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Muo und der Pirol im Käfig
Muo ist klein und unscheinbar, von "mickrigem Körperbau, mit struppigsträhnigen Haaren und mit Glubschaugen" und somit nicht besonders ansehnlich ausgestattet. Aber Muo ist ein Herr, ein "Xiansheng", als er aus seinem Exil in Frankreich in seine bis zur Unkenntlichkeit modernisierte Heimat China zurückkehrt. Und er benimmt sich auch so, wenn er die Frauen nach ihren Träumen fragt. Denn Muo ist im Ausland mit der Psychoanalyse Sigmund Freuds in Berührung gekommen. Jetzt ist er zurückgekehrt, um mehr über die geheimen Wünsche der Frauen Chinas zu erfahren. Und um seine ehemalige Mitstudentin und große Liebe, "Vulkan des alten Mondes", aus der politischen Gefangenschaft zu befreien. Wie Muo seine Aufgabe meistert und wie er schließlich nicht nur die Welt der Träume, sondern auch die reale Welt der Frauen kennen lernt, davon erzählt Muo und der Pirol im Käfig.
Bekannt wurde der chinesische Autor Dai Sijie hierzulande mit seinem Romandebüt Balzac und die kleine chinesische Schneiderin. Und nicht nur hierzulande, denn inzwischen ist sein erstaunlicher Erstling in 31 Sprachen übersetzt und fürs Kino verfilmt worden. Für Muo und der Pirol im Käfig erhielt Sijie den renommierten Literaturpreis Prix Fémina -- und auch das hat er verdient. Vielleicht ist Muo und der Pirol im Käfig nicht ganz so anrührend wie Balzac und die kleine chinesische Schneiderin. Aber ein faszinierend romantisches Buch in der Tradition epischer Erzählliteratur mit einer Prise Politik und Zeitgeschichte ist es allemal. --Stefan Kellerer
390 pages, Paperback
First published September 4, 2003
About the author
Dai Sijie
15 books286 followersDai Sijie was born in China in 1954. He grew up working in his fathers tailor shop. He himself became a skilled tailor. 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 movies and became a director. Before turning to writing, he made three critically acclaimed feature-length films: China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French.
His novel, Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée (Once on a moonless night), was published in 2007.
L'acrobatie aérienne de Confucius was published in 2008.
His first book, Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) (2000), was made into a movie, in 2002, which he himself adapted and directed. It recounts the story of a pair of friends who become good friends with a local seamstress while spending time in a countryside village, where they have been sent for 're-education' during the Cultural Revolution (see Down to the Countryside Movement). They steal a suitcase filled with classic Western novels from another man being reeducated, and decide to enrich the seamstress' life by exposing her to great literature. These novels also serve to sustain the two companions during this difficult time. The story principally deals with the cultural universality of great literature and its redeeming power. The novel has been translated into twenty-five languages, and finally into his mother tongue after the movie adaptation.
His second book, Le Complexe de Di won the Prix Femina for 2003. It recounts the travels of a Chinese man whose philosophy has been influenced by French psychoanalyst thought. The title is a play on "le complexe d'Oedipe", or "the Oedipus complex". The English translation (released in 2005) is titled Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch.
In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director. Before turning to writing, he made three critically acclaimed feature-length films: China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French.
His novel, Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée (Once on a moonless night), was published in 2007.
L'acrobatie aérienne de Confucius was published in 2008.
His first book, Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) (2000), was made into a movie, in 2002, which he himself adapted and directed. It recounts the story of a pair of friends who become good friends with a local seamstress while spending time in a countryside village, where they have been sent for 're-education' during the Cultural Revolution (see Down to the Countryside Movement). They steal a suitcase filled with classic Western novels from another man being reeducated, and decide to enrich the seamstress' life by exposing her to great literature. These novels also serve to sustain the two companions during this difficult time. The story principally deals with the cultural universality of great literature and its redeeming power. The novel has been translated into twenty-five languages, and finally into his mother tongue after the movie adaptation.
His second book, Le Complexe de Di won the Prix Femina for 2003. It recounts the travels of a Chinese man whose philosophy has been influenced by French psychoanalyst thought. The title is a play on "le complexe d'Oedipe", or "the Oedipus complex". The English translation (released in 2005) is titled Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
January 10, 2008
The second book by the author of the acclaimed Balzac and the Tiny Chinese Seamstress. Balzac was one of my top books from 2003. The Chicago Tribune book cover quote stated that “Fans of Dai Sijie’s Balzac will adore this enchanting adventure story.” The Tribune writer of this quote should be burned on top of a pile of this book, because in my view, fans of Balzac will be the exact ones who will find this book excruciating to complete. The book’s main character (Mr. Muo) is a Chinese scholar returning to China after eleven years studying Freud. The whole plot revolves around his ever-bungling attempts to free his college love from prison by bribing the local judge with a virgin. Absurd, contrived scenario follows absurd, contrived scenario. In many ways, Mr. Muo reminds me of Ignatius J. Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces, a faux scholar blinded by delusions of his intellect stumbling through the events unfolding around him. But Mr. Muo (for the most part) lacks the humor from Dunces. The two big reasons fans of Balzac will despise this book? First, Balzac’s prose was spare but beautiful. Mr. Muo’s prose labors throughout, overflowing in words and lacking any clarity or beauty. Second, Balzac’s love story can only be described as sweet and charming. Mr. Muo’s love story is neither, and the plot meanders everywhere, unfocusing your attention off the love story. A complete disappointment for me in every which way.
July 11, 2008
HOLY CRAP THIS BOOK SUCKED! I couldn't even MAKE myself finish it. Full of ridiculous psycho-babble, with a main character (or perhaps an author??) who is FAR too impressed with his own intellectual feats to make a coherent story. Didn't even make it halfway with this one. Dumped like a rotten date back into the library dropbox.
April 23, 2020
Dai Sijie ile tanışmam tamamen tesadüf. harika bir tesafüf oldu çünkü yepyeni keşiflerin kapısını açmış oldum böylece...
Aslında kitap yazarın deneyimlerinin birikimlerinin inanılmaz bir yeniden derlenip kurgulanmasından oluşuyor.yazar çinde doğup büyümüş maocu bir eğitimden geçip fransaya yelken açmış terzilikten sinemaya inanılmaz geniş bir deneyim alanına sahip.
Zaten kitap da sanırım bu yüzden geniş notalararası gezinmiş bir senfoni gibi.. sol anahtarı da freud:)
Von glayk ın bulup çıkardığı eski söylencelerden devşirme yargıç di bu kitapta inanılmaz sinematografik yer yer gizemli esprili ve freudyen bir biçim bulmuş.
Hem diğer kitaplarını hem de filmlerini çok merak ettiğim bu yazarla iyi ki tanışmışım dediğim bir kitap oldu.farklı notalarda hafif esprili ve freudyen dünyanın sembolleri arasında gezinmeyi sevenlere tavsiye edrim.
Bu arada kapak resmi kesinlikle çok yanıltıcı :))
Aslında kitap yazarın deneyimlerinin birikimlerinin inanılmaz bir yeniden derlenip kurgulanmasından oluşuyor.yazar çinde doğup büyümüş maocu bir eğitimden geçip fransaya yelken açmış terzilikten sinemaya inanılmaz geniş bir deneyim alanına sahip.
Zaten kitap da sanırım bu yüzden geniş notalararası gezinmiş bir senfoni gibi.. sol anahtarı da freud:)
Von glayk ın bulup çıkardığı eski söylencelerden devşirme yargıç di bu kitapta inanılmaz sinematografik yer yer gizemli esprili ve freudyen bir biçim bulmuş.
Hem diğer kitaplarını hem de filmlerini çok merak ettiğim bu yazarla iyi ki tanışmışım dediğim bir kitap oldu.farklı notalarda hafif esprili ve freudyen dünyanın sembolleri arasında gezinmeyi sevenlere tavsiye edrim.
Bu arada kapak resmi kesinlikle çok yanıltıcı :))
June 21, 2008
This book is a surrealistic trip through China told by a most improbable protagonist. Muo, a Chinese psychoanalyst trained in France, takes a bizzare trip across China looking for a virgin to sate the jaded appetite of a sadistic judge, a former executioner of Chinese prisoners who took an unseemly pleasure in his job, and who now holds the keys to the freedom of his childhood love.
If this novel were a painting, it would be a twisted dreamscape by Dali and if it were a play, it would the stepchild of Waiting for Godot. Certainly, the entire book has a dream like atmosphere, and it is hard to tell where reality ends and dreams begin. But maybe that is the point.
The book has many targets for its wicked sense of humor, not the least of which are Freud, psychoanalysis and Maoist China. A typically understated bit of satire is Muo's first analysis in France, conducted by a French speaking analyst of indeterminate gender, with Muo speaking only Chinese. This biting caricature of the non self-disclosing, silent analyst poses in a hilarious way the question of what the analsyst actually does, if anything, in a classical analysis.
Muo lurches from one absurd situation to another, from becoming aroused under the seat of a train, thinking he is caressing a woman's foot, and having an orgasm in his pants, only to find out that the "foot" is the handle of an old broom to going to an execution field to meet the judge only to be assaulted by an escaped mental patient who steals his clothes, leading him to be confined to the mental institution in his place.
In the process, it is the virgin Muo who loses his own virginity with a middle aged embalmer who is still a virgin herself because she married a homosexual who jumped out of a six story window on their wedding night rather than attempt to consummate the marriage. This protean bit of shapeshifting poses the question of whether Muo is taking the place of the deceased bridegroom, the judge, or both.
In this fashion, Sijie tells us a great deal about the dark recesses of the unconscious, and the slippery and sometimes imprecise edges of identity. Perhaps most penetratingly of all, he sketches the nature of sexual hangups and anxieties, which never seem to respect any boundaries of time or place, and afflict us all. Maybe the humor is too subtle for some, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time on Mr. Muo's travelling couch. ...less
If this novel were a painting, it would be a twisted dreamscape by Dali and if it were a play, it would the stepchild of Waiting for Godot. Certainly, the entire book has a dream like atmosphere, and it is hard to tell where reality ends and dreams begin. But maybe that is the point.
The book has many targets for its wicked sense of humor, not the least of which are Freud, psychoanalysis and Maoist China. A typically understated bit of satire is Muo's first analysis in France, conducted by a French speaking analyst of indeterminate gender, with Muo speaking only Chinese. This biting caricature of the non self-disclosing, silent analyst poses in a hilarious way the question of what the analsyst actually does, if anything, in a classical analysis.
Muo lurches from one absurd situation to another, from becoming aroused under the seat of a train, thinking he is caressing a woman's foot, and having an orgasm in his pants, only to find out that the "foot" is the handle of an old broom to going to an execution field to meet the judge only to be assaulted by an escaped mental patient who steals his clothes, leading him to be confined to the mental institution in his place.
In the process, it is the virgin Muo who loses his own virginity with a middle aged embalmer who is still a virgin herself because she married a homosexual who jumped out of a six story window on their wedding night rather than attempt to consummate the marriage. This protean bit of shapeshifting poses the question of whether Muo is taking the place of the deceased bridegroom, the judge, or both.
In this fashion, Sijie tells us a great deal about the dark recesses of the unconscious, and the slippery and sometimes imprecise edges of identity. Perhaps most penetratingly of all, he sketches the nature of sexual hangups and anxieties, which never seem to respect any boundaries of time or place, and afflict us all. Maybe the humor is too subtle for some, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time on Mr. Muo's travelling couch. ...less
October 18, 2009
I have a bit of a conundrum with this book. I love the author’s style of writing...there’s something lyrical about the structure of his sentences that just engulf the reader. Balzac and the Little Chinese seamstress hypnotized me with some of its passages. That being said, Mr. Muo’s Traveling Couch is written with the same artful style, and yet somehow never struck the same chord with me. I like quirky books, so the whole approach of the main character being a Chinese scholar who traveled to France to study the works of Freud was an amusing backdrop for exploring the culture of modern day China. His obsession with dreams and sex open the door for him ending up in some very odd situations. But I never really connected with the characters. One of the wonderful things about Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is that it really draws the reader in, allowing them to experience the reeducation of Chinese youth in a way that is very touching and relatable. Mr. Muo’s Traveling Couch did not provide this for me. It kept my interest and I enjoyed it, but it failed to move me in the way that Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress did, which I was so wishing it would.
January 9, 2014
Booring, booring...the title should have been The Authors travelling mind. I don't know what he was smoking when he wrote this dilapidated piece of dodo. And, this from the man who wrote Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress, a book I really liked.
December 8, 2021
This book is a big circle, and like not in a fun way.
June 4, 2017
Dai Sijie's first book is a lovely lyrical entrance into the China of a fine story teller. This, his second novel for all its fine points was a disappointment.
Mr Muo's, traveling Couch is a modern retelling of Don Quixote. In case you miss the point, you are twice told that Cervantes is the inspiration for the book. The Dulcinea sought by Mr. Muo is a long time sweetheart (Her name:Volcano of the Old Moon and we think Moon Unit Zappa is strange) unjustly imprisoned by the evil but bribable Judge Di. And yes you are reminded that the name Judge Di was also the name of a famous good Chinese Judge from a much earlier time, made famous by the occidental sinologist, Robert Von Goulik.
We first meet Mr. Muo as he is already on his quest. We will learn his story in an out of sequence narration. Initially he seems a helpless victim with a foot fetish and a thing for virgins. He is or may have been a successful scholar of Freudian psychology, having studied in France. Over time he will display inconsistent levels of nobility, competence and some skill at interpreting dreams. We are told he is employing his psychological training in his interpretations, but they all usually read more like fortune telling than applied psychology.
The political satire is somewhat broad as are the various serio-comic misadventures. The humor arises not so much from the comedic value of individual events, but the absurdity of their cumulative happenstances. Mr. Muo is regularly the victim circumstances, robbery, assaults, or thefts or of his own indecision or inconsonant noble impulses.
I am not a big fan of Don Quixote. At best I think he is a prototype for modern terrorism - A false noble quest that ignores damages done to innocent by standers. At worst it is a series of elaborate set ups for one or more people to get beaten. Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch is much better in that the quest is nobly inspired and includes some noble moments. There are relatively fewer beatings and eventually the mostly sad events become too ridiculous to be depressing.
Dai Sijie is a better story teller than is evident in this novel. He again displays great skill in evoking the mood and even the aromas of place, but I never felt transported into this almost real, almost behind the looking glass world. About the time I became sympathetic towards Mr Muo he would resort to being a hapless victim or worse.
Ultimately I liked Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch, but only barely and not as much as his first book.
Mr Muo's, traveling Couch is a modern retelling of Don Quixote. In case you miss the point, you are twice told that Cervantes is the inspiration for the book. The Dulcinea sought by Mr. Muo is a long time sweetheart (Her name:Volcano of the Old Moon and we think Moon Unit Zappa is strange) unjustly imprisoned by the evil but bribable Judge Di. And yes you are reminded that the name Judge Di was also the name of a famous good Chinese Judge from a much earlier time, made famous by the occidental sinologist, Robert Von Goulik.
We first meet Mr. Muo as he is already on his quest. We will learn his story in an out of sequence narration. Initially he seems a helpless victim with a foot fetish and a thing for virgins. He is or may have been a successful scholar of Freudian psychology, having studied in France. Over time he will display inconsistent levels of nobility, competence and some skill at interpreting dreams. We are told he is employing his psychological training in his interpretations, but they all usually read more like fortune telling than applied psychology.
The political satire is somewhat broad as are the various serio-comic misadventures. The humor arises not so much from the comedic value of individual events, but the absurdity of their cumulative happenstances. Mr. Muo is regularly the victim circumstances, robbery, assaults, or thefts or of his own indecision or inconsonant noble impulses.
I am not a big fan of Don Quixote. At best I think he is a prototype for modern terrorism - A false noble quest that ignores damages done to innocent by standers. At worst it is a series of elaborate set ups for one or more people to get beaten. Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch is much better in that the quest is nobly inspired and includes some noble moments. There are relatively fewer beatings and eventually the mostly sad events become too ridiculous to be depressing.
Dai Sijie is a better story teller than is evident in this novel. He again displays great skill in evoking the mood and even the aromas of place, but I never felt transported into this almost real, almost behind the looking glass world. About the time I became sympathetic towards Mr Muo he would resort to being a hapless victim or worse.
Ultimately I liked Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch, but only barely and not as much as his first book.
June 9, 2012
Quirky, darkly funny, bizzare yet believable characters running like lab rats through the maze of a totalitarian and often contraditory and confusing state of both the country and mind in China. West meets east with the incorrigable Mr. Muo and his psychoanalytical belief system that has him analyzing,questioning, finally experiencing his own freudian belief system and obssession with the libido. Mr. Muo is the ultimate example of man's complex make up of psycological paradoxes. While trying to free an imprisoned female friend he feels unrequited love for, he seems about as lucky to the people that cross his path as a blackcat, crossing theirs and knocking a ladder on their head causing them to crash into a mirror being moved into their path only to shatter into a thousand shards each reflecting the bad luck that spills out onto the barren wastle-land of unfufilled desires and crushed dreams. Yet despite his way of falling ass backwards into pure chaos, he seems to emerge none the wiser, or scathed in the final analysis. One can only smile at his pathos from the most commonplace to the absurd of misadventures to his opening of a false door walled with bricks only to have it crumble at the touch of a frail, femine hand leading to his circular logic and single-mindset as he smiles at his sudden redemption and good fortune, his only thought leads us as he asks the most inappropriate of questions non-chalantly making the reader wonder about his true nature as altruistic and chivalrous as the personification of a jaded oriental don quixote tilting at the windmills fueled by the winds of lust or is it love? Do the ends justify the means? I wondered and still do, with a wry smile just what the hell made this character tick.
November 7, 2008
* Originally published in France as Le complexe de Di by Gallimard, Paris, in 2003.
I’ve truly grown to love Asian writers. This writer happens to be Chinese-born but lives and works in France. Either way, the culture and wit of Asia and its artists have overwhelmed and enthralled me. Mr. Muo’s Travelling Couch included.
Dai Sigie’s second novel Mr. Muo’s Travelling Couch follows the experiences of the title character as he goes back to China after studying psychoanalysis in France. He idolizes Freud and uses Freud’s theories to achieve what he wants in his many escapades. The irony of Muo’s practice is that he is a virgin. He constantly analyzes others according to Freud’s sexually driven theories, yet he’s never had sex himself.
Mr. Muo’s character is lovable and pitiable at the same time. His quiet, intelligent manner makes the predicaments he finds himself in that much more laughable. This book is filled with intelligent introspection and unconscious humor. Muo’s falling in and out of love, passing through danger, frustration after frustration, contribute to the character’s complexity.
September 10, 2009
Audiobook...............What a romp! Travel along with Mr. Muo, China's only registered psychoanalyst as he seeks a virgin in China to offer as a bribe to a crooked judge, in order to free his friends, "The Embalmer" and "Volcano of the Old Moon" from wrongful imprisonment. Along the way, you will roar with laughter at the dry wit of the author as he offers such tidbits as popular children's songs from the Revolutionary Re-Education period which laud the joy of Communism. Also, enjoy the dream analysis offered by our Mr. Muo as he takes his office on the road. Step into the inner dream and fantasy world of Mr. Muo, whose training in France has enhanced his openness to his own stream of consciousness........Marvelous!
April 23, 2008
I picked this up since I had enjoyed Dai Sijie's previous book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress but this was nowhere near as good. There were a few unexpected entertaining twists that kept me from giving up but it felt like a short story that had been drawn out unnecessarily long... leaving the ending up to your imagination. I did enjoy being transported along with Mr. Muo from life in France back to life in China and the initial culture shock that went with it... and to see how the worlds overlap in Muo (and presumably the author's) life.
October 19, 2011
Yeuch! Mr Muo the creepy little pervert slithering along the train to try and fondle a girl's ankles gave me the horrors! I'd have smacked him in the personables if he came near me. It started bad and got worse with embalming women and washing machines that eat clothes while creepy boy hunts down a virgin to sell. Shudder!
August 22, 2009
This book is impressively bad. I can't think of anything positive to say about it. The plot, character development, writing style...everything is tepid at best (and usually worse). Stick with Dai Sijie's first book (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) if you want to read this author.
December 8, 2021
Uhhh.. yeah. Do I regret reading this book? I meeean, no. It's made for pretty great conversation these past two months. Now would I consider it to be a work of literary merit? Also no. So do with that info what you will. I never expected to read a book about a virgin Freudian psychoanalyst, especially for class, but here we are.
(Also see Kiara's review because it is a perfect description of this book)
(Also see Kiara's review because it is a perfect description of this book)
November 19, 2007
I have to agree with many of the other reviews of this book. Dai Sijie does a great job of taking the reader to modern day China and immersing us in the realities of everyday life, but the book jumps around a lot and does drag on a bit. None of the characters are very endearing. The plot is slow going and not particularly entertaining, but does have its quirky moments which can keep you going if you stick with it. The whole ambiance of the book is pretty grungy and dark, but Sijie does do a good job of taking the reader to that slighly less applealing, uncomfortable place. Overall an interesting read if you can stick with it, but not necessarily a book to snuggle up with.
September 28, 2015
Mặc dù đôi chỗ chưa được thuyết phục lắm (nhất là đoạn đạp xe chẩn trị phân tâm học lưu động để tìm kiếm gái trinh và đoạn quan tòa Đê chết đi sống lại) nhưng đây vẫn là một tiểu thuyết đáng đọc. Khá nể giọng văn giễu nhại của Đới Tư Kiệt và đặc biệt nể khả năng miêu tả sinh động của ông. Đọc và học được rất nhiều.
July 10, 2018
I read this purely because I really enjoyed his other novel, Balzac and the Seamstress. Unfortunately it did not have the same appeal.
December 31, 2025
Сатирично, гірко, блискуче. На кожному кроці - несподівані повороти. Сподіваюся знайти фільм.
August 29, 2017
I couldn't warm to any of characters in this book and the very odd premise on which the story was based.
July 10, 2009
How shall I describe this book? Take Freud, a Chinese immigrant to France who has returned to China, a journey in search of a damsel in distress (actually in prison), and constant flashes (interruptions?!?) of dreams, day-dreams, fantasies and perhaps a few hallucinations – many sexual in nature – and put them all in a blender, but don’t blend them together too much, and you have an idea of the story. Hum… the language of the text is superbe, but Mr. Muo, the main character, provoked me many times to want to shake him to bring him to his senses! He is so obsessed with Freudian psychoanalysis that he cannot relate to real life. He is such a loser! And yet, I had sympathy for him in all his naïveté. Underneath it all, he wants to rescue the one true love of his life from imprisonment – her release is the main reason he returns to China. He must face the tyrannical Judge Di, who is obsessed, as well, with his own power to the point of fanaticism as he seeks to overcome his impotence by requiring Muo to find him a virgin. Thus, the medieval-like “quest” begins for Muo. Will he succeed? That question is what drove me to finish this book, even though I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t enthusiastic about psychoanalysis. I give it two stars, but only because the language of the text is so eloquent.
Comment décrire ce roman? Prenez un peu de Freud, un immigré chinois en France qui rentre en Chine, un voyage à la recherche de la demoiselle en danger (en fait, elle est en prison), et des interruptions constantes de rêves, de fantaisies, et peut-être quelquefois des hallucinations – la plupart sexuels – et mettez-les dans un mélangeur, mais ne les mélangez pas trop, et voilà, vous avez un peu une idée de cette histoire. La langue tu texte est exceptionnel – c’est bien écrit. Cela dit, M. Muo, le personnage principal, m’a provoqué à vouloir le bousculer pour l’aider à retrouver l’équilibre rationnel ! Il est tellement bête, ce monsieur ! Quand même, j’ai éprouvé de la sympathie pour le pauvre M. Muo dans toute sa naïveté. Au fond, il veut faire sortir de prison sa bien-aimée – c’est la raison pour laquelle il rentre en Chine. Il a un obstacle – le juge Di, un juge tyran, qui, lui aussi, est obsédé d’abord de son pouvoir sur les autres, mais aussi par le fait de son impuissance qui le pousse à exiger de Muo qu’il lui trouve une vièrge. Réussira-t-il sa quête ? C’est la question qui m’a motivée à finir ce roman que je ne recommanderai qu’à ceux qui sont enthousiastes de la psychanalyse. J’accorde deux étoiles à ce roman, mais seulement à cause de la langue du texte qui est si éloquente.
Comment décrire ce roman? Prenez un peu de Freud, un immigré chinois en France qui rentre en Chine, un voyage à la recherche de la demoiselle en danger (en fait, elle est en prison), et des interruptions constantes de rêves, de fantaisies, et peut-être quelquefois des hallucinations – la plupart sexuels – et mettez-les dans un mélangeur, mais ne les mélangez pas trop, et voilà, vous avez un peu une idée de cette histoire. La langue tu texte est exceptionnel – c’est bien écrit. Cela dit, M. Muo, le personnage principal, m’a provoqué à vouloir le bousculer pour l’aider à retrouver l’équilibre rationnel ! Il est tellement bête, ce monsieur ! Quand même, j’ai éprouvé de la sympathie pour le pauvre M. Muo dans toute sa naïveté. Au fond, il veut faire sortir de prison sa bien-aimée – c’est la raison pour laquelle il rentre en Chine. Il a un obstacle – le juge Di, un juge tyran, qui, lui aussi, est obsédé d’abord de son pouvoir sur les autres, mais aussi par le fait de son impuissance qui le pousse à exiger de Muo qu’il lui trouve une vièrge. Réussira-t-il sa quête ? C’est la question qui m’a motivée à finir ce roman que je ne recommanderai qu’à ceux qui sont enthousiastes de la psychanalyse. J’accorde deux étoiles à ce roman, mais seulement à cause de la langue du texte qui est si éloquente.
February 22, 2008
FROM AMAZON:
Dai Sijie now produces a rapturous and uproarious collision of East and West, a novel about the dream of love and the love of dreams. Fresh from 11 years in Paris studying Freud, bookish Mr. Muo returns to China to spread the gospel of psychoanalysis. His secret purpose is to free his college sweetheart from prison. To do so he has to get on the good side of the bloodthirsty Judge Di, and to accomplish that he must provide the judge with a virgin maiden.
This may prove difficult in a China that has embraced western sexual mores along with capitalism–especially since Muo, while indisputably a romantic, is no ladies’ man. Tender, laugh-out-loud funny, and unexpectedly wise, Mr. Muo’s Travelling Couch introduces a hero as endearingly inept as Inspector Clouseau and as valiant as Don Quixote
Dai Sijie now produces a rapturous and uproarious collision of East and West, a novel about the dream of love and the love of dreams. Fresh from 11 years in Paris studying Freud, bookish Mr. Muo returns to China to spread the gospel of psychoanalysis. His secret purpose is to free his college sweetheart from prison. To do so he has to get on the good side of the bloodthirsty Judge Di, and to accomplish that he must provide the judge with a virgin maiden.
This may prove difficult in a China that has embraced western sexual mores along with capitalism–especially since Muo, while indisputably a romantic, is no ladies’ man. Tender, laugh-out-loud funny, and unexpectedly wise, Mr. Muo’s Travelling Couch introduces a hero as endearingly inept as Inspector Clouseau and as valiant as Don Quixote
Read
February 5, 2009This comic novel encompasses huge themes__not just political repression in China, but also love, sex, the commodification of women, and the twisting, winding roads one must take to gain self-knowledge. Reviewers concur that Sijie's second novel is something of a picaresque; it meanders as it follows the hapless Mr. Mou's adventures and missteps and enters into the terrain of the absurd. What reviewers don't agree on is whether or not the novel succeeds as a whole, particularly compared to the elegant Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2001). IT seems Sijie hasn't escaped the second-novel scourge, but he'll charm and entertain many readers nonetheless.
This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
March 25, 2010
Dai Sijie is channelling Vladimir Nabokov in this book. It is as if he writes about Mr. Muo with a copy of Pnin next to him, mining for inspiration. Of course, Nabokov is such a Jupiter of literature that being in his orbit cannot be unpleasant! This is a very readable and entertaining story about a Chinese interpreter of dreams who seeks a "nymphet" to deliver to a man with power to release his true love from prison.
August 6, 2016
قرأتُ هذا الكتاب بالترجمة العربية طبعًا، الترجمة ظلمت الرواية نوعًا ما، إلا أنه لا بأس بها.
الرواية جيدة إلى حد ما، الوصف دقيق حتى الإدهاش، كشفت لي عن عالم لم أكن على دراية به ..الثورة الثقافية في الصين وتأثيرها على الشعب خاصة البسطاء.. ركزت على تفشي الفساد في السلك القضائي.
وبما أن بطل الرواية محلل نفسي فإنه بطبيعة الحال احتوت على الكثير من المعلومات عن علم النفس وعلماءه .. الرواية ثقفتني أكثر مما أمتعتني
الرواية جيدة إلى حد ما، الوصف دقيق حتى الإدهاش، كشفت لي عن عالم لم أكن على دراية به ..الثورة الثقافية في الصين وتأثيرها على الشعب خاصة البسطاء.. ركزت على تفشي الفساد في السلك القضائي.
وبما أن بطل الرواية محلل نفسي فإنه بطبيعة الحال احتوت على الكثير من المعلومات عن علم النفس وعلماءه .. الرواية ثقفتني أكثر مما أمتعتني
Want to Read
March 31, 2007I am about to starting reading this b-natch on tape. This could change the way I roll. Anyhow, it's by the same author who wrote the book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Although I didn't read the book and only know the story from the lovely movie, I am into it. I'll let you know how things shape up.
August 17, 2016
Delirante y divertidisima novela, de claro corte. buñueliano por lo surrealista de su desarrollo.
Es hilarante leer las andanzas del protagonista, el primer psicoanalista chino, ofuscado en salvar a su amada de las garras del poder comunista, enarbolando, como unica ayuda, las enseñanzas de Freud, Jung y Lacan.
Es hilarante leer las andanzas del protagonista, el primer psicoanalista chino, ofuscado en salvar a su amada de las garras del poder comunista, enarbolando, como unica ayuda, las enseñanzas de Freud, Jung y Lacan.
December 8, 2008
I could not connect with the character or the story. It was just a bit too offbeat for me -- and I usually enjoy offbeat. I ended up not finishing it; most of my fellow book club members did the same.
January 5, 2012
J'avoue été très déçue par ce livre... J'avais adoré Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise mais Le Complexe de Di ne semble pas avoir été écrit par le même auteur. J'ai trouvé la lecture de ce livre particulièrement ennuyeuse et sans grand intérêt...
January 26, 2016
I would have stopped reading this if I didn't have to finish it for a book club. Mr. Muo is annoying and a jerk. And his exploits are ridiculous for no purpose.
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