Summary of "Soul Mountain "

An author has been told by his doctor that he has lung cancer, but it is a false alarm. On the second visit the lung cancer is gone, but the thought of cancer has made him stop and think about his life. He wants to leave Beijing to find something more real. He decides to go on a quest to find a holy place that he has heard about, Soul Mountain. On his journey he meets many people and he talk to them all, because he is very interested in people and his country's history. He listens to old folk songs and tales and he remembers his childhood.

This novel does not only consist of one journey but two, one psysical and one inner journey. It seems like the inner journey is something that happens in his mind to pass time, on his long and tiresome physical journey. Every second chapter the author moves between these two worlds.

On the physical journey the author referres to himself as "I" and the story is filled with descriptions of the scienery and the friendly people that he meets. On the inner journey the author is "You" and he travels in his mind. There is no way of telling what is fantasy and what is memory. He meets a young woman and he has a sexual relationship with her.

Soul Mountain is a very difficult novel. I not sure that I have fully understood it because I perceived it as both a psysical and an inner journey. The language is good but the real strength of this novel is in the dialogue. This is what brings the novel to life and what makes it worth reading. However, you probably have to be Chinese or very interested in Chinese culture to fully appreciate this novel, even though the travelling author presents things from a distance, because he is not like the people he meets. He is almost from a different world, he is a writer from Beijing and he is also an atheist.

Book Summaries

Fiction
Health
Psychology
Biography
Awards

Book Awards

Man Booker Prize
Nobel Prize
Pulitzer Prize