Becoming Monkey King — Shouhua Qi

Becoming Monkey King: The Untold Story, a fantasy/mystery/adventure, the perilous epic Journey to the West told for the first time in Monkey's own witty, whimsical, and (self)righteous voice.The story centers on Monkey escorting a young monk, Xuanzang, on a formidable journey to West Land to secure true scriptures of Buddhism. From the get-go, this master-disciple relationship, between a pious, scrupulous, and fastidious monk and a loyal, smart, and overconfident monkey, is fraught with tensions.Three of the 22 chapters are narrated from the monk's point of view. Each of his two other disciples, Pigsy, sensual, as cunning as gullible, and Sandy, the old steady, has a chance to tell his story in a chapter, too. You may have read or heard of the story of Monkey King as told in the16th century Chinese classic and/or in various translations since, but he feels impassionedly that he has not gotten a fair shake and that his story cries out to be retold.So, fasten your seatbelts and go for the ride as the master-disciple team journeys forward fighting one treacherous temptation/pitfall after another.