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One Man's Bible
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One Man's Bible Paperback - 2003

by Gao Xingjian

In the same circling, ruminative vein as his Nobel Prize-winning debut novel "Soul Mountain," Chinese expatriate Xingjian's fictionalized memoir of his youth is an attempt to capture the Kafkaesque anxieties of the Cultural Revolution.


Summary

E-book extras: "No -isms": A Conversation with Gao Xingjian; "Translating Gao: Mabel Lee on Gao Xingjian."One Man's Bible is the second novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Gao Xingjian to appear in English. Following on the heels of his highly praised Soul Mountain (also published by PerfectBound), this later work is as candid as the first, and written with the same grace and beauty.

From the publisher

"Courageous ... One Man's Bible is driven by the sweeping panorama of history and the suffering and reconciliation that underlie it."-- Washington Post Book World

Published to impressive critical acclaim, One Man's Bible enhances the reputation of Nobel Prize-winning Gao Xingjian, whose first novel, Soul Mountain, was a national bestseller.

One Man's Bible is a fictionalized account of Gao Xingjian's life under the oppressive totalitarian regime of Mao Tse-tung during the period of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Whether in the "beehive" offices in Beijing or in isolated rural towns, daily life everywhere is riddled with paranoia and fear, as revolutionaries, counter-revolutionaries, and government propaganda turn citizens against one another. It is a place where a single sentence spoken ten years earlier can make one an enemy of the state. Gao evokes the spiritual torture of political and intellectual repression in graphic detail, including the heartbreaking betrayals he suffers in his relationships with women and men alike.

One Man's Bible is a profound meditation on the essence of writing, on exile, on the effects of political oppression on the human spirit, and how the human spirit can triumph.

First line

It was not that he didn't remember he once had another sort of life.

From the rear cover

One Man's Bible is a fictionalized account of Gao Xingjian's life under the Chinese Communist regime. Daily life is riddled with paranoia and fear, and government propaganda turns citizens against one another. It is a place where a single sentence spoken ten years earlier can make one an enemy of the state.

But One Man's Bible is also a profound meditation on the essence of writing, on exile, on the effects of political oppression on the human spirit, and on how the human spirit can triumph.

Details

  • Title One Man's Bible
  • Author Gao Xingjian
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 450
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Harper Perennial, N.Y.
  • Date 2003-09-16
  • ISBN 9780060936266 / 0060936266
  • Weight 1.2 lbs (0.54 kg)
  • Dimensions 9 x 6 x 1.1 in (22.86 x 15.24 x 2.79 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Asian - Chinese
    • Ethnic Orientation: Asian - General
    • Topical: Family
  • Library of Congress subjects Political fiction, Autobiographical fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2002017347
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • New York Times, 10/12/2003, Page 24
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One Man's Bible
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by Gao Xingjian

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ISBN 13
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