The world is lost and confused. We are in a desert. An ethos of greed has led us astray. Struggling to find a direction out from our souls' confusion, we search for a restoration of humanity.
The Monkey In Me is a tour de force on the fall of the American Empire, the current world economic crisis and the very real crisis of conscience in our culture. It provides a moment of reflection on being human, on our failures and our ardent desire to find a place of repose on a planet beset by contradictions.
Set in Hong Kong and China, The Monkey In Me is decisive, romantic and melancholy, searching for answers. Caleb Kavon challenges our consciences and our lives. He looks for the real changes that we all must make in the new millennium.
A friend sent me this book for review(he happens to live in China and the book has enjoyed quite a following.) I found it to be a great read. In fact, I finished it in two sittings. It is a very timely and sharp blend of fiction/non-fiction that manages to accomplish the following: an intelligent perspective of an American who is not quite fully committed to an expatriate status. In fact, he sounds like a lot of us in our exhausted state of sad wonder at how the world got to be the way it is. The difference is, the character in the Monkey in Me (is it an autobiography is it a piece of fiction? Hard to know)is brutally honest about the world, and about himself. He manages to do this with a particularly entertaining and adept command of language. I don't know if this book is published in Chinese (perhaps so) but the stunning release of a veritable word salad of pop culture, politics, and poetry recalls the poetry of alan ginsberg and the angry songs of bob dylan. In my opinion, these slim chapters show us the true hero and character of one brave enough to say it. It is on these pages with their peppering of perfect words that i believe the true artist emerges and I look forward to more of that coming forth, perhaps in future writing. Alas, the love story takes over and the hungry heart betrays its most vulnerable self. The monkey plays both the offensive and defensive ends. He shoots. He scores. He is yet alone. The author is brutal both with the world and himself and it gets ugly. Confusion? Yes. Love? Maybe. But "Hope?" under a Chinese Sky? I'm not so sure. To put the word "hope" in the title was a bit of a stretch (my only real criticism) I could not see its emergence in such acerbic conditions.
A Prime M(訪客)
二零零九年十一月二十三日
An interesting book, I picked it up in Hong Kong after a 5 week stint in mainland China, so a lot of it hit home. The cheers and jeers are just that but the story is the real compelling part.
I wish I had more of the story. The character development was really quite good. You can feel the frustration....
So read the book...and learn your not the only frustrated person in the world....which isn't a bad thing at all.
judy(訪客)
二零零九年十一月二十三日
i like this great novel.Life is full of struggling, sometimes depress.But the sun always shine again tomorrow!