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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
There are times when reading this novel that I stop in frustration or boredom, though the majority of the time I read this in a meditative and intimate state of mind.
I reckon the best way to read this novel is to enter in without expecting to be blown away or to have a conclusion or meaning at all to anything here. You might even find this novel to be self indulgent. Part of the charm this book had for me is the our shared culture (this was the first Chinese book I've read), though I would say I've only realised how much I liked the book when I finished reading it. There was a tangible difference in my mood whenever I picked this slow novel up across the last few weeks.
I reckon Gao never fully understood or resolved what he was struggling against after all this time, but I also feel like never fully understanding or resolving expressed the Chinese experience quite well. This novel feels like a conversation with my uncle back home in rural China.
I didn't give this book a 5/5 because it's appeal and needed mental state is very limited. Personally, this is a 5/5, for other folks, I really think it can range from 1 to 5 stars.
Personally, I loved this book, but I can't say I fully recommend it.
This was more a comment than a review wasn't it? I apologise.
I reckon the best way to read this novel is to enter in without expecting to be blown away or to have a conclusion or meaning at all to anything here. You might even find this novel to be self indulgent. Part of the charm this book had for me is the our shared culture (this was the first Chinese book I've read), though I would say I've only realised how much I liked the book when I finished reading it. There was a tangible difference in my mood whenever I picked this slow novel up across the last few weeks.
I reckon Gao never fully understood or resolved what he was struggling against after all this time, but I also feel like never fully understanding or resolving expressed the Chinese experience quite well. This novel feels like a conversation with my uncle back home in rural China.
I didn't give this book a 5/5 because it's appeal and needed mental state is very limited. Personally, this is a 5/5, for other folks, I really think it can range from 1 to 5 stars.
Personally, I loved this book, but I can't say I fully recommend it.
This was more a comment than a review wasn't it? I apologise.
I wish I could've liked this book.
I think what makes this book really difficult is how monumentally large it is - in scope and in content. Lingshan isn't just a novel or autobiography: in many chapters it also aims to preserve and archive local traditions, history, poetry, folk songs, legends, and personalities. Not an easy task, and Gao's writing and retellings often get overwhelming and a little tedious. Sometimes it feels as if he felt the need to document every village he visited - many little details are documented, important preservation but at what feels like largely the expense of the reader.
Gao's journey spans a vast chunk of China (though an appreciably long journey, one that isn't a picture of the whole country). From the mountains and forests of rural Sichuan in southwest China, he follows a route that can be traced along the Yangzi River through Guizhou and Hunan to Shanghai. The story ends with Gao in Beijing, where he originally fled from and returns after his journey.
I think the way these two points are explored in the book are pretty compelling. Gao's journeys take him to the periphery of Han Chinese civilisation - to areas traditionally occupied by ethnic minorities like the Miao, Qiang, and Yi peoples. His archival of these folk traditions feels driven by a sense of urgency. He understands the value of this preservation, and laments the loss of oral legends and stories lost to time and more crucially, human destruction. The destruction of local artefacts and history to the Cultural Revolution is a constant source of regret.
Central also to this book is a snapshot of a changing China. Gao's exploration of the industrialisation and modernisation of China, as well as the lingering effects of the Cultural Revolution and other government campaigns takes place in what feels like a forgotten part of China. There's a brief passage in the beginning of the book that's stuck with me, where Gao is in the middle of a vast mountain forest of ancient sequoia trees:
Gorgeous. The entire passage reads even better (but I can't include everything for the sake of brevity). From this point on, the reader sees overlogged forests, polluted rivers and lakes, species of animals, fish and plants going extinct, and rural villages on the verge of transforming into tourist destinations. Gao's writing isn't very opinionated much of the time, and to read this is to read what feels like an honest account.
What is particularly poor about this book is its English translation, which I can describe as atrocious at worst and "literal" at best. Chinese is a very complex language and a word for word translation is impossible. That the English translator did what she did here is tantamount to a crime. Many poems and folk songs lose their meanings in English, and though that may be excused since Chinese poems are notoriously difficult to translate, even factual historical lists are translated poorly. It's obvious that the prose in English is terrible - batshit crazy even. I'd almost certainly suggest reading the original Chinese source text or an alternate translation - because I could not imagine a worse way of adapting this text.
Part of this is why I get the sense that some literature often describes the novel as alienating to the reader. This is exceedingly true, but I think not completely by merit of the novelist himself. While it is true that the modernist prose is difficult at times, this is amplified for the entire text by a terrible translation. For a 500 page book, this proves excrutiating.
I keep returning to this in my mind, month after month. I think while I had initially mostly written it off it was nonetheless a really compelling book in hindsight. I wish I engaged with it more critically.
3.5/5
I think what makes this book really difficult is how monumentally large it is - in scope and in content. Lingshan isn't just a novel or autobiography: in many chapters it also aims to preserve and archive local traditions, history, poetry, folk songs, legends, and personalities. Not an easy task, and Gao's writing and retellings often get overwhelming and a little tedious. Sometimes it feels as if he felt the need to document every village he visited - many little details are documented, important preservation but at what feels like largely the expense of the reader.
Gao's journey spans a vast chunk of China (though an appreciably long journey, one that isn't a picture of the whole country). From the mountains and forests of rural Sichuan in southwest China, he follows a route that can be traced along the Yangzi River through Guizhou and Hunan to Shanghai. The story ends with Gao in Beijing, where he originally fled from and returns after his journey.
I think the way these two points are explored in the book are pretty compelling. Gao's journeys take him to the periphery of Han Chinese civilisation - to areas traditionally occupied by ethnic minorities like the Miao, Qiang, and Yi peoples. His archival of these folk traditions feels driven by a sense of urgency. He understands the value of this preservation, and laments the loss of oral legends and stories lost to time and more crucially, human destruction. The destruction of local artefacts and history to the Cultural Revolution is a constant source of regret.
Central also to this book is a snapshot of a changing China. Gao's exploration of the industrialisation and modernisation of China, as well as the lingering effects of the Cultural Revolution and other government campaigns takes place in what feels like a forgotten part of China. There's a brief passage in the beginning of the book that's stuck with me, where Gao is in the middle of a vast mountain forest of ancient sequoia trees:
I put out my hand to verify my existence, but I can't see it. It is only when I flick my lighter that I see my arm is raised too high, as if I were holding a flame torch. The lighter goes out even though there's no wind. The surrounding darkness becomes even thicker, boundless. Even the intermittent chirping of the autumn insects becomes mute. My ears fill with darkness, primitive darkness. So it was that man came to worship the power of fire, and thus overcame his inner fear of darkness. p. 99
Gorgeous. The entire passage reads even better (but I can't include everything for the sake of brevity). From this point on, the reader sees overlogged forests, polluted rivers and lakes, species of animals, fish and plants going extinct, and rural villages on the verge of transforming into tourist destinations. Gao's writing isn't very opinionated much of the time, and to read this is to read what feels like an honest account.
What is particularly poor about this book is its English translation, which I can describe as atrocious at worst and "literal" at best. Chinese is a very complex language and a word for word translation is impossible. That the English translator did what she did here is tantamount to a crime. Many poems and folk songs lose their meanings in English, and though that may be excused since Chinese poems are notoriously difficult to translate, even factual historical lists are translated poorly. It's obvious that the prose in English is terrible - batshit crazy even. I'd almost certainly suggest reading the original Chinese source text or an alternate translation - because I could not imagine a worse way of adapting this text.
Part of this is why I get the sense that some literature often describes the novel as alienating to the reader. This is exceedingly true, but I think not completely by merit of the novelist himself. While it is true that the modernist prose is difficult at times, this is amplified for the entire text by a terrible translation. For a 500 page book, this proves excrutiating.
I keep returning to this in my mind, month after month. I think while I had initially mostly written it off it was nonetheless a really compelling book in hindsight. I wish I engaged with it more critically.
3.5/5
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This work of art is a series of vignettes that bounce back and forth from reality to dream state. According to information available about the author, these vignettes are a combination of fiction and memoirs from the author's own life. The ideas expressed are challenging and not always clearly defined, perhaps because they tackle nebulous subjects. To add to the challenge the narrator mode shifts from you to I and sometimes to she and he. Quite a bit of the book is dedicated to the relationship of the narrator with women. The male narrator seems to assume a position of male superiority at the same time as the women described are generally indecisive and irresponsible. Frequently, the dialogue between the male and female is argumentative. However, the female voice does often enumerate the disadvantages for females and the horrors of rape are adroitly expressed. All of the above makes Soul Mountain unique, but for me, the overriding beauty of the book is found in the descriptive passages.
Yes - reading this book is like talking to a bad therapist - like it's disjointed, uncomfortable to read at times, makes little sense sometimes but offers parts that somehow really resonate and enlighten me and maybe that's bc it's so weird that no self-help book would do what this does. Idk I've been looking for a book that's fun and fresh; this book is not fun but it is fresh.
reflective
I want to start this review by making sure it's clear that I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone. I liked it some times and despised it the other, I took about a week off from reading it and then found a way to push through.
The author describes a journey to Lingshan, a place that nobody on his journey seems to know where it really is. Lingshan ends up being a metaphor to coming to peace with life, in my opinion. In this journey, he travels throughout China with each chapter being a description of a different event that are never related to each other. This book has 81 chapters, and should essentially be read as a collection of very short stories instead of a book that has a typical plot. For that, I appreciate it.
However, almost a third of these chapters are unnecessarily erotic near-sex scenes that I don't really think added anything to the narrative nor the author's journey towards Lingshan. I could go without every other page describing how "voluptuous" (a word that shows up way to much) a woman's breasts are. It really takes away from the deep and meaningful psychology that Gao writes about in the rest of the book.
I earmarked a few chapters that I think I could go back and re-read because they meant a lot to me as I was reading them. These chapters are almost exclusively in the final third of the book, when Gao seems to be losing his sanity in his journey for something he begins to realize doesn't exist. Even if there really isn't a plot to this book, you start to realize the power of the metaphor that Gao has built as you become closer to finishing it. I really enjoyed that aspect.
Before getting to page 350, I considered giving this book two stars. It finishes very strongly, and I'm glad I was able to power through it and get to the real meaningful writing of it. Again, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone but I'm glad I read it.
The author describes a journey to Lingshan, a place that nobody on his journey seems to know where it really is. Lingshan ends up being a metaphor to coming to peace with life, in my opinion. In this journey, he travels throughout China with each chapter being a description of a different event that are never related to each other. This book has 81 chapters, and should essentially be read as a collection of very short stories instead of a book that has a typical plot. For that, I appreciate it.
However, almost a third of these chapters are unnecessarily erotic near-sex scenes that I don't really think added anything to the narrative nor the author's journey towards Lingshan. I could go without every other page describing how "voluptuous" (a word that shows up way to much) a woman's breasts are. It really takes away from the deep and meaningful psychology that Gao writes about in the rest of the book.
I earmarked a few chapters that I think I could go back and re-read because they meant a lot to me as I was reading them. These chapters are almost exclusively in the final third of the book, when Gao seems to be losing his sanity in his journey for something he begins to realize doesn't exist. Even if there really isn't a plot to this book, you start to realize the power of the metaphor that Gao has built as you become closer to finishing it. I really enjoyed that aspect.
Before getting to page 350, I considered giving this book two stars. It finishes very strongly, and I'm glad I was able to power through it and get to the real meaningful writing of it. Again, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone but I'm glad I read it.
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No