Scan barcode
textpublishing's review against another edition
The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of Heart Sutra
‘Picaresque, but with serious matters of faith, love, and political wrangling at its fast-beating heart.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘Intriguing satire…[Yan Lianke’s] barbs against organised religion frequently hit their targets…[T]here is plenty to admire.’
Booklist
‘Heart Sutra is a warm-hearted, if not gentle, satire that skewers religious institutions without mocking faith itself...by its end, it has moved through absurdity, darkness, and body horror into a strange and flickering form of hope...a deeply satisfying read...Yan's storytelling has a luminous, irrepressible quality...in its darkness, it shines.’
NPR
‘Extremely intriguing…Glimpses of early Salman Rushdie.’
RNZ Nine to Noon
‘In the realm of Olga Tokarczuk…There are a lot of things that I really love about this book.’
95bFM Loose Reads
‘Picaresque, but with serious matters of faith, love, and political wrangling at its fast-beating heart.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘Intriguing satire…[Yan Lianke’s] barbs against organised religion frequently hit their targets…[T]here is plenty to admire.’
Booklist
‘Heart Sutra is a warm-hearted, if not gentle, satire that skewers religious institutions without mocking faith itself...by its end, it has moved through absurdity, darkness, and body horror into a strange and flickering form of hope...a deeply satisfying read...Yan's storytelling has a luminous, irrepressible quality...in its darkness, it shines.’
NPR
‘Extremely intriguing…Glimpses of early Salman Rushdie.’
RNZ Nine to Noon
‘In the realm of Olga Tokarczuk…There are a lot of things that I really love about this book.’
95bFM Loose Reads
constantinareads's review against another edition
3.0
This is a really good book from China that explores how religion and everyday life are connected. It also talks about how the government and the approved religions interact with each other. Perhaps my interest in Buddhism helped me understand and connect with the dilemmas faced by the characters, but I don't think it's essential. The author's use of irony and satire adds enjoyment to the book. The author's descriptions are pretty and have a lot of detail. I didn't really like the beginning of this book, but by the second part I became very interested in it.
mweis's review against another edition
1.25
*I received an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*
I don’t feel comfortable publicly rating this because I don’t think I am smart enough for this book, and because my ratings tend to weigh more heavily on enjoyment I don’t want to give this a low rating because I felt dumb. I did appreciate the insight into this author’s perception of Chinese society and spent quite some time thinking about this book and how it related to my own experience with Chinese culture.
This is a darkly satirical novel told in a fragmented manner. On the surface it’s a love story between a Buddhist jade nun and a Daoist master, but it’s also a commentary on corruption and division and faith and organized religion and humanity.
The author’s note and translator’s note at the end did help me appreciate what this book is trying to do, so I do recommend checking those out to see if this might be a book for you. I also loved the paper cuts interwoven through the story and how that legend connected to the rest of the story.
I don’t feel comfortable publicly rating this because I don’t think I am smart enough for this book, and because my ratings tend to weigh more heavily on enjoyment I don’t want to give this a low rating because I felt dumb. I did appreciate the insight into this author’s perception of Chinese society and spent quite some time thinking about this book and how it related to my own experience with Chinese culture.
This is a darkly satirical novel told in a fragmented manner. On the surface it’s a love story between a Buddhist jade nun and a Daoist master, but it’s also a commentary on corruption and division and faith and organized religion and humanity.
The author’s note and translator’s note at the end did help me appreciate what this book is trying to do, so I do recommend checking those out to see if this might be a book for you. I also loved the paper cuts interwoven through the story and how that legend connected to the rest of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Injury/Injury detail
nebelgazer's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
hb0326's review
I don’t think I understand enough about religion or Chinese culture to fully grasp the satirical nature of this book. However, I did read all the passages with the papercuts and enjoyed those a lot.
vetathebooksurfer's review against another edition
4.0
Heart Sutra by Yan Lianke
TW: mutilating one’s genitals (non-graphic), brief self-harm and blood (graphic)
The author himself compares his book to Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion or Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and while most of these books are serious, this is a satiric version of religious scholars’ life narration.
While modern life is rather secular, many societies treat religion with at-most respect, but what if respect itself is calculated in upgrading a centre to university, providing bigger salary the higher your scholar achievements are, or making friends with higher authorities?
I have to mention that some of the religion points might be critical, but how can it be otherwise, when your protagonists are naive school-girl from a village in the middle of nowhere, corrupt boss and social climber boy?
The Buddhist orphan school-girl suddenly finds herself with no guidance, while her shifu is hospitalized, eventually falling for a Daoist boy, apparently an out-of-wedlock child of an authority, but which one - no one knows. The religious centre at the National Politics University in Beijing welcomes disciples from five religions: Buddhists, Daoists, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims, being the most popular religions in China. While the authority-figure is extremely power-hungry, he didn’t of anything better rather than provide a research paper on athletics impact on cross-religion communication.
Thus all the disiples regardless of genre are urge to participate in tug-of-war faculty championship…
Between people rooting for the one god than for the other, entering Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery at provincial level, rather than on prefecture level, because finding one’s father among higher-ups is surely better, a Buddhist stopping at nothing to get an apartment in the district, where Buddhists were once imprisoned, the narration flows quite okay. And definitely thanks to both author and translator proving separate notes at the end of the novel, even an atheist like me gets the point.
Warning: I watched closely on the Muslims portrayal in this book, ultimately we’ll see that in authors opinion having a general life of hardship and being all clean and goody-goody is both unappealing. Eventually we learn that every person in this narration has both messed up at some point and had a chance at redemption.
Ян Лянкэ «Сутра Сердца»
Этот китайский писатель уже заслужил себе репутацию сатирическими рассказами, хоть я встречаю его впервые. Если в «Братьях Карамазовых» убийца сам приходит к подозреваемому, и они вдвоем ищут бога, то здесь представители пяти религий, собранных под крышей религиозного центра при пекинском политическом университете, ищут уважения и признания своих заслуг.
Автор открыто говорит, что современное ему общество, хоть и весьма светское, но религию уважает. И как, спрашивается, светскому обществу подобающим образом уважать религию, если само уважение исчисляется в ежемесячной прибавке за получение академической степени, повышении центра до факультета или быть на короткой ноге с районными властями?
Конечно, религии предстают в романе не в самом лучшем свете, но какой она еще может быть, если ваши протагонисты а) наивная девчонка из деревни, которой хочется квартиру в столице, б) мальчишка-карьерист, в) начальник-взяточник? Причем, если девушка-буддистка как оступилась, так и встала на путь истинный, пацан и их начальник будут дурака валять еще долго.
Внутри книги система такая: если директор вашего центра получает академическую степень, центр повышается до факультета, получая соответствующее финансирование, возможности для учащихся, повышается престиж заведения и т.д. Директору пришло в голову написать работу о влиянии спорта на межрелигиозное взаимодействие.
Таким образом, в центре проводятся чемпионаты по перетягиванию каната между буддистами, даосистами, мусульманами, католиками и протестантами.
Дурь? Ну да, до того момента, когда, через наивную буддистку, будущую монахиню и сироту, мы начинаем постигать, как современный, светский мир соприкасается с религиозным. Как последователи одних религий почитают за счастье взваливать на себя все больше трудностей, другие почитают за добродетель оставаться белоручками, третьи идут к поставленной цели, отрицая всякую человечность в мире, где важны только земля и небо.
TW: mutilating one’s genitals (non-graphic), brief self-harm and blood (graphic)
The author himself compares his book to Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion or Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and while most of these books are serious, this is a satiric version of religious scholars’ life narration.
While modern life is rather secular, many societies treat religion with at-most respect, but what if respect itself is calculated in upgrading a centre to university, providing bigger salary the higher your scholar achievements are, or making friends with higher authorities?
I have to mention that some of the religion points might be critical, but how can it be otherwise, when your protagonists are naive school-girl from a village in the middle of nowhere, corrupt boss and social climber boy?
The Buddhist orphan school-girl suddenly finds herself with no guidance, while her shifu is hospitalized, eventually falling for a Daoist boy, apparently an out-of-wedlock child of an authority, but which one - no one knows. The religious centre at the National Politics University in Beijing welcomes disciples from five religions: Buddhists, Daoists, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims, being the most popular religions in China. While the authority-figure is extremely power-hungry, he didn’t of anything better rather than provide a research paper on athletics impact on cross-religion communication.
Thus all the disiples regardless of genre are urge to participate in tug-of-war faculty championship…
Between people rooting for the one god than for the other, entering Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery at provincial level, rather than on prefecture level, because finding one’s father among higher-ups is surely better, a Buddhist stopping at nothing to get an apartment in the district, where Buddhists were once imprisoned, the narration flows quite okay. And definitely thanks to both author and translator proving separate notes at the end of the novel, even an atheist like me gets the point.
Warning: I watched closely on the Muslims portrayal in this book, ultimately we’ll see that in authors opinion having a general life of hardship and being all clean and goody-goody is both unappealing. Eventually we learn that every person in this narration has both messed up at some point and had a chance at redemption.
Ян Лянкэ «Сутра Сердца»
Этот китайский писатель уже заслужил себе репутацию сатирическими рассказами, хоть я встречаю его впервые. Если в «Братьях Карамазовых» убийца сам приходит к подозреваемому, и они вдвоем ищут бога, то здесь представители пяти религий, собранных под крышей религиозного центра при пекинском политическом университете, ищут уважения и признания своих заслуг.
Автор открыто говорит, что современное ему общество, хоть и весьма светское, но религию уважает. И как, спрашивается, светскому обществу подобающим образом уважать религию, если само уважение исчисляется в ежемесячной прибавке за получение академической степени, повышении центра до факультета или быть на короткой ноге с районными властями?
Конечно, религии предстают в романе не в самом лучшем свете, но какой она еще может быть, если ваши протагонисты а) наивная девчонка из деревни, которой хочется квартиру в столице, б) мальчишка-карьерист, в) начальник-взяточник? Причем, если девушка-буддистка как оступилась, так и встала на путь истинный, пацан и их начальник будут дурака валять еще долго.
Внутри книги система такая: если директор вашего центра получает академическую степень, центр повышается до факультета, получая соответствующее финансирование, возможности для учащихся, повышается престиж заведения и т.д. Директору пришло в голову написать работу о влиянии спорта на межрелигиозное взаимодействие.
Таким образом, в центре проводятся чемпионаты по перетягиванию каната между буддистами, даосистами, мусульманами, католиками и протестантами.
Дурь? Ну да, до того момента, когда, через наивную буддистку, будущую монахиню и сироту, мы начинаем постигать, как современный, светский мир соприкасается с религиозным. Как последователи одних религий почитают за счастье взваливать на себя все больше трудностей, другие почитают за добродетель оставаться белоручками, третьи идут к поставленной цели, отрицая всякую человечность в мире, где важны только земля и небо.
More...