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A review by nvciel
The Monkey and the Monk: An Abridgment of the Journey to the West by Wu Ch'eng-En
4.0
This is the abridged version of The Journey to the West. Anthony C. Yu translated the original piece into four volumes. The Monkey and The Monk is the condensed version from four to one volume. I love how the author mixed the poetry with narration. The first two chapters were very similar to The Creation in the Holy Bible. Very beautiful.
I was very intrigued by how complicated and bureaucratic heaven is. There is a god for every task no matter how small.
I was disappointed by the amount of the book dedicated to the monkey king. He is definitely a trouble maker. The book is 497 pages long and The Journey west begins on page 203. That is a lot of monkey business! There is a list of all the trials the monk had to overcome on page 466. Reading the list I thought over and over again that I wished that adventure had been included. I do question the adventures Yu did include regarding women. I guess there is a backstory to that. I am also curious about the many pages devoted to characters and situations that dead-ended. We were introduced to woodcutters which had no connection to the story. At least as far as I could tell.
Don’t get me wrong. This edition is a marvelous feat but it focuses on the monkey king. I would love to read an edition that focuses on the adventures on the Journey west. I know that this story is huge in Asia. A correlation might be Star Wars. I would love to see the movie and tv series. I have read and watched the Japanese Saiyuki anime version which I dearly love.
This was a fun read!
I was very intrigued by how complicated and bureaucratic heaven is. There is a god for every task no matter how small.
I was disappointed by the amount of the book dedicated to the monkey king. He is definitely a trouble maker. The book is 497 pages long and The Journey west begins on page 203. That is a lot of monkey business! There is a list of all the trials the monk had to overcome on page 466. Reading the list I thought over and over again that I wished that adventure had been included. I do question the adventures Yu did include regarding women. I guess there is a backstory to that. I am also curious about the many pages devoted to characters and situations that dead-ended. We were introduced to woodcutters which had no connection to the story. At least as far as I could tell.
Don’t get me wrong. This edition is a marvelous feat but it focuses on the monkey king. I would love to read an edition that focuses on the adventures on the Journey west. I know that this story is huge in Asia. A correlation might be Star Wars. I would love to see the movie and tv series. I have read and watched the Japanese Saiyuki anime version which I dearly love.
This was a fun read!