Monkey

I picked up Monkey for two reasons: 1) a friend of mine has been working her way through the multi-volume Chinese classic novels, and 2) I've felt like I've been missing out ever since I read Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt. Although part of me thinks it's not fair to critique anything that's been abridged, I just wasn't up to reading 2000 pages of The Journey to the West.

First, let me say that Arthur Waley's translation doesn't read as if it's 50 years old. (Do translations date themselves more readily than original works? I think in some cases they do; Waley's remains very readable.) I was sucked in; I actually read this 300-page abdridgment in a day.

That said, I don't know if I was fully satisfied with the work. I enjoyed the adventure, but the structure is so episodic that I felt no suspense (except at occasional chapter's-end teasers) and didn't generally have a sense that one episode built upon the next or escalated the stakes. In terms of character, only Monkey himself was sympathetic (ok, Pigsy sometimes); Tripitaka certainly wasn't.

In his Preface, Waley says, "it might be supposed that the satire was directed against religion rather than against bureaucracy. But the idea that the hierarchy in Heaven is a replica of government on earth is an accepted one in China." This is perceptive, and it reflects on part of the problem for me: I don't feel well-versed enough in Eastern traditions to feel I can make an informed decision on the many questions of tone that Monkey presents: honest or satiric satire? both at the same time (is it possible)? sometime one and sometimes the other? Ultimately, I'm puzzled.

Well, Monkey was fun, and maybe someday I'll give the unabridged version a shot. Hu Shih, who writes the introduction, makes me curious about his favorite omitted episodes ("The Monkey Playing the Medico at the Vermillion-Purple Kingdom"?). And I'll be adding some of those Chinese classics to my to-read list: Three Kingdoms, you're up next.