One Man's Bible
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Review
‘Brilliant and poetic, keen and original…Gao has written a book drenched in the political turmoil in China. But his ambition is to transcend the specifics of time and place, to write a meditation on literature itself and its ability to reveal the raging, brutal, brilliant beast that is mankind…“One Man’s Bible” burns with a powerfully individualistic fire of intelligence and depth of feeling…Unforgettable.’ New York Times
‘An absorbing historical primer on the decades of Maoist terror…Both more personal and more political than its predecessor, “Soul Mountain”, “One Man’s Bible” is a Chinese variation on an important global literary theme: the desperate quest by those living under dictatorships of all kinds to escape the crushing forces of totalitarian collectivism.’ TLS
‘Everything a novel should be…Like all good novelists Gao creates a world, not as a kind of wallpaper or filling but as a place in which the protagonist suffers and sometimes is happy.’ Literary Review
‘Dreamlike, elegant and haunting.’ Boston Globe
David Harrison, Bristol Evening Post
'Well written, emotional and truthful'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A strange, disturbing book, One Man's Bible flits somewhat uneasily between the China of the Cultural Revolution and the protaganist's sexual encounters in the West, decades later.
Written by a self-confessed 'carnival performer with language', Gao Xingjian's latest work is at once a novel of freedom and repression, whether political or sexual, and a philosophical tome on the art of writing itself.
If the subject matter alone makes for a difficult read, the style in which it is written compounds the problem. While the author's self-division into the 'he' of his early life (the work is apparently semi-autobiographical) and the 'you' of his later years is relatively simple to grasp, less easy it the disjointed narrative. The first few chapters follow a fairly regular pattern, alternating between the author's life as a young man in China and his encounter with a German woman, who had been raped as a child and who is now able to act as his muse, enabling him to reminisce on his past. However, this Margarethe disappears from the scene relatively early on, and we are left with a stretch of the novel that deals mainly, although apparently not always chronologically, with life in Mao's China. And then suddenly we find ourselves in Sydney, where the author is taking a young French woman for a walk in a national park. More strange still is the chapter in which the author has an imagined conversation with the dead Mao.
Perhaps this disjunction is intended as metaphor for the cultural dislocation experienced by a writer exiled in the West struggling to explain an alien past to a Western audience. Somehow, however, the recounting of the author's sexual conquests are never really explained in the context of the rest of the book, and it is unclear as to exactly what kind of a work Gao Xingjian is trying to write.
One Man's Bible is certainly a compelling read, if only for its strangeness, but whether it is deserving of the Nobel Prize is another matter. Although one reviewer has compared Gao Xingjian to W.G. Sebald, I would suggest that Sebald, with his fluidity of prose and ability to capture the ghosts of the past, would have been a more suitable winner.
Written by a self-confessed 'carnival performer with language', Gao Xingjian's latest work is at once a novel of freedom and repression, whether political or sexual, and a philosophical tome on the art of writing itself.
If the subject matter alone makes for a difficult read, the style in which it is written compounds the problem. While the author's self-division into the 'he' of his early life (the work is apparently semi-autobiographical) and the 'you' of his later years is relatively simple to grasp, less easy it the disjointed narrative. The first few chapters follow a fairly regular pattern, alternating between the author's life as a young man in China and his encounter with a German woman, who had been raped as a child and who is now able to act as his muse, enabling him to reminisce on his past. However, this Margarethe disappears from the scene relatively early on, and we are left with a stretch of the novel that deals mainly, although apparently not always chronologically, with life in Mao's China. And then suddenly we find ourselves in Sydney, where the author is taking a young French woman for a walk in a national park. More strange still is the chapter in which the author has an imagined conversation with the dead Mao.
Perhaps this disjunction is intended as metaphor for the cultural dislocation experienced by a writer exiled in the West struggling to explain an alien past to a Western audience. Somehow, however, the recounting of the author's sexual conquests are never really explained in the context of the rest of the book, and it is unclear as to exactly what kind of a work Gao Xingjian is trying to write.
One Man's Bible is certainly a compelling read, if only for its strangeness, but whether it is deserving of the Nobel Prize is another matter. Although one reviewer has compared Gao Xingjian to W.G. Sebald, I would suggest that Sebald, with his fluidity of prose and ability to capture the ghosts of the past, would have been a more suitable winner.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If I had to name my top five books ever, this book would be amongst them and probably near the top. I find it impossible to praise it too highly. It is true that I work and live in China but 'One Man's Bible' does not need a familiarity with Chinese culture to be appreciated. I am in awe of Gao Xiaojian. I do not know how anyone could have lived through the 'ten years of turmoil' as he did, and retain such a clarity of vision. The detail of this period is gripping indeed. This is a work of fiction, as is more than once stated, but whoever wrote it has lived it. It is wholly authentic and shocking in its authenticity. But, it is still the story of a young man's young life as he struggles to find romantic love and the pleasures of sex in a situation that makes this well-nigh impossible. Gripping indeed. But, as I said I find it impossible to do this book justice. For me it has everything a book should have. Anyone who has an interest in China, life, the human condition, excellent novels, literature of the highest order should grab this book with both hands. They will not regret it.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
(Pardon me. This is not much of a review, but I found the ones already posted so revolting that I had to react immediately.)
4 not 5 stars because One Man's Bible lacks the uncanny zen-like qualities of the most wondrous parts of the deservedly noble-prize winning "Soul Mountain".
No this is no easy reading. It would be all too strange if a book about the devastations that a repressive regime (here: in the chinese cultural revolution) does to the human soul would be such a joy to read. Come across any easy reading about the holocaust lately?
If you can't stand the intensity of human feelings and hurt - go back to your Agatha Christie or whatever!
4 not 5 stars because One Man's Bible lacks the uncanny zen-like qualities of the most wondrous parts of the deservedly noble-prize winning "Soul Mountain".
No this is no easy reading. It would be all too strange if a book about the devastations that a repressive regime (here: in the chinese cultural revolution) does to the human soul would be such a joy to read. Come across any easy reading about the holocaust lately?
If you can't stand the intensity of human feelings and hurt - go back to your Agatha Christie or whatever!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
No it's me as well
I found this book incredibly hard to read. I think a lot of it must be down to the translation, as it was hard to work out which characters the author was referring to in a lot of... Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2003
Perhaps It Is Me
The Nobel Prize for Literature is given to a writer for the body of work they have produced. I have wondered in the past if the circumstances under which an author wrote, and or... Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2002 by taking a rest
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