The Rescue in Wild Boar Forest

I have a weakness for picaresque novels and for Asian martial arts, so this was always going to be a winner with me. Before I continue this review, I have to warn that I didn't read this edition, but the French translation of the complete "Tales from the Water Margin", so I can't comment on the translation, or, more accurately, on its style.The main story line is very simple : a group of bandits forms in the marshes as more and more people join them after unhappy encounters with the (corrupt) representatives of the law. I won't reveal how it ends. Meanwhile, the reader is treated to every bandit's unhappy story, how he joins the other bandits and his incredible exploits with the most exotic weapons ever heard of (everybody who has ever seen pictures or drawings of the weapons used in different forms of gong fu will know what I mean).The stories are often funny in a Chinese sort of way (I found the anthropophagic passages quite humorous) and give an insight into the popular Chinese soul of the time. Although it didn't put me off at all, after a while every new story seems only subtly different from the previous one.If I would have to describe a target group for this book (not including scholars), I'd say it consists of people who like both martial arts movies and Cervantes' Don Quixote. I wonder how big that group is !