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Soul Mountain

3.49 of 5 stars 3.49 · rating details · 1,809 ratings · 238 reviews

In 1983, Chinese playwright, critic, fiction writer, and painter Gao Xingjian was diagnosed with lung cancer and faced imminent death.B ut six weeks later, a second examination revealed there was no cancer -- he had won "a second reprieve from death." Faced with a repressive cultural environment and the threat of a spell in a prison farm, Gao fled Beijing and began a journ...more

Paperback, 510 pages

Published October 23rd 2001 by Harper Perennial (first published 1989)

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Apr 20, 2013 José-contemplates-Saturn's Aurora rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chin-lit

25th of February 2013;cannot help,but to refer these news:"Chinese Officials Admit 'Cancer Villages' Due To Pollution Exist"*.

http://www.ibtimes.com/chinese-offici...
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(above,Buddha Sakyamuni and Mahakayapa)

Preamble

Lingshaw means Soul Mountain.

In this book there's an enlightening preface by Noël Dutrait referring that, in China, "in the end of the 1970's there was a timid political liberalization", therefore allowing writers not to serve the (communist) party. Gao Xin...more

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May 20, 2007 Tia rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the patient, who are constantly looking for...something

Shelves: amongthebestiveread

This is barely a book. It's the at once epic and intimate journey of one man, told in different persons and with feelings sometimes instead of words (somehow), almost miraculously bound together and made tangible.

I am prone to exaggeration. But I have such specific remembrances--memories of feelings and moments of hyper-awareness--tied to this book.... For all the incredible books I have come across so far, NONE of them gave me what this book did. None of them made me so viscerally part of their...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Nick Wellings rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What is it with mountains? Be they Bare, Magic or Soulful like this, they exert a pull on the soul and they move men to poetry.

Equating height with Homeric majesty, Keats stood his Cortez silent upon a peak in Darien, to tug his conquistador’s soul towards some higher sublimity. Where Christianity has the abode of God and attendant angels reposing in the celestial crenelations of cumulonimbus and nimbostratus, Homer – grounded realist that he was, had his on semi-earthly Olympus. Not for nothin...more

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May 22, 2010 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people with previous experience with metafiction who are slightly scared of pandas.

Recommended to Alison by: I picked it up off the street.

I'd like to start with a view that dissents with those of some previous reviewers, who (in praise, often) claim that this book works outside the rules of fiction, or is unlike all other books, or isn't even a novel. Of course it is a novel, and a hyperliterary one at that--and it operates within structures of fictional form that are common (even commonplace) in the twentieth century, not to mention in earlier works that share some of its more astonishing features (such as Don Quixote). And Gao g...more I'd like to start with a view that dissents with those of some previous reviewers, who (in praise, often) claim that this book works outside the rules of fiction, or is unlike all other books, or isn't even a novel. Of course it is a novel, and a hyperliterary one at that--and it operates within structures of fictional form that are common (even commonplace) in the twentieth century, not to mention in earlier works that share some of its more astonishing features (such as Don Quixote). And Gao got a degree in French literature and appears to have been well acquainted with modernism. So there's that, to start. For people who have trouble following its nonlinear or metafictional aspects, I suggest reading the intro, and pages 312, 328, and 452--if you can't deal with them, you are probably either unprepared or constitutionally ill-disposed to reading this book. I am not a huge, huge fan of nonlinear and/or nontraditional narrative myself, but the events surrounding this book's composition in the wake of the Cultural Revolution gave it a fresh interest for me, unlike that of any of the modernist or postmodernist reading I'd previously undertaken. So to place this book within a literary context is hardly to denigrate it or to take away from what makes it wonderful (on the contrary, I think that that enriches it).

Also, if you don't know where Guizhou or Anhui are, look at a map. I promise that being able to follow the narrator's travels will increase your reading pleasure.

With all that said, there is probably something here to delight everybody, but that doesn't mean the work will be uniformly delightful for anybody except huge fans of the aforementioned types of narrative. And I for one am wholly uninterested in material having to do with either 1. spirituality, or 2. stories of middle-aged men getting it on with young women, and there's lots of both here. But I got sucked in by the travelogue, and the pandas, and the meetings with strangers, and the Miao Flying Songs....and I found myself, almost despite myself, getting interested in the cultural artifact that was Gao's attempt to map his own (or, the narrator's) self--and how those mappings must also relate to spirituality and younger women. I'm not too keen on selfhood, in general, but Gao turned me around with the varied attempts he made on it--he made it new for me. And I think it's been rather a long time since any writer at all has done that for me.(less)

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Nov 02, 2012 Oscar rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This was a difficult book to read. Not because I found Xingjian's writing style too disjointed or because I thought it was too dense, but because his gaze never seemed to swerve far away from his own navel. In the beginning the book seemed very promising but as I continued it read more and more like the recounting of a long and stupid dream.

Xingjian's preoccupation with himself reaches the point that when one character has the temerity to impose on his splendid isolation with a story of her own...more

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Aug 28, 2008 L rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone wanting a new way of looking at fiction

Recommended to L by: someone on cafe mom, I forgot who

This book can only be described as wonderfully unusual, outside the realm of the traditional work of fiction. I imagine that the book could almost be considered a memoir because the narrator has a lot of the author's same experiences.(as provided in a short introduction)My first reaction was that this book was very artistic in it's writing. The narrator seems to paint the setting in the readers mind with his descriptions while setting the mood with words so immersed in his own mood that I couldn...more

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Mar 03, 2008 Milo Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Soul Mountain is one of those works that in it's native culture and language is a rather conventional piece whose virtues lie chiefly in it's substance rather than any exotic formal philosophy, but in English becomes completely insane. An example of the wonderful things the Chinese have done with S.O.C. novels, the book is constructed without any named foreground characters, using pronouns to differentiate it's cast. The book starts out with "you," eventually introducing a "she," a "he" and then...more

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Feb 04, 2008 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Update: What an amazing book. I truly have never read anything like it, and I found some of the observations and insights to be thrilling. Oddly, I found myself enraptured by the descriptions of the Chinese landscapes more than anything else. There is much to be awed by--fables, stories-within-stories, heartbreaking recollections of the Cultural Revolution--but it was the lengthy passages about China's mountains, forests and (increasingly polluted) rivers that kept me reading more than anything...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Dana rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one I know

Recommended to Dana by: No one, It was a gift

This book won a Nobel for liturature but, I have to admit it was a strugle for me to get through. It is over 500 pages and I have NEVER been so glad to be done with a book.
The author frequently refers to China's many Dynastys and The Culturol Revolution ( a very sad time for the people of China and their culture. ) Perhaps if I was more familiar with the history of China and the culture I may have enjoyed the book.Perhaps something was lost in translation ? Much of it was very metaphysical, phy...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gao Xingjian Soul Mountain
This is not an easy work to some up. As a critic speaking with one of the narrative perspectives says, Gao has 'slapped together travel notes, moralistic ramblings, feelings, notes, jottings, untheoretical discussions, unfable-like fables, copied out some folk songs, added some legend like nonsense of [his] own invention, and [is] calling it fiction.” A combination I found utterly bewitching.

Fiction is perhaps the wrong way to think about Soul Mountain. A landscape woul...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Carlos Manzano rated it 5 of 5 stars

Confieso que no conocía a Gao Xingjian hasta que le concedieron el Premio Nobel en el año 2000 y que leí “La montaña del alma” gracias a un oportuno regalo. Sea como sea, “La montaña del alma” es una obra sorprendente no solo por su carencia de hilo narrativo al uso, sino por su multiplicidad de significados y la diversidad de voces que transitan sus páginas a la búsqueda de ese alma intangible y misteriosa que da nombre a la montaña –pese a todo siempre esquiva e inalcanzable–. La novela encaja...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Francesco Camagna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biografia, viaggio

Non so proprio come definire quest'opera... C'è un pò di tutto, soprattutto la vita dell'autore che si amalgama ai suoi viaggi veri e fantastici, alle sue esperienze d'amore e di amicizia... Pesante, molto dura la sua fuga dalla Rivoluzione Culturale, dove si bruciavano libri antichi e si distruggevano le usanze, le religioni, i templi e si scacciavano i monaci... e i letterati! Amici, potrei citare centinaia di bellissimi passaggi di questo straordinario libro, scritto con una ricercatezza poet...more Non so proprio come definire quest'opera... C'è un pò di tutto, soprattutto la vita dell'autore che si amalgama ai suoi viaggi veri e fantastici, alle sue esperienze d'amore e di amicizia... Pesante, molto dura la sua fuga dalla Rivoluzione Culturale, dove si bruciavano libri antichi e si distruggevano le usanze, le religioni, i templi e si scacciavano i monaci... e i letterati! Amici, potrei citare centinaia di bellissimi passaggi di questo straordinario libro, scritto con una ricercatezza poetica, piena di amore per la natura e per gli uomini... In sostanza l'autore fugge e cerca la misteriosa Montagna dell'Anima, chiede ospitalità dai vecchi contadini, rimane incantato dalle usanze dei paesi, vive le loro feste, medita con loro nei loro templi, riporta i loro canti popolari, prende nota dei loro racconti mitici e religiosi, fa tante amicizie... Ad un certo punto fa conoscenza anche con un gigantesco panda! Certo, inizialmente, quando apri il libro e vedi che ci sono ben 650 pagina rimani un attimo di sasso, ma quando ti addentri nella lettura non riesci più a smettere! Diciamoci la verità, a chi non piace sognare mondi mitici, a chi non piace scoprire cos'è la vera umanità? La semplicità delle persone, di incontri concreti? Spesso ho trovato, nel modo di narrare di Gao e delle esperienze che ha fatto delle forti somiglianze con Tiziano Terzani, il giornalista corrispondete dell'Asia... A questo punto, devo per forza citare dei passi del libro, a costo di dilungarmi un pochino. Inizio citando un canto di un boscaiolo di Badong: "Profonda è la notte, tranquilla è la gente, brilla la luna, rare le stelle, a intonare il canto ci prepariamo. Se lungo, la notte si farà ancor più profonda, se corto, non si arriverà all'alba, né lungo né corto deve sembrare, per non far tardare gli altri cantanti. Primo: cielo, terra e acqua, secondo: sole, luna e stelle, terzo: cinque direzioni e campi, quarto: dea dei lampi, quinto: Pangu separa cielo e terra, sesto: i tre sovrani e i cinque imperatori e tutte le generazioni di re, settimo: leoni neri ed elefanti bianchi, draghi gialli e fenici, ottavo: il cane feroce a guardia della porta, nono: folletti di monti, foreste ed acque, decimo: tigri, leopardi, lupi e sciacalli, fate largo, spostatevi, a noi cantanti permettete di entrare nell'arena!". Un'ultima citazione: "L'io nel tu non è altro che il riflesso nello specchio, l'immagine capovolta del fiore nell'acqua. Se non entri nello specchio non riuscirai a tirar fuori nulla. Innamorato invano dell'immagine, non farai che compatirti." (less)

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Jul 31, 2012 Satch rated it 3 of 5 stars

My review for the book club I moderate:

The International Fiction Book Club met on the evening of April 18th, 2012 to discuss “Soul Mountain” by the Nobel Prize winning author from China, Gao Xingjian. During the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution this author burned hundreds of manuscripts for fear of having them discovered by “those who oppose spiritual pollution”. Then, in 1983, he was diagnosed with lung cancer only to be given a reprieve six weeks later by a follow-up x-ray. As the ax of ce...more My review for the book club I moderate:

The International Fiction Book Club met on the evening of April 18th, 2012 to discuss “Soul Mountain” by the Nobel Prize winning author from China, Gao Xingjian. During the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution this author burned hundreds of manuscripts for fear of having them discovered by “those who oppose spiritual pollution”. Then, in 1983, he was diagnosed with lung cancer only to be given a reprieve six weeks later by a follow-up x-ray. As the ax of censorship was about to fall again, he decided to leave Beijing and take what amounted to a walkabout into remote mountain terrain in Southern China. The result of this expedition into the soul of a man and a country is this novel.

Xingjian asks himself, “how should I change this life for which I had just won a reprieve”. He opens the book traveling on a train where the interplay of rattling teacups with a fellow passenger leads to a conversation. Intrigued by the man’s destination, the protagonist of the book, decides to make Soul Mountain his goal. Throughout his travels he encounters Daoist priests, Buddhist monks and a way of village life that will soon be wiped off the earth by the creation of “The Three Gorges Damn”. The first approximate half of the book alternates between 1st person and 2nd person narratives with the 1st person that of a wanderer and his chance meetings whereas the 2nd person creates a dialog with a fictitious woman who may or may not be someone the author has met along the way whom he fantasizes about.

As the book progresses, the traveler becomes more entangled in digressions that lead to both memorable descriptions of ancient ways of life and a transition from daydream like dialogs with a woman accomplice to nightmare visions of reality beyond his control. At one point he acts as a collector of folk songs as a way to avoid suspicion among the village elders who view his card from the Writers Union as an attempt by the government to expose their way of life as unpatriotic. Needless to say, the traveler never reaches Soul Mountain. The directions are ever changing and the best advice he receives comes from a Buddhist monk who tells him, “the true traveler is without a goal, it is the absence of goals which creates the ultimate traveler”. In 1987, Xingjian left China for Paris where he finished Soul Mountain 1989. He won the Nobel in 2000.(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Jeremy Eagles rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-fiction

This is my favorite book. It is also the most difficult book I think I have ever read, apart from 100 years of solitude. I really enjoyed struggling through the shifting point of view in the narrative, and when the speaker finally resolved from 1st, second, and third person narrative late in the novel, I found it to be a revelation. Although, on the surface, this novel traces the external and internal journey of a political dissident trying to begin anew, in between the lines of prose, the write...more

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Nov 23, 2011 Lauren rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: college, realistic-fiction

This book is long, incomprehensible, and downright annoying for me. Yet, it won the Nobel prize for literature in 2000. So in other words, if you read it for your own intellectual advancement, it’s fantastic. If not, well, you may just want to find another book.

Essentially, what makes the book frustrating is that it is not consistent or logical in any imaginable way. It doesn’t have any main characters. Instead, Gao Xingjian refers to his main characters simply as I, You, He, and She. When the

...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Ethan Cramer-Flood rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gao Xingjian is the first, and only, Chinese author to win the Nobel prize for literature, which he won in 2000. He's primarily a playwright, but he's written a couple of novels, and Soul Mountain was mentioned by the Nobel committee as his magnum opus and the primary cause for the award. Thus, if my quest is to explore Chinese fiction before my move, this is an obvious pick.

In the early 1980s Gao -- who was already a semi-renowned literary figure and theater director in the underground art scen...more

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Jul 18, 2009 Samantha Marshall rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gao's book is about the competing needs for solitude and company within the self and how indulging one, harms the other. Gao was a writer in Communist China who lost most of his counter-revolutionary works during the cultural revolution when he felt forced to burn them all or suffer the consequences. He was then diagnosed and upon returning to his doctor undiagnosed with cancer. Feeling he had a reprieve, he leaves Beijing to join to wander near the Lu river for a few months by himself and hopef...more

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Jul 17, 2009 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: autobiography, spirituality, folklore

First, let me say, this is NOT an easy read. Second, I would not have enjoyed this book had I not read this book during a course I was taking at a Humanities college (so I had help with its interpretation).

That being said, it is a 5* book all the way.

What is challenging, is it is a book in which the narrator starts off auto-biographically telling his life story emerging from post-Cultural Revolution China in the early 80s with a life threatening cancer and threat of imprisonment. When his diagn...more

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Mar 21, 2008 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: guardian-100-greatest-books

I feel decidedly guilty and 'unliterary' giving a negative review of this book, but it just was not for me. It's a meditation on identity, and his writing is certainly innovative and probably the best way to explore the subject, but it made the book a long slog for me. The fact that someone talks about a woman being raped nearly every chapter (of which there are 80) was also something that made this read a difficult one for me. Glad I read it, glad it's over.

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Apr 18, 2009 Stephen Gallup is currently reading it

I'm likely to be a long time reading this tome.

As far as I know, no other readrs have commented on the dreamlike, or even Kafkaesque, quality that some passages have, such as:

May I walk with you? Again, this is really a stupid thing to say.
You're really a funny person, you seem to hear her mumbling. She looks reproachful and yet approving. However you can tell she's trying to look cheerful...

Thus far in my progress, the above is about as dramatic as any passages get. The rest are detached sum...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Gathienology rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nobel

Đây là review của Vũ Hoàng Linh:

Nhớ khi mua và bắt đầu đọc Linh Sơn ở Việt Nam, thấy rất thích, bạn bèn nhắn SMS cho một số người: “Ấy/cậu/em đọc Linh Sơn chưa. Tớ/anh đang đọc đấy. Hay lắm”. Thế nhưng, cũng phải sau hai tháng, bạn mới đọc xong được cuốn sách có độ dày hơn 600 trang này, trong buổi tối cuối cùng của năm Tuất.

Có thể nói gì về Linh Sơn và Cao Hành Kiện? Bạn cảm thấy khó nhận xét về cuốn sách đó. Ngoại trừ bạn cảm giác đó là một cuốn sách rất đẹp, hơn nữa, như lời của Hội đồng tr...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Erwin Maack rated it 5 of 5 stars

Por essa época , o indivíduo não existia, não havia diferença entre o "eu" e "você". O "eu" apareceu muito no início por causa do medo da morte; a coisa estranha que não era "eu" transformou-se no que era chamado você. O homem então ainda era incapaz de ter medo de si próprio, seu conhecimento de si vinha unicamente do outro. Só o fato de considerar ou de ser considerado, de ser submetido ou de submeter, o confirmava em sua existência. A terceira pessoa, que não tem relação direta com "eu" e "v...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Chana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: china, literature-fiction

First of all, if you are insomniac then this book might help. I could barely read 3 pages at a time before falling deeply asleep.

Second, this is a very unusual book. I would liken it to watching the scenery roll by from a train. Everything flashes by, sometimes you stop and look at something more closely, then off you go again, flash, flash, flash.

I thought the author described his own book very well in chapter 72, in the words of his fictional book critic:
"You've slapped together travel notes...more

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Jan 15, 2010 Chad rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, biography-memoirs-essays

I can easily appreciate how beautiful a piece of literature "Soul Mountain" is while still admitting that it really isn't my cup of tea. It would be very easy to dismiss it outright (as several of the below reviews demonstrate) for its nonlinear format, its erratic dreamlike narrative, its fractured experimentation with various formats. But as daunting a task that making my way through all 500 pages seemed after the surprise of the first few chapters, at no point did Gao Xingjian completely lose...more I can easily appreciate how beautiful a piece of literature "Soul Mountain" is while still admitting that it really isn't my cup of tea. It would be very easy to dismiss it outright (as several of the below reviews demonstrate) for its nonlinear format, its erratic dreamlike narrative, its fractured experimentation with various formats. But as daunting a task that making my way through all 500 pages seemed after the surprise of the first few chapters, at no point did Gao Xingjian completely lose my interest.

To stay with "Soul Mountain" through its end requires the reader to throw out typical expectations. There is no conventional plot. There is no obvious through-line that connects the myriad dots that are the 80 or so chapters.

You can look for patterns, and find them: with one exception, the entire novel consists of alternating chapters, swinging between two states of mind. First, a second-person narrative that seems to wander through some metaphorical dream-state that is enough like reality that maybe its not actually a dream. Second, a first-person narrative that is more obviously grounded in reality, and may actually be less fiction and more autobiographal account of the author's real-life journey through the forests of Sichuan province after fleeing from the Chinese government in Beijing. But each narrative thread sort of jumbles and tangles around the other rather than have any real baring on the other.

You can look for common themes, and find them: there is a recurring theme of the importance of history, and whether it is real or something that we invent. There is a recurring theme of fact vs. fiction, as the second-person protagonist spends many of his chapters inventing stories that almost read like actual historical accounts, until he feels the need (or is encouraged by his female companion) to change them. There is the recurring theme of gender conflict, as women are repeatedly portrayed as helpless in the face of men's desires, suffering an alternating litany of rape and submission, then recipients of protection and comfort. Is this a metaphor for the man's relationship with nature? With history? With government? With his own impulses? Probably all of the above, but none of them explicitly. Xingjian doesn't even try to draw a clear picture for you.

Indeed, he jumps around so randomly that no ultimate message is readily apparent. Each chapter felt like a dot in a Seurat painting, existing independantly in and of itself, but not really connecting to any bigger until you absorb every single dot together. The final picture is not something nice and neat with sharp definable edges. It is a vague, impressionistic take on a country that becomes all the more exotic as most of us Westerns knew little about it even before we read this work.

I almost suggested this book for a book club a few years ago, and I'm thoroughly glad I didn't. This isn't just a 'really big book'. It is also a challenging one that plays with language and narrative in ways to which most people are not accustomed. If you're up for the challenge, it is a beautiful and perplexing one to undertake.(less)

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Nov 17, 2011 Carlos Bennett rated it 4 of 5 stars

3,8 estrelllas. Básicamente se trata de un hombre que, después de un diagnóstico errado de cancer, decide hacer una especie de viaje espiritual a una región remota de China (Linghsan, la famosa "Montaña del alma"). Durante este viaje conocera a un monton de personajes secundarios (la gran mayoria son muy secundarios, aparecen solo por un par de paginas), que se dedicaran a contarle un sin numero de historias breves del folklor local. Otras veces es el mismo protagonista el que cuenta estas histo...more 3,8 estrelllas. Básicamente se trata de un hombre que, después de un diagnóstico errado de cancer, decide hacer una especie de viaje espiritual a una región remota de China (Linghsan, la famosa "Montaña del alma"). Durante este viaje conocera a un monton de personajes secundarios (la gran mayoria son muy secundarios, aparecen solo por un par de paginas), que se dedicaran a contarle un sin numero de historias breves del folklor local. Otras veces es el mismo protagonista el que cuenta estas historias.

Entre con algunos prejuicios a este libro (advierto que voy a divagar un poco). Primero por el título que me sonaba un poco a auto-ayuda; en segundo lugar, por la estructura de la novela. Desconfío un poco de las novelas excesivamente fragmentadas, que en verdad son colecciones de miles de cosas (como algunas novelas de Kundera, o "Abbadon el exterminador" de Sabato). No se si me explico: esas novelas en que uno podria revolver las páginas en cualquier orden y no se notaría mucho, o en que uno no se da cuenta cuando llega el final (podrían seguir para siempre). No es que me moleste esa estructura en sí, pero he tenido malas experiencias. Encuentro que esta estructura (o falta de esta) se presta para que: 1) el narrador sea excesivamente autoindulgente; cuando no hay una estructura o una lógica interna que seguir, a veces la narración se pone facilona. Simplemente no hay que hacer tanto esfuerzo. 2) se caiga en el ombligismo, y el narrador piense que cualquier anecdota de su vida o cualquier reflexión que se le pase por la cabeza mientras esta en el baño es literaria, y que todas estas deposiciones tienen que plasmarse en papel.

Dicho esto, debo decir que este libro no se salva totalmente. Hay paginas de este monstruo que sobran. Pero el libro se salva por que la manera de narrar de Gao Xinjian en verdad es muy bonita, a ratos hipnótica. Crea atmósfera. Al final el libro tiene cohesión, y me dejó con un buen sabor de boca.

Nota al margen, de algo que se me quedaba en el tintero: el libro tiene algunas florituras postmodernas; principalmente, el juego que hace con la manera de designar a los personajes principales. No les pone nombre; se refiere a ellos con pronombres (Yo, Tú y Ella). Parece que es uno de los aspectos centrales del libro, pero no me gustó mucho. Principalmente por que me gustan los nombres. En algunos de sus libros antiguos Murakami tampoco ponía nombres, y recuerdo que eso tampoco me gustaba.

Nota al margen 2: Gao Xinjian es premio Nobel; creo que llegué a él por eso. Escribió también "El libro de un hombre solo", que al final del día, creo que me gustó más que este.

(less)

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Apr 07, 2012 Persephone Abbott rated it 5 of 5 stars

One can argue that Gao Xingjian wrote this novel for a Chinese speaking public, and a specific public who is versed in Classical Chinese Literature forms. To quote Wikipedia “Whether it works or not, it (Soul Mountain) is a rich fictional language filled with vernacular speeches and elegant 文言 (classical) formulations as well as dialects, thus constituting a "heteroglossic" tapestry of sounds and rhythms that can indeed be read aloud (as Gao himself has done in his public readings).” Leo Lee Ou-...more

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Sep 20, 2007 Jenna rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who liked Frazier's Cold Mountain

This book sat on my shelves for roughly three years before I finally got around to reading it - a couple months ago. And I'm still yawning.
If you liked Frazier's meandering style (in Cold Mountain anyway), then huzzah; this is the book for you.

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Aug 31, 2011 Henry added it

Shelves: asian, fiction-lateral

ch26: ruminations on morphology of self

ch51: history of "I" and "you"
"At that time the individual did not exist. There was not an awareness of a distinction between "I" and "you". The birth of I derived from fear of death, and only afterwards an entity which was not I came to constitute you. At that time people did not have an awareness of fearing oneself, knowledge of the self came from an other and was affirmed by possessing and being possessed, and by conquering and being conquered. He, the t...more ch26: ruminations on morphology of self

ch51: history of "I" and "you"
"At that time the individual did not exist. There was not an awareness of a distinction between "I" and "you". The birth of I derived from fear of death, and only afterwards an entity which was not I came to constitute you. At that time people did not have an awareness of fearing oneself, knowledge of the self came from an other and was affirmed by possessing and being possessed, and by conquering and being conquered. He, the third person who is not directly relevant to I and you, was gradually differentiated. After this the I also discovered that he was to be found in large numbers everywhere and was a separate existence from oneself, and it was only then that the consciousness of you and I became secondary. In the individual's struggle for survival amongst others, the self was gradually forgotten and gradually churned like a grain of sand into the chaos of the boundless universe." (307-8)

ch52: "In this lengthy soliloquy you are the object of what I relate, a myself who listens intently to me -- you are simply my shadow.
"As I listen to myself and you, I let you create a she, because you are like me and also cannot bear the loneliness and have to find a partner for your conversation. . . ." (312)
"I don't know whether or not you've noticed but when I speak of me and you, and she, him, feminine they and masculine they, I never speak of we or us. I believe that this is much more concrete than the sham we which is totally meaningless." (313)

ch54: the search for childhood
"Perhaps, because it is so huge that within it at most you can only find in a particular place, in a particular corner, in a particular room, in a particular instant, some memories which belong purely to yourself, and it is only in such memories that you can preserve yourself fully. In the end, in this vast ocean of humanity you are at most only a spoonful of green seawater, insignificant and fragile.
"You should know that there is little you can seek in this world, that there is no need or you to be so greedy, in the end all you can achieve are memories, hazy, intelligible, dreamlike memories which are impossible to articulate. When you try to relate them, there are only sentences, the dregs left from the filter of linguistic structures." (328-9)

ch58: mythic history of humans and language

ch72: optional chapter(less)

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Jan 29, 2008 Cori rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a slow read and long, but enjoyable all the same. It helps to have some background on Chinese culture and its uses of symbolism and imagery for personal expression.

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Jul 28, 2011 Zenu rated it 5 of 5 stars

A novel without a story, just a direction. It starts here and it ends on the Soul Mountain – a place where self is whole again. A novel without characters, just you and I, he and she – points of view over and eluding subject. Nailed down between loneliness and social coercion, an intellectual struggles to uncover the real self.

Despite lacking a proper story, the novel reads well. Descriptions of nature, ethnicities and religious life along side of the road to the Soul Mountain are eye catching....more

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About Gao Xingjian

Gao Xingjian is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. An émigré to France since 1987, Gao was granted French citizenship in 1997. The recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature, he is also a noted translator (particularly of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco), screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter.

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The Bus Stop ('Che zhan', in traditional Chinese, NOT in English)

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Quotes from Soul Mountain

“You should know that there is little you can seek in this world, that there is no need for you to be so greedy, in the end all you can achieve are memories, hazy, intangible, dreamlike memories which are impossible to articulate. When you try to relate them, there are only sentences, the dregs left from the filter of linguistic structures.” — 11 people liked it

“Young man, nature is not frightening, it's people who are frightening! You just need to get to know nature and it will become friendly. This creature known as man is of course highly intelligent, he's capable of manufacturing almost anything from rumours to test-tube babies and yet he destroys two to three species every day. This is the absurdity of man.” — 6 people liked it

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