Writing stories is one of the
most fascinating things I have ever done. It is certainly the case with my
novella “The Old Man and The Monkey”. One morning in 2006 I awoke from a dream
about a big Japanese “snow” monkey (“snow” because they live in Japan’s snowy
north). He had a bright red face and something of a snarl, so didn’t look
especially inviting, but his eyes seemed friendly enough. Why had he appeared
and what was I to do with him? Since I didn’t know, I asked him. I’m a writer,
after all, and writers do odd things like that. “Why did you show up?” I asked;
“And what am I supposed to do?”
“Listen,”
he seemed to say. So I did. And over the next several months the story of the
old man and the monkey appeared. The first puzzle was where to locate him. I
chose Japan’s most northern island, Hokkaido, where my wife is from. “But,” I
said, “monkeys don’t live there.”
“Doesn’t
matter,” he seemed to say.
“Well,
where in Hokkaido?” I wondered, digging out a map of Hokkaido and looking at
the southeast part of the island.
“You
figure it out,” seemed to be his answer, “not not there.”
So
I began looking farther west, and settled on a tiny village with no name
somewhere along the rail line between the cities of Fukugawa and Asahikawa,
about a hundred miles northeast of Hokkaido’s capitol, Sapporo. And there began
the legend of the old man and the monkey, their friendship, and what it meant
to the villagers and the old man’s family. The old man’s name, by the way, is
Genjiro Yamada, his wife’s name is Harue (pronounced “Harooay”), and the
monkey’s name Yukitaro, which means snow monkey in Japanese. It’s a simple
story that’s been compared with “The Little Prince” by French writer, Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry, a story that I read in high school eons ago.
Is
it a children’s story? Well, children do like it, and so do adults, so I guess
I’d say it has a wide appeal, which is what I intended. All I was doing was
telling the old monkey’s story, letting him guide me. Funny thing, that’s often
my experience: I think of a character and the character tells me his or her
story. And if I get it wrong (which I sometimes do), the whole thing comes to a
halt until I listen closely enough and allow the character to talk. My job as a
story teller, after all, is to listen and tell the story as it wants to be
told. At least, that’s what works the best for me, and people seem to like the
results.
So
if you’re looking for an interesting adventure involving an old man and his
monkey friend. It’s not a very long tale (a bit over 7,200 words), but it’s
long enough. Try as I might to lengthen it, nothing worked. “The story,” the
monkey Yukitaro seemed to be telling me, “is as long as it’s supposed to be.”
And
it is.
December 7 Guest blog
Lisa’s World of Books
December 8 Promo
aobiblioclassique™
December 10 Promo and review
Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf
December11 Interview
Keeping Up With The Rheinlander's
December 12 Interview
The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom
December 14 Interview
Fang-tastic Books
December 15th Interview and review
Publishing The Paranormal
December 17 Promo
Sapphyria's Book Reviews
December 19 Review
Books for me
December 21 Interview and review
The Old Man and The Monkey
George Polley
Genre: Adventure, Inspirational, Legend
Publisher: Taylor Street Publishing
ISBN: 9781451543773
ASIN: B003T0GJ4E
Number of pages: 60
Word Count: 7,267
The Old Man and The Monkey is about a village elder in Japan and the large monkey who became his friend over the last five years of his life. Since the villagers don't like monkeys, none of them approve of the friendship between the old man Genjiro Yamada and Yukitaro ("snow monkey" in Japanese).
But Genjiro refuses to give up the friendship, even when his wife objects to it. After all, monkeys are nuisances and thieves. But over time, both Genjiro’s wife and the villagers come to grudgingly accept him, especially when, on several occasions, they receive a special blessing from him.
'The Old Man & The Monkey' is a stunningly beautiful story of a relationship which develops between an old man and a creature which is regarded as a dangerous pest in Japan, a snow monkey, in George Polley's moving allegory of dignity in the face of prejudice and racism.
About the Author:
George Polley was born in Santa Barbara, California and raised in Seattle, Washington. He has lived in California (Berkeley and Stockton), Illinois (Cooks Mills and Villa Grove), Minnesota (Luverne, Marshal and Minneapolis), and from 1984 until early in 2008, in Seattle, when he and his wife moved to Sapporo, Japan so that she could fulfill her dream of returning to the land of her birth.
His work has appeared in the South Dakota Review, Crow's Nest, Expanding Horizons, The Enchanted Self, Community Mental Health Journal, Maturing, The Lyon County (Minnesota) Review Wine Rings, North Country Anvil, North American Mentor Magazine, the McLean County (Illinois) Poetry Review, River Bottom, Tower Talks and Foundations.
He has also authored several booklets in the mental health field, two of them co-authored with Ana Dvoredsky, M.D. in 2007.
George's e-book 'The Old Man & The Monkey' poses one of the most elegant and powerful arguments against racism of all time, and his 'Grandfather & The Raven' argues equally compellingly against violence in all its forms.
His work has appeared in the South Dakota Review, Crow's Nest, Expanding Horizons, The Enchanted Self, Community Mental Health Journal, Maturing, The Lyon County (Minnesota) Review Wine Rings, North Country Anvil, North American Mentor Magazine, the McLean County (Illinois) Poetry Review, River Bottom, Tower Talks and Foundations.
He has also authored several booklets in the mental health field, two of them co-authored with Ana Dvoredsky, M.D. in 2007.
George's e-book 'The Old Man & The Monkey' poses one of the most elegant and powerful arguments against racism of all time, and his 'Grandfather & The Raven' argues equally compellingly against violence in all its forms.
Posts
1 comment:
Animals can bring so much into your life. Sounds like an amazing story.
debby236 at gmail dot com
Post a Comment