Product Description

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2000. Part travel diary, part philosophy, part love story, 'Soul Mountain' is an elegant, unforgettable novel that journeys deep into the heart of modern-day China. In 1982 Chinese playwright, novelist and artist Gao Xingjian was diagnosed with lung cancer, the very disease that had killed his father. For six weeks Gao inhabited a transcendental state of imminent death, treating himself to the finest foods he could afford while spending time reading in an old graveyard in the Beijing suburbs. But a secondary examination revealed there was no cancer -- he had won a 'reprieve from death' and had been thrown back into the world of the living. Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing. He travelled first to the ancient forests of central China and from there to the east coast, passing through eight provinces and seven nature reserves, a journey of fifteen thousand kilometres over a period of five months. The result of this epic voyage of discovery is 'Soul Mountain'. Interwoven into this picaresque journey are myriad stories and countless memorable characters -- from venerable Daoist masters and Buddhist monks and nuns to mythical Wild Men; deadly Qichun snakes to farting buses. Conventions are challenged, preconceptions are thwarted and the human condition, with all its foibles and triumphs, is laid bare.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32499 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-20
• Original language: Mandarin Chinese
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
'Gao's portraits of fellow wanderers, farmers and party officials are vivid and shine a light on their place and time. The language (wonderfully translated by Mabel Lee) is luminous and tactile!There's a feeling of entering and moving through a place we had seen only through mist.' Time Out 'When he writes of his experiences in the real world, Gao transcends cultural barriers. A good story will out in any language, and when Gao is good he is staggeringly so. His writing about the Cultural Revolution is remarkable.' Daily Telegraph 'A picaresque novel on an epic scale!"Soul Mountain" bristles with narratives in miniature -- stories from ancient Chinese history, folk tales, childhood reminiscences, memories of the Cultural Revolution, as well as bitter arguments and passionate sex. Gao's aim is to represent "the ineffability of life", and, as far as that is possible to do, he has done it in this complex, rich and strange novel.' Independent on Sunday

About the Author
Gao Xingjian ('gow shing-jen') is the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in 1940 in Jiangxi province in eastern China, he earned a degree in French in Beijing, and embarked on a life of letters. Choosing exile in 1987, he settled in Paris, where he completed 'Soul Mountain' two years later. In 1992 he was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He is a playwright and painter as well as a fiction writer and critic.

Customer Reviews

Enigmatic essence of contemporary China.
Gao Xingjian was the winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Chinese author ever to be so honoured. In 1983 Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian (pronounced gow shing-jen) was diagnosed with lung cancer and faced imminent death. But six weeks later, a second examination revealed there was no cancer, he had won a reprieve from death and was back in the world of the living. Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing. He travelled to the remote mountains and ancient forests of Sichuan in Southwest China and from there back to the East Coast, a journey of fifteen thousand kilometres over a period of five months. The result of this epic voyage of discovery is his novel "Soul Mountain."

If a fiction writer could know the true stories of the people he passes on the street, then he would be amazed. This is a bold, lyrical, prodigious novel, which probes the human soul with an uncommon directness and candour. Interwoven with the myriad of stories and countless memorable characters, from venerable Daosit masters and Buddhist nuns to mythical Wild Men, deadly Qichun snakes, and farting buses, is the narrator's poignant inner journey and search for freedom.

Fleeing the social conformity required by the Communist government, he wanders deep into the regions of the Qiang, Miago, and Yi peoples located on the fringes of Han Chinese civilisation and discovers a plethora of different traditions, history, legends, folk songs, and landscapes. Slowly, with the help of memory, imagination, and sensory experience, he reconstructs his personal past. He laments the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the ecology, both human and physical, of China. And in a polyphony of narrating selves, the narrator's "I" spawns a "you," a "she," and a "he," each with a distinct perspective and voice, the novel delights in the freedom of the imagination to expand the notion of the individual self.

Storytelling saves the narrator from a deep loneliness that is part of the human condition. His search for meaning, in life, in the journey, turns up the possibility that there may be no meaning. The elusive Lingshan "Soul Mountain," which becomes the object of his quest, never yields up its secrets, but the journey is a rich, strange, provocative, and rewarding one. This is truly a novel of immense wisdom and profound beauty.

A Lucid Journey Through Maoist China
I'm scarcely inclined to give 5 stars (I don't like to use full marks in vain), but this book is one of those rare pieces of art that is as much an experience as a novel. The first word that springs to mind when reviewing this book, and probably the best way to describe it, is "lucid". There is a tranquility to the writing that I found so accomodating, and being a relatively slow reader I find that 400 pages plus can often drag, but it honestly never did with 'Soul Mountain'.

To talk content, this is one man's journey around China in exile, having been forced to rome the expansive lands of his home nation to avoid arrest from the communist police that take a distaste to "Spiritual Pollution", or free expression and creativity that is deemed in opposition to the Maoist regime. To call it a "travelogue", however, would be misleading - to use a cliche, it is as much a journey into the author's soul and psyche as a more literal journey. The pronouns used in reference to the author change, usually, with each chapter - usually alternating between "I" and "You" for the first half of the novel, and then later also breaking into "He" (he apparently does this to distance himself from certain aspects of his personality, as if both he and the reader are looking down on himself from above - and also because he is lonely). I personally enjoyed the "you" sections the most, as they are the more personal accounts of a relationship between the author and an unnamed woman (referred to as "she").

Ignore reviews that talk about it being too experimental - if no-one experiments, how can literature move forward? Also ignore comments that it is too hard to read - there is no real cohesion, and this may be confusing, but never hard - I never experienced the apathy I have with books that I consider hard going, such as Heller's "Catch 22". Read this book for the comforting, zen-like narrative that you will experience if you truly let yourself go with this book. Don't try to analyse or scrutinise it (the author often does that himself, anyway), and just enjoy this book for what it is: an autobiographical masterpiece from a truly deserving Nobel Prize winner.

Interesting but at times a little hard
This book's main theme is that of a journey, the journey of one man, spiritually and phsyically. Indeed, it is a journey that Xingjian undertook himself, after being "cleared" of cancer, he fled from Beijing to escape a possible threat of prison.
This novel has many characters, and therefore many different themes and questions are raised. For example, alternate chapters address the reader, while discussing a relationship with a woman. This has the effect of studying how people interact with each other, as well as how people make their own journeys in everyday life in order to discover something about themselves spirirtually.
The way Xingjian introduces the different characters and different themes is by making the novel read like a set of fables or myths, each one with their own moral, yet each one connects and is related to what has occurred before.
This is an extraordinary novel, so that although it may be a little hard going at times, it never makes you want to turn away from it. It has many insights and is highly entertaining. You really should read this book! It's quite different from all the other books in the shops today.