Search - Soul Mountain

There are view books I've read that left me so involved with the spirit of the writer as I climbed with the author into both the mountain, its mist, and the author. I felt enveloped, and confused with what was the mountain and what was his quest, as we began to resolve it; an unearthly awareness came to him as it was simultaneously revealed to the reader. Beautifully written, yet from a culture I have only begun to learn from. Completely absorbing.

This book is an example in the odd genre, the fictionalized travel memoir. When the author heard word that he was going to be internally deported to a labor camp, he fled to the remote forests of Sichuan province. He traveled down the Yangtze from source to sea in a five-month, 15,000-klick trip. The book that came out of this journey consists of travel narrative, philosophical speculations, horror stories of political repression, jottings on feelings, notes on love troubles, fables and parables, folk songs and legends. Though a slog in some places, it is well worth reading for people into China and modern Chinese writers.