Reviews
"Of all [my mother's] stories, my favorites by far were about Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. . . . With every comic book and graphic novel that I create, I am trying to recapture the wonder I felt when my mother would regale me with tales of the Monkey King." Gene Luen Yang, from the Foreword "Monkey King is one of the most memorable characters in all of Chinese literature, beloved of readers young and old. This is a first-rate translation, fluent and accurate--I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I think it will bring the novel over very successfully to the modern English-reading public, and help to enrich the Western perception of the Chinese cultural universe at a most important time in our world's history." John Minford, award-winning translator of The Art of War, Tao Te Ching, and I Ching, "Of all [my mother's] stories, my favorites by far were about Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. . . . With every comic book and graphic novel that I create, I am trying to recapture the wonder I felt when my mother would regale me with tales of the Monkey King." Gene Luen Yang, from the Foreword "A monument of world literature, Monkey King is also one of the funniest, most subversive satires ever written. There is no trickster quite as tricky, no companion more resourceful or more ridiculously entertaining, no hero more true than the monkey king. If you've not read Journey to the West, prepare yourself for the adventure of a lifetime and know that like Monkey himself, you are about to be transformed. No book can truly capture the stupendous, absurd glory of life, but Monkey King comes pretty damn close. Even if you have read Monkey King, Julia Lovell's magnificent new translation becomes its own cloud somersault, its own gold-hooped staff." Junot Díaz "An exhilarating new translation of my favorite of all the classic Chinese novels--a great, wild epic that expands and fires one's imagination." Ha Jin, National Book Award-winning author of Waiting "Monkey King is one of the most memorable characters in all of Chinese literature, beloved of readers young and old. This is a first-rate translation, fluent and accurate--I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I think it will bring the novel over very successfully to the modern English-reading public, and help to enrich the Western perception of the Chinese cultural universe at a most important time in our world's history." John Minford, award-winning translator of The Art of War, Tao Te Ching, and I Ching, "Of all [my mother's] stories, my favorites by far were about Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. . . . With every comic book and graphic novel that I create, I am trying to recapture the wonder I felt when my mother would regale me with tales of the Monkey King." Gene Luen Yang, from the Foreword "A monument of world literature, Monkey King is also one of the funniest, most subversive satires ever written. There is no trickster quite as tricky, no companion more resourceful or more ridiculously entertaining, no hero more true than the monkey king. If you've not read Journey to the West, prepare yourself for the adventure of a lifetime and know that like Monkey himself, you are about to be transformed. No book can truly capture the stupendous, absurd glory of life, but Monkey King comes pretty damn close. Even if you have read Monkey King, Julia Lovell's magnificent new translation becomes its own cloud somersault, its own gold-hooped staff." Junot Díaz "A new translation of Monkey King is a cause for joy! Imaginative and mischievous, exhilarating and timeless, this sixteenth-century superhero saga is a delight to readers of all ages." Yiyun Li "An exhilarating new translation of my favorite of all the classic Chinese novels--a great, wild epic that expands and fires one's imagination." Ha Jin "Monkey King is one of the most memorable characters in all of Chinese literature, beloved of readers young and old. This is a first-rate translation, fluent and accurate--I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I think it will bring the novel over very successfully to the modern English-reading public, and help to enrich the Western perception of the Chinese cultural universe at a most important time in our world's history." John Minford, award-winning translator of The Art of War, Tao Te Ching, and I Ching "The Monkey King, one of Chinese literature's great characters, should add many new disciples to his existing fans through this compelling new version of his adventures. Julia Lovell here conveys a vibrant sense of the richnessand also the sheer funof this Ming dynasty text, a classic of world fiction from one of its first great ages." Craig Clunas, University of Oxford
Synopsis
A Chinese Lord of the Rings and one of the all-time great fantasy novels--which Neil Gaiman has said is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people--now in a thrilling new one-volume translation A Penguin Classics Hardcover A shape-shifting trickster on a kung-fu quest for eternal life, Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, is one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature, known to legions of fans of the most popular anime of all time, Dragon Ball , and the world's largest e-sport, the video game League of Legends . High-spirited and omni-talented, he amasses dazzling weapons and skills on his journey to immortality: a gold-hooped staff that can grow as tall as the sky and shrink to the size of a needle; the ability to travel 108,000 miles in a single somersault. A master of subterfuge, he can transform himself into whomever or whatever he chooses and turn each of his body's 84,000 hairs into an army of clones. But his penchant for mischief repeatedly gets him into trouble, and when he raids Heaven's Orchard of Immortal Peaches and gorges himself on the elixirs of the gods, the Buddha pins him beneath a mountain, freeing him only five hundred years later for a chance to redeem himself: He is to protect the pious monk Tripitaka on his fourteen-year journey to India in search of precious Buddhist sutras that will bring enlightenment to the Chinese empire. Joined by two other fallen immortals--Pigsy, a rice-loving pig able to fly with its ears, and Sandy, a depressive man-eating river-sand monster--Monkey King undergoes eighty-one trials, doing battle with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, the Monstress Dowager, and all manner of dragons, ogres, wizards, and femmes fatales, navigating the perils of Fire-Cloud Cave, the River of Flowing Sand, the Water-Crystal Palace, and Casserole Mountain, and being serially captured, lacquered, sautéed, steamed, and liquefied, but always hatching an ingenious plan to get himself and his fellow pilgrims out of their latest jam. Monkey King: Journey to the West is at once a rollicking adventure, a comic satire of Chinese bureaucracy, and a spring of spiritual insight. With this new translation, the irrepressible rogue hero of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature has the potential to vault, with his signature cloud-somersault and unerring sense for fun, into the hearts of millions of Americans., A Chinese Lord of the Rings and one of the all-time great fantasy novels--which Neil Gaiman has said "is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people"--now in a thrilling new one-volume translation A Penguin Classics Hardcover A shape-shifting trickster on a kung-fu quest for eternal life, Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, is one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature, known to legions of fans of the most popular anime of all time, Dragon Ball , and the world's largest e-sport, the video game League of Legends . High-spirited and omni-talented, he amasses dazzling weapons and skills on his journey to immortality: a gold-hooped staff that can grow as tall as the sky and shrink to the size of a needle; the ability to travel 108,000 miles in a single somersault. A master of subterfuge, he can transform himself into whomever or whatever he chooses and turn each of his body's 84,000 hairs into an army of clones. But his penchant for mischief repeatedly gets him into trouble, and when he raids Heaven's Orchard of Immortal Peaches and gorges himself on the elixirs of the gods, the Buddha pins him beneath a mountain, freeing him only five hundred years later for a chance to redeem himself: He is to protect the pious monk Tripitaka on his fourteen-year journey to India in search of precious Buddhist sutras that will bring enlightenment to the Chinese empire. Joined by two other fallen immortals--Pigsy, a rice-loving pig able to fly with its ears, and Sandy, a depressive man-eating river-sand monster--Monkey King undergoes eighty-one trials, doing battle with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, the Monstress Dowager, and all manner of dragons, ogres, wizards, and femmes fatales, navigating the perils of Fire-Cloud Cave, the River of Flowing Sand, the Water-Crystal Palace, and Casserole Mountain, and being serially captured, lacquered, sautéed, steamed, and liquefied, but always hatching an ingenious plan to get himself and his fellow pilgrims out of their latest jam. Monkey King: Journey to the West is at once a rollicking adventure, a comic satire of Chinese bureaucracy, and a spring of spiritual insight. With this new translation, the irrepressible rogue hero of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature has the potential to vault, with his signature cloud-somersault and unerring sense for fun, into the hearts of millions of Americans.
