Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Flamingo (2001), Edition: New Ed, 528 pages
Description
Fiction. HTML: In 1983, Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian 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 second reprieve from death." Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing and began a journey of 15,000 kilometers into the remote mountains and ancient forests of Sichuan in southwest China. The result of this epic voyage of discovery is Soul Mountain. Bold, lyrical, and prodigious, Soul Moutain probes the human soul with an uncommon directness and candor and delights in the freedom of the imagination to expand the notion of the individual self..
User reviews
LibraryThing member John
This is a large (500 pages) novel by a winner of the Nobel for literature; I picked it up on a trip to Amsterdam. It's not easy to say what this book is about. It centres, partly, around a traveler to rural, mountainous China who is escaping the cities, his contact with a wide assortment of people
From the book, on the duality of man's nature:
The (carved) face also accurately expresses the animal nature in human beings and the fear of this animal nature within themselves. Man cannot cast off this mask, it is a projection of his own flesh and spirit. He can no longer remove from his own face this mask which has already grown like skin and flesh so he is always startled as if disbelieving this is himself, but this is in fact himself. He cannnot remove this mask and this is agony. But having manifested itself as his mask, it cannot be obliterated, because the mask is a replica of himself. It has no will of its own, or one could say it has a will but no means of expression and so prefers not to have a will. Therefore it has left man with an eternal face which he can examine himself in amazement.
(June/03)
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including women whom he tries to seduce or have a relationship with, and with frequent side forays, real or imagined, into the superstitions and practices of peasants imbued with conflicting peaceful and violent histories and tendencies. This is a novel, to some extent, about the clash between ancient ways and the "modernism" of Communist China and in particular the Cultural Revolution. One of the most pernicious is the environmental degradation that is everywhere evident, particularly in the wanton destruction of ancient forests. But Gao does not pine for the old days as the answer to modern ailments; a very strong theme throughout the novel, in all sorts of situations, is the abysmal treatment of girls and women as chattel (if they are lucky) and, more likely, as sexual cattle to be gang-raped at will. It is an interesting "novel', and unlike others in its structure (one reviewer compared the approach to WG Sebald, but I'm not sure I agree with that). Maybe I was not in the mood for this type of book, but I have to admit that I grew a little tired of it all and began to find things repetitious and less interesting. I gave up a couple of hundred pages short of the final page.From the book, on the duality of man's nature:
The (carved) face also accurately expresses the animal nature in human beings and the fear of this animal nature within themselves. Man cannot cast off this mask, it is a projection of his own flesh and spirit. He can no longer remove from his own face this mask which has already grown like skin and flesh so he is always startled as if disbelieving this is himself, but this is in fact himself. He cannnot remove this mask and this is agony. But having manifested itself as his mask, it cannot be obliterated, because the mask is a replica of himself. It has no will of its own, or one could say it has a will but no means of expression and so prefers not to have a will. Therefore it has left man with an eternal face which he can examine himself in amazement.
(June/03)
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LibraryThing member bibliobibuli
Soul Mountain- Gao Xingjian - another reading group choice. Only 2 out of 10 of us managed to get past the opening chapters. I did like some episodes, but overall found it incredibly slow, miserable, meandering and plotless. To add insult to injury, towards the end of the book the guy actually has
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a good laugh about his book being unreadable! If anyone has any doubt that the Nobel is awarded on a political rather than a literary agenda, this clinches it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ashwell
Not an easy read. So intense that it's overwhelming; poetic, melancholy, surreal, beautiful. One of my favourite books.
LibraryThing member autumnesf
Book written by an intellectual that wandered around China for a few years to keep from being arrested. It is a work of fiction but is based on his travels and the things running through his mind. It lost me at times but it was an enjoyable read. Not a have to have, check it out of the library.
LibraryThing member evet
Every evening I pick up this book, read a bit, doze off, awaken and read a bit more. Then I put it down frustrated and determined that I will return it to the kibbutz library unfinished. Perhaps I will. But China fascinates me...
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
This book holds the impressive record of being the worst I have ever read! Impossible to follow, because if any scene showed any signs of being interesting the narrative immediately switched to something entirely new. There weren't any characters as such, just obscure beings labelled 'you' and 'he'
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and 'she'. The blurb on the back cover promised a 'journey into modern day China', which sounded absolutely fascinating and persuaded me to buy it. Unfortunately the text does nothing to conjure up modern day China, and the novel could just as easily have been set in modern day Milton Keynes. Show Less
LibraryThing member veracite
No longer determined to finish it. The abuse is too distressing. Not even Gao's fairly gorgeous prose can make up for my distress.
One quarter of the way in Gao Xingjian continues to be a remarkable writer but I'm over the raping and suicide of women theme in the storytelling. He is telling these
Still, determined to finish it this time.
One quarter of the way in Gao Xingjian continues to be a remarkable writer but I'm over the raping and suicide of women theme in the storytelling. He is telling these
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stories to a suicidally depressed woman he picked up in a village. A woman he is sexually attracted to. Or perhaps I will be surprised and discover she is telling these stories to herself, a symptom of her fear and flight?Still, determined to finish it this time.
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LibraryThing member veracite
No longer determined to finish it. The abuse is too distressing. Not even Gao's fairly gorgeous prose can make up for my distress.
One quarter of the way in Gao Xingjian continues to be a remarkable writer but I'm over the raping and suicide of women theme in the storytelling. He is telling these
Still, determined to finish it this time.
One quarter of the way in Gao Xingjian continues to be a remarkable writer but I'm over the raping and suicide of women theme in the storytelling. He is telling these
Show More
stories to a suicidally depressed woman he picked up in a village. A woman he is sexually attracted to. Or perhaps I will be surprised and discover she is telling these stories to herself, a symptom of her fear and flight?Still, determined to finish it this time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mbmackay
Good read, but a little over-rated - not Nobel prize winning stuff.
Read in Samoa, April 2002
Read in Samoa, April 2002
LibraryThing member jonfaith
Context is important. I was newly married and jumping through all sorts of bureaucratic hoops. I found a stack of copies of this novel remaindered. I bought them all. I mailed one to my wife and gave the others way. I then read this in tandem with a friend who was being chucked out of his house.
A month later while on the tube in London I saw someone reading it. I wanted to warm him. Maybe my reluctance to do so stemmed from an awareness of context.
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Oh, it wasn't a foreclosure. He was leaving his wife, though sooner than he expected, obviously. I then began dogpaddling through this morass of a novel rife with nature and strange sex. It didn't reach me. I don't think my friend was touched either.A month later while on the tube in London I saw someone reading it. I wanted to warm him. Maybe my reluctance to do so stemmed from an awareness of context.
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Awards
Nobel Prize in Literature (2000)
Language
Original language
Chinese
Original publication date
1990 (original Chinese)
2000 (English: Lee)
Physical description
528 p.; 5.08 inches
ISBN
0007119232 / 9780007119233