flyleaf of this book is inscribed with a personalization – “a story of more than meer China for your 71st birthday with love.”
This book is filled with some gorgeous descriptions of the natural beauty of China. Gao’s story is fascinating. He was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and told he would only live a few more months, only to win a reprieve when a subsequent examination revealed him to be cancer free! He was facing the threat of being sent to a prison farm for some of his writings, so he packed a bag and traveled though the Sichuan area “off the grid” for five months, before moving to Paris.
Soul Mountain is filled with folktales, travelogues, and strange streams of consciousness. Gao also uses three different points of view to tell his story. The tale is epic and I appreciate being able to travel to China from my sofa!
#gaoxingjian #soulmountain #灵山
ferna's review
4.0
Heavy, heavy reading. Not sure if I understood it completely. No, I definitely didn't. Otherwise, it would have taken me less to finish it.
Even though there is an introduction explaining what the use of pronouns means in the narrative, I still interpreted them as different characters. At least in the first part of the book. There are some metanarrative chapters in the second part of the book where the narrator explains how he tried to write the book. I marked them, but I don't have the book now u.u
So, it is a journey book, physical and psychological, but it is more about the conversations the narrator has along his trip. I concluded that, ultimately, the narrator talks to the reader and the readers must talk to themselves.
SPOILER ALERT
More concretely, the narrator starts this trip looking for a specific place in China. He goes asking about this place but when he seems to have reached it, the wise old man he asks tells him it is at the other side of the river, that is to say, where the traveller has just come from. I cannot help but compare the ending to the Alquemist's. Nevertheless, I get, it's not the end that matters, but the process.
Or something like that.
Even though there is an introduction explaining what the use of pronouns means in the narrative, I still interpreted them as different characters. At least in the first part of the book. There are some metanarrative chapters in the second part of the book where the narrator explains how he tried to write the book. I marked them, but I don't have the book now u.u
So, it is a journey book, physical and psychological, but it is more about the conversations the narrator has along his trip. I concluded that, ultimately, the narrator talks to the reader and the readers must talk to themselves.
SPOILER ALERT
More concretely, the narrator starts this trip looking for a specific place in China. He goes asking about this place but when he seems to have reached it, the wise old man he asks tells him it is at the other side of the river, that is to say, where the traveller has just come from. I cannot help but compare the ending to the Alquemist's. Nevertheless, I get, it's not the end that matters, but the process.
Or something like that.
bei_02's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
frahorus's review against another edition
4.0
Profonda è la notte, tranquilla è la gente, brilla la luna, rare le stelle, a intonare il canto ci prepariamo.
Non so proprio come definire quest'opera... C'è un po' di tutto, soprattutto la vita dell'autore che si amalgama ai suoi viaggi veri e fantastici, alle sue esperienze d'amore e di amicizia... Pesante, molto dura la sua fuga dalla Rivoluzione Culturale, dove si bruciavano libri antichi e si distruggevano le usanze, le religioni, i templi e si scacciavano i monaci... e i letterati! Amici, potrei citare centinaia di bellissimi passaggi di questo straordinario libro, scritto con una ricercatezza poetica, piena di amore per la natura e per gli uomini... In sostanza l'autore fugge e cerca la misteriosa Montagna dell'Anima, chiede ospitalità dai vecchi contadini, rimane incantato dalle usanze dei paesi, vive le loro feste, medita con loro nei loro templi, riporta i loro canti popolari, prende nota dei loro racconti mitici e religiosi, fa tante amicizie... Ad un certo punto fa conoscenza anche con un gigantesco panda! Certo, inizialmente, quando apri il libro e vedi che ci sono ben 650 pagina rimani un attimo di sasso, ma quando ti addentri nella lettura non riesci più a smettere! Diciamoci la verità, a chi non piace sognare mondi mitici, a chi non piace scoprire cos'è la vera umanità? La semplicità delle persone, di incontri concreti? Spesso ho trovato, nel modo di narrare di Gao e delle esperienze che ha fatto delle forti somiglianze con Tiziano Terzani, il giornalista corrispondete dell'Asia...
A questo punto, devo per forza citare dei passi del libro, a costo di dilungarmi un pochino. Inizio citando un canto di un boscaiolo di Badong: "Profonda è la notte, tranquilla è la gente, brilla la luna, rare le stelle, a intonare il canto ci prepariamo. Se lungo, la notte si farà ancor più profonda, se corto, non si arriverà all'alba, né lungo né corto deve sembrare, per non far tardare gli altri cantanti. Primo: cielo, terra e acqua, secondo: sole, luna e stelle, terzo: cinque direzioni e campi, quarto: dea dei lampi, quinto: Pangu separa cielo e terra, sesto: i tre sovrani e i cinque imperatori e tutte le generazioni di re, settimo: leoni neri ed elefanti bianchi, draghi gialli e fenici, ottavo: il cane feroce a guardia della porta, nono: folletti di monti, foreste ed acque, decimo: tigri, leopardi, lupi e sciacalli, fate largo, spostatevi, a noi cantanti permettete di entrare nell'arena!". Un'ultima citazione: "L'io nel tu non è altro che il riflesso nello specchio, l'immagine capovolta del fiore nell'acqua. Se non entri nello specchio non riuscirai a tirar fuori nulla. Innamorato invano dell'immagine, non farai che compatirti."
Non so proprio come definire quest'opera... C'è un po' di tutto, soprattutto la vita dell'autore che si amalgama ai suoi viaggi veri e fantastici, alle sue esperienze d'amore e di amicizia... Pesante, molto dura la sua fuga dalla Rivoluzione Culturale, dove si bruciavano libri antichi e si distruggevano le usanze, le religioni, i templi e si scacciavano i monaci... e i letterati! Amici, potrei citare centinaia di bellissimi passaggi di questo straordinario libro, scritto con una ricercatezza poetica, piena di amore per la natura e per gli uomini... In sostanza l'autore fugge e cerca la misteriosa Montagna dell'Anima, chiede ospitalità dai vecchi contadini, rimane incantato dalle usanze dei paesi, vive le loro feste, medita con loro nei loro templi, riporta i loro canti popolari, prende nota dei loro racconti mitici e religiosi, fa tante amicizie... Ad un certo punto fa conoscenza anche con un gigantesco panda! Certo, inizialmente, quando apri il libro e vedi che ci sono ben 650 pagina rimani un attimo di sasso, ma quando ti addentri nella lettura non riesci più a smettere! Diciamoci la verità, a chi non piace sognare mondi mitici, a chi non piace scoprire cos'è la vera umanità? La semplicità delle persone, di incontri concreti? Spesso ho trovato, nel modo di narrare di Gao e delle esperienze che ha fatto delle forti somiglianze con Tiziano Terzani, il giornalista corrispondete dell'Asia...
A questo punto, devo per forza citare dei passi del libro, a costo di dilungarmi un pochino. Inizio citando un canto di un boscaiolo di Badong: "Profonda è la notte, tranquilla è la gente, brilla la luna, rare le stelle, a intonare il canto ci prepariamo. Se lungo, la notte si farà ancor più profonda, se corto, non si arriverà all'alba, né lungo né corto deve sembrare, per non far tardare gli altri cantanti. Primo: cielo, terra e acqua, secondo: sole, luna e stelle, terzo: cinque direzioni e campi, quarto: dea dei lampi, quinto: Pangu separa cielo e terra, sesto: i tre sovrani e i cinque imperatori e tutte le generazioni di re, settimo: leoni neri ed elefanti bianchi, draghi gialli e fenici, ottavo: il cane feroce a guardia della porta, nono: folletti di monti, foreste ed acque, decimo: tigri, leopardi, lupi e sciacalli, fate largo, spostatevi, a noi cantanti permettete di entrare nell'arena!". Un'ultima citazione: "L'io nel tu non è altro che il riflesso nello specchio, l'immagine capovolta del fiore nell'acqua. Se non entri nello specchio non riuscirai a tirar fuori nulla. Innamorato invano dell'immagine, non farai che compatirti."
urikastov's review
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
disreputabledog's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ahsansenan's review against another edition
5.0
Soul Mountain is rooted in a journey that Gao made through the wilderness of China. A mis-diagnosis of lung cancer, the ailment that killed his father, forced him to confront what he believed to be his imminent death. He spent 2 weeks hanging around graveyards, reading books and eating the best food he could afford. Shortly afterward, he came under attack in a Communist Party campaign against 'spiritual pollution'. Facing the threat of labor camp, he fled for the mountains and spent 5 months roaming around 1,500 kilometers of the countryside until it was safe to return to the capital.
Soul Mountain is a historically- and culturally-aware travel memoir interspersed with magical and fantastical flights of fancy, moralistic musings, reportage on rural folklore and fables, the I,the you, and the we.
There is no plot. No character development. Only loose threads connecting each of the 81 chapters. Much like Gao's travels, without any purpose or rush, the pages of this book meanders, not always linearly. This is rural China, bureaucratic, bucolic, barbaric, and benign, all superimposed on top of one another.
Soul Mountain is a historically- and culturally-aware travel memoir interspersed with magical and fantastical flights of fancy, moralistic musings, reportage on rural folklore and fables, the I,the you, and the we.
There is no plot. No character development. Only loose threads connecting each of the 81 chapters. Much like Gao's travels, without any purpose or rush, the pages of this book meanders, not always linearly. This is rural China, bureaucratic, bucolic, barbaric, and benign, all superimposed on top of one another.
superfamoustia's review
5.0
This is barely a book. It's the at once epic and intimate journey of one man, told in different persons and with feelings sometimes instead of words (somehow), almost miraculously bound together and made tangible.
I am prone to exaggeration. But I have such specific remembrances--memories of feelings and moments of hyper-awareness--tied to this book.... For all the incredible books I have come across so far, NONE of them gave me what this book did. None of them made me so viscerally part of their story.
I am prone to exaggeration. But I have such specific remembrances--memories of feelings and moments of hyper-awareness--tied to this book.... For all the incredible books I have come across so far, NONE of them gave me what this book did. None of them made me so viscerally part of their story.