La dulzura de los recuerdos y de la infancia, la violencia política, el amor y también el erotismo se mezclan en esta novela sorprendente de Gao Xingjian, resumen de la vida de un hombre solo y testimonio literario esencial y sublime.

EL LIBRO DE UN HOMBRE SOLO

El Premio Nobel Gao Xingjian nos ofrece en esta novela imprescindible una mirada lúcida al proceso de deshumanización que conllevó la Revolución Cultural en China.

Él es un hombre solo. Sin ideales, sin mujer, sin hijos. Está vivo y al fin es libre. Él mantiene silenciosas conversaciones consigo mismo en habitaciones de hotel de distintas ciudades, acompañado siempre de hermosas mujeres con las que apenas tiene relación más allá de breves encuentros eróticos. Él es ahora un reconocido artista chino exiliado que evoca los años en los que inició una batalla perdida contra el adoctrinamiento y la masificación.

En el ajuste de cuentas que mantiene con los recuerdos de su juventud, él hace un retrato, a un tiempo hermoso y terrible, del proceso que convirtió a su país en un territorio de espías y traidores, de temerosos y arribistas, de siniestros solitarios.

«¿La Revolución Cultural? Aquí está el reverso más crudo, el más aterrador, bajo la pluma atrayente de un calígrafo de los años de plomo.»

55. One Man's Bible by Gao Xingjian
published: 1999
format: 450 page Hardcover
acquired: 2003 from a 75% Off Books (do they still exist?)
read: Dec 14-24
rating: 4

Another dusty book on the shelf, this one has been hanging around for some 14 years with my eye on it, but with my never having any clue what it contained. After reading a few pages, I looked up a few reviews and found some really critical, especially in comparison to [Soul Mountain] (which led to his Nobel prize). These negative reviews were a bit unfair but perfect for lowering my expectations and allowing me to really enjoy this.

It's a lightly fictionalized memoir of Gao's experiences in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (roughly 1966 to Mao's death in 1976). He mixes in a life as a Chinese exile in the present (1996-1998) obviously based on him, but likely heavily fictionalized, or he was quite the promiscuous one. He is, I imagine, playful with the truth in many ways.

His life in and memories of the Cultural Revolution are insane. It's not clear to me how political involved he was, but he experienced purges that flipflopped on themselves and purge the purgers. There was no right answer except to learn to mimic everyone around you with full emotional commitment. Anything that stood out brought suspicion, which brought a lot of suffering or worse. He says that it was almost easier to try to rebel than not to, since he craved independent thought and expression. Gao is an artist in different ways, visually, in play writing and as a novelist. The cover of the book is his own art work.

There is a sophistication to how the book is presented. First in how he mixes the present and past so that they are distinct but become a whole. Part of this distinction is in how his younger self is always described in third person, but his (fictional?) current self is addressed directly always as "you". Second is in how he strives to create atmosphere. A lot of this stuff is beyond words, he has to create the experience in the text to really express it, and he does this really well. And third is the pacing. There is weak narrative drive as the each section, each chapter generally closes a story, with some notable exceptions. But it paces nicely and continuously so that it becomes a really nice to book to get lost it, and pick up anytime. It comes apart at the end where he ties off the past and then spends a lot of time about his fictional present and all his love affairs. He tells how content he is, but the impression is the opposite as it all comes out empty, and I'm not sure that wasn't his intention.

All this together made for a really enjoyable reading experience and I think a fine book that leaves the reader with a lot to think about. A writer and artist's book. And it makes me really want to read [Soul Mountain].

"You know you are certainly not the embodiment of truth, and you write simply to indicate that a sort of life, worse than a quagmire, more real than an imaginary hell, more terrifying than Judgement Day, has, in fact, existed."

2017
https://www.librarything.com/topic/260412#6295324 ( )

I have to admit that I was unable to finish this book. I only made it a bit over halfway through.

The book is well written; the story line and subject matter are both intriguing. The book deserves to be read.

I think my mood at the time I attempted to read, and the pacing of the book threw me off the first time. I wholly plan pick this one back up one day and give it the time it deserves - and probably a better rating. ( )

A memoir of sorts about the author. his time in Mao's China as a child, a young man and an adult. At some point - little discussed - he leaves and lives in exile. The memoria then restarts in Hony Kong as it is being turned back over to China from the British. Then it alternates in between the present and sections where he muses about what is meant to be an artist, what is life, what is exile. I might have enjoyed it more, but for some reason I could not identify with him. ( )