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The Scrolls of a Temple Sweeper
Scrolls of a Temple Sweeper is a novel of war, lost children, dream masters, a traveling circus, a theater troupe, a shaman, and a ghostwoman, told by a temple sweeper who has not spoken in twenty-five years. This book is for anyone who has felt the pain of separation, the fear of the future, the loss of a country or a language or a loved one. It's the quantum love story of a one-eyed boy and mute girl moving through time to an island monastery of refuge-where stones have become dreams, dreams have become bones, bones have become prayers and prayers have become us.
The Scrolls are replete with phantasmagorical elements in which even ghosts have flesh and blood, and being is time, where crows speak, elephants and dragons wander in and out of the telling, and the Old Story, the scrolls themselves, unfold before us. The novel welds post-modernist narrative techniques to traditional discourse-the seamless integration of rhythmical prose, lyrical poetry, and proverbial utterance is dazzling. Pathos presides, not terrible beauty is born and reborn.
This astonishing and dizzyingly extensive work smashes all barriers of time and space, so that when you are done with its dark & light pages full, incidentally, of multicolored ensō (Zen circle) art works, you don't know who you are or where you have been, though its vividly realized scenes are stunningly clear. Scrolls of a Temple Sweeper is itself an extended Zen koan that plays on the flute of traditional Zen literary tropes like a virtuoso.
The Scrolls are replete with phantasmagorical elements in which even ghosts have flesh and blood, and being is time, where crows speak, elephants and dragons wander in and out of the telling, and the Old Story, the scrolls themselves, unfold before us. The novel welds post-modernist narrative techniques to traditional discourse-the seamless integration of rhythmical prose, lyrical poetry, and proverbial utterance is dazzling. Pathos presides, not terrible beauty is born and reborn.
This astonishing and dizzyingly extensive work smashes all barriers of time and space, so that when you are done with its dark & light pages full, incidentally, of multicolored ensō (Zen circle) art works, you don't know who you are or where you have been, though its vividly realized scenes are stunningly clear. Scrolls of a Temple Sweeper is itself an extended Zen koan that plays on the flute of traditional Zen literary tropes like a virtuoso.
Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 27, 2023
I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher free of charge through Netgalley.
What on Earth possessed me when I decided that this book might work for me? Reading the summary now and it’s immediately clear I’m not going to like it. I made it to page ten, it took me half an hour, but I managed it. That is all I will be able to manage of this waffling rubbish. I have no idea what was going on, it just felt like the author's goal was to use as many words as possible to say as little as possible. Would not pick up another book by this author.
What on Earth possessed me when I decided that this book might work for me? Reading the summary now and it’s immediately clear I’m not going to like it. I made it to page ten, it took me half an hour, but I managed it. That is all I will be able to manage of this waffling rubbish. I have no idea what was going on, it just felt like the author's goal was to use as many words as possible to say as little as possible. Would not pick up another book by this author.
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October 12, 2023DNF at 25%.
Without wanting to offend anyone, but this reads like gibberish! I am sure it's me, not understanding what is going on, but if I'm completely honest, I really am totally confused by this text, lol! I've tried to keep at it, hoping some light is gonna be shed, but alas I cannot take any more of the same thing being repeated ad nauseam. Maybe another time..
Book from BookSirens with many thanks for the opportunity!
Without wanting to offend anyone, but this reads like gibberish! I am sure it's me, not understanding what is going on, but if I'm completely honest, I really am totally confused by this text, lol! I've tried to keep at it, hoping some light is gonna be shed, but alas I cannot take any more of the same thing being repeated ad nauseam. Maybe another time..
Book from BookSirens with many thanks for the opportunity!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews