Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
adventurous
medium-paced
I still stand by tweet that Tripitaka is a wimp and I much prefer Sanzo from Saiyuki lmao, but it's really neat reading the story in its original context and recognizing what's been changed/altered across adaptations and retellings.
Short, sweet and utterly goddamn insane. Seriously, there are more wild ideas in this book than I could have come up with in years! A treasure trove of inspiration for years to come!
I have not enjoyed this book as much as I wanted to. It is an abridged version of the Journey to the West, and at moments it feels rushed. The battles are not detailed and finish in one sentence. I am a big lover of the Greek and Norse mythologies which more or less tend to have at least one foot on the ground when it comes to protagonists, emotional maturity, or responsibility. However, in Monkey, you will find that the extent of the magical abilities of the main protagonist is almost comical and the tone of the book provides a childish note to it. Having that in mind when approaching this book you won't be disappointed.
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book online for a university history class, and I cram read it to write a paper on it. I did actually like the story, it had good teachings relating to religions.
A very readable translation by Arthur Waley of the Chinese classic, attributed not without debate to the Ming writer Wu Cheng'en. Waley translated 30 chapters out of the original 100, choosing to keep those 30 chapters more or less intact, instead of printing excerpts from all chapters. It's the right decision, I think, since the intention was to produce a reading text. Nothing more annoying than to read disjointed and scattered episodes from a long narrative. Still, he removed most of the poems and much of the religious reference from the original, as scholars point out, and the result has been described as more of a retelling than a translation. This retelling focuses very much on the wit, humor, and inventiveness of the original. It "universalizes" the text at the expense of some of its particularities.
This was a abridged version of the famous Chinese tale Journey to the West. And while I found the story interesting, I also found it kinda confusing and the story seemed to lose me at times.
