woman who would eventually be his wife for a short while. He eventually marries the woman, but the marriage quickly deteriorates because of his writing and the caution he lacks when speaking around his new bride and in the end she leaves. During his marriage, he lives in the countryside and tells tales of the people he met with there and recounts their experiences as well. Eventually, he makes it out of China and then describes his relationship with a new girl named Sylvie that he meets in Sydney, Australia. She is carefree and does not trouble herself with things from the past. While they argue at some points, they are very passionate and that is something Gao highlights. Sylvie also shares with him the profound effect her friend's death had on her much like his own mother's death affected him. As the novel comes to and end he updates the readers on his friends and the lovers he had kept track of in China. The narrator ends with describing his time in a city on the French and Spanish border called, Perpignan. He describes the people there and then informs the reader that he is waiting for friends so that they can catch an afternoon plane. Characters Gao Xingjian alter-ego The main character of the story an author who tells of his life during Mao's Cultural Revolution, and afterward his life in Europe once he is exiled from his home country. He has many sexual encounters throughout the story. He describes them quite accurately. He desires to be fully free. He does not like living in the past and describes memories as nightmarish experiences. Gao's Partners Margarethe - A young German - Jewish woman who loves to live in the moment and would prefer to forget many of her painful memories. She is one of Gao's sexual partners and encourages his writing. She unlike Gao likes to discuss the past and memories whereas Gao dislikes living in the past. She speaks fluent Mandarin. Lin - A Chinese woman who was Gao's first sexual encounter. While she is married, the two continue to see each other until Gao later ends it. Sylvie - A young French girl who is very free-spirited and does not have any strong political convictions. Unlike Margarethe, she has no interest in a discussion of events that happened in the past. She is solely concerned with