Wu Cheng'en (1505–1580)

For what I'd expect from a 500 year old novel, "Journey to the West" is impressively irreverent and inventive. A lot of this is probably thanks to Julia Lovell's translation, which does a remarkable job of bringing dialogue and characters to life in what could easily become a dreary parade of anonymous divinities and overwrought action sequences. It spends nearly a third of its pages on the origins of its protagonist Monkey, and a couple of chapters on the familial origins of the human monk show more who fills the role of the traditional (if amusingly whiny) hero, and then the rest on the titular journey -- itself a surprising structure. I would have foolishly assumed the story to be nearly the entire book, but not so.

The events themselves are very fairy tale-like, where a problem is presented and then (usually) quickly solved by Monkey's magical feats and trickery. When on occasion Monkey falls short, they simply have to complain to their Bodhisattva protector Guanyin, and she will unfailingly deux ex machina their way out of it. Thus, the book has very little in the way of actual stakes, and that I suspect remains its primary problem to most modern readers. But there is a lot of humour (primarily either cheeky Monkey dialogue or revelling in how bureaucratic the divine world is seen to be), some surprising turns on occasion, and even some characte development, so overall, it is a smaller issue than I would have assumed up front.

If you have an interest in this sort of thing -- by which I mean mythological novels from the 1500s -- you could do a lot worse than reading "Monkey King". Particularly, I imagine. in this particular translation. show less

Dear all, meet Monkey (aka Monkey King aka Great Sage Equal to Heaven ;) ), one of the coolest superheroes in history. What he lacks in manners, social skills, anger management, and knowledge of court protocol, he makes up for in audacity, quick thinking, wit, and lots (lots!) of magic powers.

This was pure, irreverent fun – with delightful bits of wisdom, too. When Monkey acquires his special skill set, he gets some Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism as part of the bargain. You need those show more too, obviously!

“Nothing in this world is hard. It is only the mind that makes it so.”

“If you want to have a future, think of the future.”

The intrepid heroes who go on a quest to find holy Buddhist scrolls are: Monkey (see above), Tripitaka the monk (good at bursting into tears, getting kidnapped, and reciting sutras), Pigsy (a reformed monster, good at eating, fighting, and being a pain in the ass), Sandy (a reformed monster, good at fighting and being depressed and somewhat helpful), and a horse (who is really a dragon; sometimes it talks). The quest is a romp, without forgetting that it’s the journey that matters, not the destination. Oh, the exploits! The epic battles! The magic tricks! The monster-slaying! Adventure succeeds adventure, because there is a demon on every mountain; a monster in every cave; a stupid king who had been duped by demons in every city. There is always a job for Monkey & Co. Monkey usually saves the day – when he cannot, there are helpful deities, guardian spirits and the wonderfully friendly Bodhisattva Guanyin who come to the rescue. And so it goes… (I think that perhaps I shouldn’t have read it in one go – the fun adventures did get repetitive. Still fun, though.)

I loved how grounded this book is in the oral tradition it came from, as in “and then this happened! But then…! Do you want to find out what they did next? Read on!”

I was deliciously entertained throughout. Here is Sandy, explaining his predicament as a monster after being banished from Heaven (Sandy broke a cup – so the heavenly Jade Emperor probably needs those Buddhist scrolls too):

“Every seventh day, he sends a flying sword to pierce my torso over a hundred times, It wears a person out. That’s why I am a little highly strung.”

And here is some weird magic happening (don’t drink water from rivers you haven’t met before!):

“Calamity!” yelped Tripitaka, turning white, while Pigsy – sitting on the ground – bent over, trying to spread his legs. “But we’re men! How can we have children? We don’t have birth canals. Where’s the baby going to come out?”
“A ripe melon will find a way to drop,” said Monkey, grinning, “as the proverb goes. Maybe it’ll burst out of your armpit.”

I appreciate Julia Lovell’s translation very much. You can tell that it preserves the spirit of the original while dressing it up in modern English – without obscuring the source material. It was skilfully done. Also, I was very happy to find an abridged version of ca 400 pages. I’d love to read the 2000 pages of the unabridged translation, but my tbr has been hurling abuse at me every time I mentioned it. So, not now ;) For now, I’ll just go around recommending Journey to the West to everyone and anyone I think might be a good fit. show less

Written in the 1400s, China, these tales were old even then. They tell about Monkey, born of rock, and irrepressible. After being imprisoned by Buddha for his many high-spirited hi-jinks in Heaven, he is granted freedom on the condition he help a monk, Tripitaka, seek scriptures in India. These are the stories of their adventures.

So much fun to read! Some of the chapters were odd, but others were quite gripping. All of them had a fun sense of humor, especially the chapters where the journey show more begins and Tripitaka finds Monkey. One chapter proves that potty humor survives through the ages. Arthur Waley must have been a fine translator, because this book is delightful. show less

A monk and his 3 supernatural disciples set out on a journey westward to obtain buddhist scriptures. Actually that description is the story eventually... there's quite a bit of build up and background to get through first.
So there were a few surprises in this for me. Firstly while it might well be based on ancient legend this isn't some oral tale which has simply been written down but rather a proper literary piece from the 16th century.
Which is quite recent from china's point of view. I show more find it quite difficult to read fairytales so was quite glad this wasn't one.

Secondly i'm a big fan of the tv adaptation of this 'Monkey'. It was a 70's show made by japan rather than china* and then dubbed into english by people who often didn't even have a script, they would just make up the story based on what seemed to be happening on screen.
For all of these reasons i assumed that the book would bare little resemblance to the show, but i was wrong. All the crazy, funny ridiculousness of the show is totally in here :D .
The comedy and satire is Rabelais-esque at times.

About a 5th of the story is done in poetry. I don't know whether this rhymed in its original language but it doesn't now. It still has a certain rhythm about it though. I might have disliked the poetry except that it only occurs on specific occasions.
Its basically a descriptor. Whenever someone or something new turns up or when there's a fight sequence it switches to poetry and the poetry is usually more over the top than the prose.
Its like in certain movies or shows where they might switch to animation for fight sequences, or in certain kinds of musical where the songs are only used to replace fight or love scenes.

The story can get a bit repetitive both figuratively and literally. Literally in that every so often you get a little recap of events. One character will go off and do something, then comeback and tell people what they've just done.
I didn't mind this so much as it was never very long and did make me remember things a bit better.
The other repetitiveness is a little more annoying as several of the fight sequences follow a very similar pattern which can start to get old.
Oh, one other thing that some might find annoying is the buddhism. There are various pieces of buddhist philosophy in this which will make no sense to most people.
I don't even know if their real. Its like quantum theory, someone could be telling you a real but confusing piece of quantum theory or a fake bit, i simply don't have the necessary experience to tell the difference.

Anyway, i was constantly hearing the people from the tv show in my head (aswell as picturing the very pretty monk ;) ) so i feel like i may be more naturally inclined to like this over people who didn't see the show.
I look forward to reading the rest of the volumes but not right away, i think a break between each one is a good strategy.

*the male monk is played by a female actress on the show which caused me considerable confusion as a child :) . show less