Monkey: The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I finally got to see for myself why this is called a classic. More than that, the source (translated, still) of SO many great riffs over the centuries.

Yes, THE trickster monkey king, the humorous, funny, wickedly delightful, freedom-loving immortal master of martial arts, magics, and the art of thumbing one's nose at all gods and demons.

I could say something about its great influence on all of Eastern culture, but I'll skip that for now because a lot of people have said a lot of great things on that.

Instead, I'm just going to throw in MY particular enjoyment--for Mangas and Anime, and just how much debt THEY have to The Monkey King.

Right off the bat, I was chortling with glee about how much young Goku resembled him in SO many particulars, from the original Dragon Ball. Not so much Dragon Ball Z, mind you, but the kid is almost the spitting image of our hero. Riding a cloud and shapeshifting staff, a tail that always shows up in any transformation (or Goku's particular riff on that), not to mention a particular shapeshifting pig, hops to the underworld with King Yama, etc.

But if THAT wasn't enough, I was even MORE delighted to see dozens of equally great references to The Monkey King in One Piece. Luffy's name notwithstanding, his SPIRIT is ENTIRELY the Monkey King. In some ways, One Piece is an even greater riff on the original than Dragon Ball.

And another thing, a very honorable mention: Inuyasha being told to Sit, and some of the households visited on the journey, are SO SUSPICIOUSLY just like the original that I was honestly tickled pink.


And yes, I'm ignoring cultural contexts mostly because I had no issues picking up on all of them in this translation. I'm even ignoring the fact that the whole tale is a deft and delicious SATIRE AND ALLEGORY. Why would I, though?

Because the tale is JUST PLAIN FUN, too. Enjoyment trounced all that.

So, if any of ya'll have never considered picking up this tale, please consider doing so. It's a well-beloved classic for very, very deserved reasons.

Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

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