Books like Story of the Stone: The Golden Days v. 1

\ Filled with favours bathed in blessings\ If you would have asked me a couple of weeks ago what I think a time machine looks like, I would have described a greyish blue metallic construction with a little blinking light for every button and a button for every wire that sparks within the machine's smooth frame. Maybe little bleeps and sounds too, and definitely a smoke generator because no time travel is complete without that puff of smoke signifying take-off to another time. Teams of scientists would be peering over this equipment armed with notes and calculations, trying to make sense of the complicated affair. If you ask me what a time machine looks like now, I'll give you a little smirk and tell you there's no need for wires, DeLoreans or electricity and definitely no use for a smoke generator. All you need is ink and paper and a well-written story of another time and place. This particular contraption brought me to 18th century China. An enriching, illuminating and profoundly moving trip I'll never forget and look forward to continuing later on.When faced with a work of an epic magnitude (this book of more than 500 pages is merely the first part of five and is left without any kind of conclusion), when confronted with a story that made a journey through time and space in order to find itself from the desk of a Chinese nobleman with a lot of spare time, a man bestowed with the affection of the Imperial Master himself, all the way to the hands of a policy adviser on international environmental affairs in Brussels a couple of centuries later, I can't help but feel that I'm in no position to grant this piece of magic something as mundane as a rating. I feel so small next to it. It's like reviewing the Great Wall of China on an architectural website. Of course I'm going to give it five stars, but that's not telling the whole story.The five stars don't mean I've always thoroughly enjoyed this book, regardless of the awe I feel for it. People who have followed my updates on this book may remember a garden. There is an entire chapter devoted to its description of around thirty pages, but even later on in the book the author couldn't stop himself from occasionally losing himself again in the midst of its abundance of flowers, rivers and shrubs. I'm no horticulturist so maybe that's why most of it went over my head but I can't imagine there being a whole lot of horticulturists here so that's not really the point. It's just an example of what this book does: it's very description heavy when it comes to the surroundings people find themselves in. If a room has curtains, the embroidery that's on them will be explained in detail, cultural significance and all. And let me tell you the Rong-Guo Mansions have lots of rooms, kangs and curtains to describe. This makes this story a bit more heavy for the casual reader but immensely valuable for those who want to know as much as possible about the time and place these characters (and the author) lived in. This shouldn't be read as a criticism towards the book but as a heads-up to casual readers who prefer plot over setting. Like I said: this is a time machine and the descriptions are the wiring that make it all work. Don't worry though, lights will start blinking soon and there will be plenty of buttons for you to push. There are a lot of characters in this book. A LOT. There are helpful family trees in the back for easy reference and a character index that's even more complete, covering all the family, extended family, maids and servants and servants' cousins and distant friends. In the beginning it takes a bit of getting used to, also because the names sound very similar in some instances, especially to a Western reader's ear. Jia Lan, Jia Lian, Yuan-chun, Ying-chun and Tan-chun, Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou, Mister Xeng and Cousin Zheng and Jia Zheng, all of that times twenty. Sometimes one character is referred to with two or three different names,so that when you're following the peregrinations of Wang Xi-feng you shouldn't be surprised at Ms. Lian suddenly popping up, because they're both the same person. This may seem daunting at first but believe me: you'll be quite alright. Some people get introduced into the story only to die a sentence later, others return enough or get a chapter devoted to them to give you ample time to familiarize yourself with them. Jia Lian becomes the sex addict and Jia Lan an adorable little child and soon you no longer see the names but the rich characters they refer to. Though there are many characters getting a lot of attention, it's safe to say that Bao-yu is the main one. It is believed he is based on Cao Xueqin, this book's author, making this a semi-autobioghraphical book. The Story of the Stone follows his movements within the compounds of two wealthy families and shows the everyday life of the elite and their servants. Bao-yu is a bit different from the others. He spends most of his time with the females, resulting in this story talking mostly about their lives, while the uncles and fathers are busy with their business, conducted outside of this story's area. Bao-yu is very intense in his friendly relations and often very sexual. Little Chinese school children lose all their innocence with the description of a fight in the classroom and its causes. On top of this sometimes raw realism, there is also a big touch of magic in this tale. This boy was born with a special jade in his mouth, a stone that contains mystical powers. The story starts with the backstory of this Stone, which is at once the narrator and the protagonist of this tale, because all signs point to Bao-yu being the human incarnation of this godly Stone. There is witchcraft and mystery, but it's introduced in a very subtle way and rarely the overpowering element. There is an early chapter describing one of Bao-yu's dreams, filled with riddles, poems and songs foreshadowing what is to come, meriting years of study and speculation and raising the appetite enough to make you want to devour this book, all five parts of it. There are tales of early love, of death, of Imperial visits, of funerals and doctor's visits, of a boy's first wet dream and of a whole lot of etiquette. The importance of formalities is brought home really well here and sometimes in a most touching way. There is something moving about the deference shown to those higher and lower in the all-important hierarchy, wherein sincere warmth still has its place. But there is also viciousness in some characters who seemed angelic before and the result is a rich tapestry, not of caricatures, but of people that truly come alive. This first volume is also referred to as "The Golden Days" and it shows these rich families at the peak of their success, but what is most powerful is the melancholy of a loss that is yet to come pervading the text. It makes you nostalgic about the present that is described and makes one appreciate it all the more. Or as the author himself puts it: \ The flower's aroma breathes of hotter days.\ A final word goes out to the translator, David Hawkes, who did a truly astounding job here, making an ancient text in a foreign language perfectly readable to the modern English reader without losing any of its authenticity. There is a lot of poetry that can't have been easy to translate, but pretty much each and every poem (and there are many) carry a great force and beauty in them. Those who know me know I'm not big on poetry, but this book here opened my eyes in that regard. There are contests on how to poetically describe everyday objects (in the form of riddles) and the poems show a richness of thinking, a uniqueness of perspective in looking at the world that I want to cultivate within myself as a direct result of this book. Sometimes the air while reading this book gets very thick with all that poetry, making me feel like I was in a jungle with hot humid air that was never intended for breathing. The flowers sweetening the air with their scents were nonetheless beautiful, even though I'm the kind of guy who prefers a single flower over a whole bouquet. This book comes with an introduction by this translator whose passion for this work shines through every word, an introduction that is a story about the story, on how "The Story of the Stone" came to be and how it found its way into David Hawkes' hands. It's just as interesting as the book itself and I highly advise reading it. As a person who tends to skip introductions or only reads them halfheartedly afterwards, I felt I had to add this advice. I will definitely read further into this series, though I need a little break. It's very intense. This is said to be one of the most important novels in Chinese history and I don't want to miss out on the rest of it. You shouldn't, either. The dust covering up this little universe of days gone by will be blown away, and so will you.