First off, this is a novel, or half novel, and half a prose telling of the Gesar legend.

I gather that Alai in his fiction (Red Poppies, Tibetan Soul) doesn’t romanticise Tibet, new or old. The present-day portions of this work aren’t idyllic, aren’t bitter, but a little of both. Jigmed is a simple shepherd who is seized by the song, in the traditional spiritual way where the song is thrust upon you in dreams – and can be snatched back by the spirits, too, if you serve the song ill. So Jigmed, who has become a transient in service to his song, intersects with an aged woman singer who has taken the government’s comfortable deal – singing into tape recorders, to conserve the cultural treasure – yet in result her inspiration has failed her.

Here I am talking about the present-day portions, and in truth I was often more interested in them – than in a prose Gesar, which had its touches, but was unavoidably prosaic. They are interspersed under headings of The Storyteller and The Story. In the latter stages these start to entwine and interact… not only, now, is it Gesar visiting the singer in his dreams, but he dreams too, to start up a two-way conversation, and Gesar wants to know what’s become of his song in Jigmed’s time.

I have a large complaint, not against the novel but the publisher. There’s no introduction to the Gesar legend, or preface/afterword to acquaint you with Alai’s project, and there are no notes whatsoever for the unfamiliar audience whom I think this book was meant to woo. That’s no way to send this book out into the English-language world. It needs notes, and I for one wanted to begin with an idea of what Alai is doing with the old story. My four stars are for Alai’s novel, but the novel is ill-served in this edition. ( )

Like all epics, this 12th century epic presents us the tale of heroic deeds of a legendary hero and a legendary place While it is impossible to review a 12th century tale with a critical perspective, it is the retelling that may be focused on. Read the complete review of The Song of King Gesar at
http://www.thebookoutline.com/2014/03/book-review-song-of-king-gesar.html ( )