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30th out of 143 books
—
34 voters
Once on a Moonless Night
From the author of the beloved best seller Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a haunting tale of love and of the beguiling power of a lost language.
When Puyi, the last emperor, was exiled to Manchuria in the early 1930s, it is said that he carried an eight-hundred-year-old silk scroll inscribed with a lost sutra composed by the Buddha. Eventually the scroll would be...more
When Puyi, the last emperor, was exiled to Manchuria in the early 1930s, it is said that he carried an eight-hundred-year-old silk scroll inscribed with a lost sutra composed by the Buddha. Eventually the scroll would be...more
Hardcover, Large Print, 277 pages
Published
October 1st 2009
by Wheeler Publishing
(first published 2007)
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Dec 30, 2010
Chris
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
a. s. byatt lovers
I'm not sure quite how I feel about this book.
It's beautiful, but there doesn't seem to be much plot. This is strange because usually a lack of plot will drive me up a wall. It makes me want to fling the book across the room and consider revoking my "don't burn books" rule. Worse, the narrator is a woman, but I consistently forgot that. (Oh that's right, she has a womb because she is a she). That usually clinches the deal.
But not this one. Not this time.
Okay, there is something of a plot, a sear...more
It's beautiful, but there doesn't seem to be much plot. This is strange because usually a lack of plot will drive me up a wall. It makes me want to fling the book across the room and consider revoking my "don't burn books" rule. Worse, the narrator is a woman, but I consistently forgot that. (Oh that's right, she has a womb because she is a she). That usually clinches the deal.
But not this one. Not this time.
Okay, there is something of a plot, a sear...more
3 likes · like · see review
view all 6 comments
A surprisingly long read for such a small book. Much like his "Balzac" I liked it but he lost my interest about halfway through and it became a bit hard to finish without my mind wandering. I think the problem is that the characters, particularly the narrator, seem to be explored academically rather than with empathy. So, when their narrative becomes less interesting (or relevant), you don't really care what happens to them. His secondary characters, such as Paul d'Ampere or even Tomchooq, are m...more
Pardon the mixing of cultures in my comparison of this story to nesting dolls (chinese story-russian doll type)but that is what it brings to my mind, each doll seems to tell another story as you read, but ultimately they are the sum whole of their parts. A rich tapestry of a story that sometimes seems to shift so effortlesly in an out of backstory, personal narrative and legend of a scroll and its translation and subsequent meaning to drive some to madness (including the reader if s/he has a str...more
POTENTIAL SPOI LER ALERT ONLY IF I AM PSYCHIC!!!!!!!!!!!!
warning: It is my kind of book and i still have not finsished, it as it is saving my life. i barely dare read more than five pages a day. there are flaws, like the female westerner, not that female, ( i didn't know she was a a she til page 60 or so but that's probably ME) but i'm not that female or western either so i am convinced. why start with flaws...
it is a masterpiece and is the first adult book i mgiht refer to as my FAVORITE BOOK.
b...more
warning: It is my kind of book and i still have not finsished, it as it is saving my life. i barely dare read more than five pages a day. there are flaws, like the female westerner, not that female, ( i didn't know she was a a she til page 60 or so but that's probably ME) but i'm not that female or western either so i am convinced. why start with flaws...
it is a masterpiece and is the first adult book i mgiht refer to as my FAVORITE BOOK.
b...more
THe book and the author are transitioning between two cultures--China and France, and the dance between the two is very unusual. What a fascinating book. On the surface it is part language study, part romance, and part mystery. It also has adventure, tragedy and awakening. Deeper, it takes the reader on a trip through a millennium.
Sijie, though writing in French, maintains a Chinese style of story telling. We always sense there is something more just outside our conscious understanding of what...more
Sijie, though writing in French, maintains a Chinese style of story telling. We always sense there is something more just outside our conscious understanding of what...more
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is one of my all-time favorites, but I was completely unable to read Dai Sijie's following book, Mr. Muo's traveling couch, despite picking it up repeatedly. I think it just had too much of the depression and melancholy that defines much of Chinese literature. (A professor of Chinese literature once explained Chinese novels to me by telling me that one of the most famous books in Chinese literature ends with everyone dieing, even the dogs. Only the flies...more
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No, no, no.[return][return]As Ezra Pound said of his early collection "A lume spento": this is a collection of stale cream puffs. "One on a Moonless Night" is contemporary, but Dai Sijie's imagination is embalmed the period between 1890 and 1920: the period of romantic Sinology, of Fennolosa, Binyon, and even Ezra Pound. The period when an aesthete's most obscure and arcane imaginings conjured a rare perfume, a fragrance so refined, so delicate and faded that it could hardly be perceived. The bo...more
There are so many stories in this small book. The story of Pu Yi and his frenzied attack on an ancient manuscript as the Japanese fly him into exile. The story of Paul d'Ampere and his quest to study the ancient language of the scroll even when he is sent to a re-education camp. The story of life in that camp.
The story of d'Ampere's son Tumchook, named for the lost language, greengrocer, good son, monk. The story of the power hungry Dowager Empress Cixi and the crimes she committed to retain po...more
The story of d'Ampere's son Tumchook, named for the lost language, greengrocer, good son, monk. The story of the power hungry Dowager Empress Cixi and the crimes she committed to retain po...more
I was a bit disappointed by "Once on a Moonless Night" after reading "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress". I thought that the plot of this book was all over the place and difficult to follow. It bounces all over the world and it is hard to find any kind of point; it just feels like a bunch of disparate events with no connection to each other. Also in many places it seems like the plot would get sidetracked with long anecdotes I found it difficult to sympathize with or understand the main c...more
Este o carte buna cu un potential urias. Daca ar fi putin mai lunga, mai incapatoare pentru uriasa si frumoasa poveste, ar fi excelent. In 300 de pagini totul pare mult prea inghesuit si grabit parca.
May 16, 2010
John Otto
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
gluttons for punishment
Recommended to John by:
Rosalee
I really wanted to like this book. I like Sijie's "Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress." My wife likes the book and recommended it for our book club. But I just couldn't get into it. I re-read the first 20 pages about three times trying to make sense of it. Names pop up without any introduction and then when they're mentioned again, I had to go back and try to figure out who that character is. There are essentially three narrators, and the point of view keeps shifting without warning. After I fina...more
Yet another book I couldn't get into. For some reason, the narrative style just really irked me. It's so distant and impersonal, and the characters don't really seem to have any sort of personality or deep-rooted inner-conflict. There were similar issues with Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, but at least then the impersonal nature of the book could be attributed to Mao Zedong's strict communist regime/reeducation. This is just...meh.
Did not finish.
Did not finish.
I think this book is destined to become a classic. Its episodic nature could turn off some less than diligent readers, but for those who persevere the rewards are great. There are several chapters that could be novels in their own right, so it can seem quite condensed. The plot turns on the search for a missing piece of an ancient scroll, but along the way it evokes the human search for the ineffable, the collective unconscious memory of a lost paradise, the human desire to make sense of existen...more
Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée, Dai Sije
Une très belle découverte sur le chemin de la sagesse en Chine.
Ce roman raconte les souvenirs d'une jeune occidentale, son amour pour un jeune garçon chinois et de l'histoire qui le lie à un parchemin de soie, écrit dans une langue mystérieuse, le tumchouq, et longtemps détenu dans les collections des empereurs de Chine. Il a passionné le dernier empereur mais la moitié s'est perdue du temps. Chaque personnage du récit est lié de prêt ou de loi...more
Une très belle découverte sur le chemin de la sagesse en Chine.
Ce roman raconte les souvenirs d'une jeune occidentale, son amour pour un jeune garçon chinois et de l'histoire qui le lie à un parchemin de soie, écrit dans une langue mystérieuse, le tumchouq, et longtemps détenu dans les collections des empereurs de Chine. Il a passionné le dernier empereur mais la moitié s'est perdue du temps. Chaque personnage du récit est lié de prêt ou de loi...more
Dai Sijie has written this book using the longest sentences ever,all filled with elaborate and detailed imagery. He has twisted his stories in and out of worlds ranging from ancient Chinese Empires through Communist China to modern Beijing and in so doing, you have a history lesson of China told from a very intimate point of view. The stories are all tied together by the overarching story of the eight hundred year old silk scroll inscribed with a lost sutra composed by the Buddha. I feel I know...more
Mar 12, 2009
Stephanie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
found-in-translation,
china-and-chinese
China-born French novelist and filmmaker Dai Sijie has a thing for stories involving stories. In his acclaimed debut novel Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress (2000), three Chinese teenagers during the Cultural Revolution find escape in a forbidden stash of Western novels. His second, Mr Muo's Travelling Couch (2003), combines Freud's The Interpretation Of Dreams with allusions to Cervantes' Don Quixote.
In his latest novel Once Upon A Moonless Night, translated from the French by Adriana Hu...more
In his latest novel Once Upon A Moonless Night, translated from the French by Adriana Hu...more
Very complex and in certain points hard to follow - at a certain point the authour was being told a story by a guy, who was telling the story that a friend of his had told him, and the friend had heard the story from another guy... Add to that the oriental names, which for me sound the same, since I'm not used to them and you'll understand that from time to time I got confused. But still a very nice and interesting story, it is so easy to believe you are reading real history, and not fiction. An...more
Tanto quanto "Balzac e la piccola sarta cinese" mi aveva emozionato, questo romanzo mi ha annoiato.
Alcuni pezzi sono interessanti e molto prosaici, ma dopo la prima parte, incentrata su Puyi, il ritmo cede, le motivazioni dei protagonisti si perdono in esercizi di lingua, fino a scivolare in un finale che non si sembra tale. Girata l'ultima pagina, mi sono chiesta: "Tutto qui? Hanno dimenticato di stampare il finale..."
Alcuni pezzi sono interessanti e molto prosaici, ma dopo la prima parte, incentrata su Puyi, il ritmo cede, le motivazioni dei protagonisti si perdono in esercizi di lingua, fino a scivolare in un finale che non si sembra tale. Girata l'ultima pagina, mi sono chiesta: "Tutto qui? Hanno dimenticato di stampare il finale..."
I gave this book a real shot. I need to admit that I only read it thoroughly up until about the 63rd page and then a skimmed the rest... It's sad because I was really excited and looking forward to reading this one. While reading it, it felt like the author was just rambling on in a stream of consciousness filled with historical information. My mind kept wandering and I could feel myself drift off, which is such a pity.
I loved his other book which was Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress but this one did not impress me. It was about a search for an ancient scroll and the story keeps geting sidetracked by stories about the languages on the scroll and the harsh life of the people trying to find it. There were a lot of stories and fables in it about China but as a whole the story seemed disconnected and went on too long.
More like 3 3/4 stars, just shy of 4. The middle part lagged a little hence three stars. This is Dai Sijie third novels, his first since winning the Femina in 2003 with "Le complexe de Di". It's a slow and somewhat nostalgic narrative. We follow the narrator, a young French woman who studied Chinese in Beijing in the late 1970's, fell in love with a young Chinese man with a troubled past. Both their lives are entwined in the most singular yet delightful way. Both become obsessed with a long lost...more
Les péripéties au cours des siècles d'un manuscrit sur rouleau de soie forment le fil conducteur de ce roman aux récits savamment emboîtés.
Dai Sijie, revisitant l'histoire de la Chine et celle du bouddhisme, y rend un hommage fervent aux créations de l'esprit les plus subtiles - et notamment à la langue écrite ou calligraphiée, qui répand sur chaque page son mystère obsédant.
Dai Sijie, revisitant l'histoire de la Chine et celle du bouddhisme, y rend un hommage fervent aux créations de l'esprit les plus subtiles - et notamment à la langue écrite ou calligraphiée, qui répand sur chaque page son mystère obsédant.
The book links 1970's China with its historical past through a silk scroll once belonging to the Emperor Huizong. The scroll passes on to the last emperor and is ripped apart by him and tossed away in his plane ride away from China. The missing pieces are purported to contain a Buddhist sutra in an unknown language. This ties back through a student translator from the U.S. who by chance meets an grocer whose family has ties to the missing pieces. The author fully characterizes the contemporary m...more
Balzac and the Little Seamstress's author is back with an even more obscure novel, this one bound up in language. Tumchooq is both a lost lover (to the western narrator) and a lost language. The story is built on the discovery of HALF an ancient Chinese scroll. Where did it come from? And where is the other half? Everything comes together in the end except for the lovers.
Both of Dai Sigie's earlier works are favorites of mine, but Once on a Moonless Night did not live up to my expectations. It could be in part due to my sporadic reading of the book - for the first three-quarters I would only read it two pages at a time; the last quarter I was just trying to finish it. (Yes, I'm one of those insane individuals that needs to finish a book.) This left me constantly backtracking and wondering who was describing what.
Despite my reading habits the past few months, the...more
Despite my reading habits the past few months, the...more
Nov 09, 2012
Celeste Rousselot
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
my-written-reviews
Much to my surprise I did not get into this book even though I did enjoy Sijie's other book, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. At first I liked Once on..., perhaps because we toured the Forbidden City a year or so ago, and the rooms and names were mostly familiar. But 112 pages into the book, try as I did I still couldn't figure out where it was going. Maybe it was the translation or the complication and meandering of the plot.
It took me a little while to get into this novel, but in the end it was well worth it. Dai Sijie has a power with words that make his descriptions effortless and his story filled with life and colour. His characters are intriguing and real, and you can't help but wonder what happens on their journeys.
On the other hand, sometimes his writing is convoluted, and there's too much detail, losing you on its way. The writing is still beautiful, and I would recommend this novel if you're looking for som...more
On the other hand, sometimes his writing is convoluted, and there's too much detail, losing you on its way. The writing is still beautiful, and I would recommend this novel if you're looking for som...more
I almost didn't finish this book. It's very stream of consciousness with very complicated voices, so I'd often have trouble remembering who was talking about whom. It has random passages that don't seem to link to the rest of the story. It gives you that feeling that if you were just a bit smarter and could GET IT, you'd have this really deep and fantastic story... but too bad, you're not smart enough.
1 like · like · see review
This book was a real snooze-fest. the way the plot tied into historical events and musings were neat which is why I gave it two stars rather than one. Really it was the middle of the book that made this book hard to endure. The plot went absolutely nowhere. I kept expecting something interesting to happen but it was just page after page of the same boredom.
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Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution. After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history.
In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for mov...more
More about Dai Sijie...
In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for mov...more
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“In Chinese love stories the one who loves always starts by borrowing a book from the beloved.”
—
14 people liked it
“Is there just one single love in a lifetime? Are all our lovers ― from the first to the last, including the most fleeting ― part of that unique love, and is each of them merely an expression of it, a variation, a particular version? In the same way that in literature there is just one true masterpiece to which different writers give a particular form (taking the twentieth century alone: Joyce, who explores everything happening inside his character;s head with microscopic precision; Proust, for whom the present is merely a memory of the past; Kafka, who drifts on the margins between dream and reality; the blind Borges, probably the one I relate to best, etc).”
—
4 people liked it
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