Reviews - The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of The Journey to the West

512 reviews for:

The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of The Journey to the West

Wu Ch'eng-En, Anthony C. Yu

3.91 AVERAGE

ducksfloat's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Everything is "it's complicated"

So fun and goofy and also a little more

big_dub_dostoevsky's review against another edition

3.25

Really cool reading any old works, you get a taste of life and culture from that time period.
Not technically that good of a book, but very interesting to read.

hannahbrennan's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

goober12's review against another edition

4.0

A fun time!

cjloveman's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

astronad's review against another edition

5.0

fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Genuinely so funny. I think Julia Lovell did a fantastic job translating.

Wukong has always been one of my fave characters of all time and it’s crazy that I’ve never read the original source material. He’s just as much of a carefree highly competent menace as he is in every adaptation. Actually most adaptations stay true to each of the character’s personalities except a few that make Tripitaka less of a crybaby (a mistake by the way, pitiful Tripitaka adds so much to the story).

While this translation wasn’t the full Journey to the West (Lovell did explain that she translated only a selection of chapters) it was still a full story, we got the start, we got the end, and we got a majority of the middle. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything.

Since I was introduced to the story of The Monkey King as a child, the shrinking circlet around Wukong’s head has always been such an uncomfortable idea for me. I’m glad to have read this book and to finally witness its removal at the very end, something in me was also freed lmao.