Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart
Mar. 6th, 2005 02:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksI'm writing this entry primarily to thank ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kate_nepveu, who reviewed this book in such glowing terms that I tracked it down. She was right. I suspect that my housemates have every right to be annoyed with me, since I think I've grabbed almost everyone with at least one excerpt that had to be read aloud *right now*. My first thought about this book was that I wanted to read it to somebody, in its entirety, right away, possibly before I'd finished it. I've been reading books aloud since I was a mid-sized child, when somehow things flipped naturally from my parents reading to me into me reading to my parents, and I've done a lot of it, working my way through things like the Discworld books from the beginning until Hogfather (to Mom) and The Worm Ouroboros (in progress, to Ruth). I've learned how to read with pacing and timing and breath control and expression and attention. I have also learned that the kind of book I enjoy reading aloud the most is the kind of book in which my accumulated vocal experience goes out the window and I am nearly completely incomprehensible because I am laughing too hard to breathe.
Bridge of Birds is that kind of book.
It's also beautiful, and strange, and wondrous, and moving in places, and surprising.
The subtitle states that it is 'A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was', which is perfectly accurate. It's in general a well-researched and well-defined China That Never Was, and we're even given a specific date (and a conversion to explain that the Western equivalent is 622 A.D.). There are a few things that are a tad anachronistic, or are from Western society, and I have no idea whether others would be bothered by this; it didn't bother me, because I tend to allow comic novels a greater purchase in playing fast and loose with space, time, and narrative than I do entirely serious works. Bridge of Birds is certainly not only a comic novel, but it has such exuberant detail and such an impressive grab-bag of chaotic elements that it can attain the kind of headlong pace into which an author can toss anything including the kitchen sink and only make the mix funnier.
The narrator, Number Ten Ox, is trying to save the children of his village from a dangerous illness, and in the process of so doing hires a sage, Master Li, who freely introduces himself as having a slight flaw in his character. In the course of their quest, they become the wealthiest men in China (several times), lose unimaginable fortunes (just as often) and encounter myths, natural wonders, scholarly erudition, monsters, several different misers, demented alchemists, aristocracy at its best and worst, and The Most Expensive Woman In The World. Much of this is hilarious picaresque, but some of it is not, and there are real touches of the numinous in things such as the ghosts that the two of them meet, and an awareness of the brutal violence that could be a part of everyday life at any time.
A short excerpt:
Our protagonists attempt to fascinate a key government official, whose wife is The Most Expensive Woman In The World, and is likely to drive him to bankruptcy:
He decided that the fastest way to get to the Key Rabbit would be to burn our palace to the ground, since it was rented from the Duke of Ch'in at a ruinous rate, and I was roasting a goose over the embers when the little fellow pattered up.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" he wailed. "Regulation 226, paragraph D, subsection B: palaces, rented, accidental destruction thereof--"
"Willful. I found the view boring," Master Li yawned.
"Subsection C: palaces, rented, willful destruction thereof. Full value plus fifty percent, plus firefighting costs, plus wreckage-removal costs, plus triple the normal fine for disturbing the peace, plus fifty percent of the total for defaming the view provided by the duke, plus--"
"Stop babbling, you idiot, and give me the grand total!" Master Li roared.
[He does. They settle up in a manner so nonchalant that he faints in astonishment.]
It took a few minutes to revive him, but he grasped the possibilities instantly.
"Alas!" he panted. "Lord Li of Kao and Lord Lu of Yu have no place in which to spend the night, and while my humble abode is scarcely suitable... You see, I will probably have to stay in the castle all night counting the duke's money, and my dear wife will be all alone and unprotected. Women require protection, among other things."
He fell to his knees and began kissing the tips of our sandals. "Such as pearls!" he wailed. "Jade!" he howled.
"May we offer you some roast goose?" Master Li said not unkindly. "It is Lord Lu of Yu's own recipe, marinated twenty-four hours in the lees of fine wine, with honey and crushed apricots. Lord Lu of Yu, incidentally, is a disciple of Chang Chou, who said that he preferred his own cooking, but other people's wives."
"Joy!" shrieked the Key Rabbit.
It took me a while to find this book, but it was certainly well worth the looking-- and thanks again to Kate.
kate_nepveu, who reviewed this book in such glowing terms that I tracked it down. She was right. I suspect that my housemates have every right to be annoyed with me, since I think I've grabbed almost everyone with at least one excerpt that had to be read aloud *right now*. My first thought about this book was that I wanted to read it to somebody, in its entirety, right away, possibly before I'd finished it. I've been reading books aloud since I was a mid-sized child, when somehow things flipped naturally from my parents reading to me into me reading to my parents, and I've done a lot of it, working my way through things like the Discworld books from the beginning until Hogfather (to Mom) and The Worm Ouroboros (in progress, to Ruth). I've learned how to read with pacing and timing and breath control and expression and attention. I have also learned that the kind of book I enjoy reading aloud the most is the kind of book in which my accumulated vocal experience goes out the window and I am nearly completely incomprehensible because I am laughing too hard to breathe.Bridge of Birds is that kind of book.
It's also beautiful, and strange, and wondrous, and moving in places, and surprising.
The subtitle states that it is 'A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was', which is perfectly accurate. It's in general a well-researched and well-defined China That Never Was, and we're even given a specific date (and a conversion to explain that the Western equivalent is 622 A.D.). There are a few things that are a tad anachronistic, or are from Western society, and I have no idea whether others would be bothered by this; it didn't bother me, because I tend to allow comic novels a greater purchase in playing fast and loose with space, time, and narrative than I do entirely serious works. Bridge of Birds is certainly not only a comic novel, but it has such exuberant detail and such an impressive grab-bag of chaotic elements that it can attain the kind of headlong pace into which an author can toss anything including the kitchen sink and only make the mix funnier.
The narrator, Number Ten Ox, is trying to save the children of his village from a dangerous illness, and in the process of so doing hires a sage, Master Li, who freely introduces himself as having a slight flaw in his character. In the course of their quest, they become the wealthiest men in China (several times), lose unimaginable fortunes (just as often) and encounter myths, natural wonders, scholarly erudition, monsters, several different misers, demented alchemists, aristocracy at its best and worst, and The Most Expensive Woman In The World. Much of this is hilarious picaresque, but some of it is not, and there are real touches of the numinous in things such as the ghosts that the two of them meet, and an awareness of the brutal violence that could be a part of everyday life at any time.
A short excerpt:
Our protagonists attempt to fascinate a key government official, whose wife is The Most Expensive Woman In The World, and is likely to drive him to bankruptcy:
He decided that the fastest way to get to the Key Rabbit would be to burn our palace to the ground, since it was rented from the Duke of Ch'in at a ruinous rate, and I was roasting a goose over the embers when the little fellow pattered up.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" he wailed. "Regulation 226, paragraph D, subsection B: palaces, rented, accidental destruction thereof--"
"Willful. I found the view boring," Master Li yawned.
"Subsection C: palaces, rented, willful destruction thereof. Full value plus fifty percent, plus firefighting costs, plus wreckage-removal costs, plus triple the normal fine for disturbing the peace, plus fifty percent of the total for defaming the view provided by the duke, plus--"
"Stop babbling, you idiot, and give me the grand total!" Master Li roared.
[He does. They settle up in a manner so nonchalant that he faints in astonishment.]
It took a few minutes to revive him, but he grasped the possibilities instantly.
"Alas!" he panted. "Lord Li of Kao and Lord Lu of Yu have no place in which to spend the night, and while my humble abode is scarcely suitable... You see, I will probably have to stay in the castle all night counting the duke's money, and my dear wife will be all alone and unprotected. Women require protection, among other things."
He fell to his knees and began kissing the tips of our sandals. "Such as pearls!" he wailed. "Jade!" he howled.
"May we offer you some roast goose?" Master Li said not unkindly. "It is Lord Lu of Yu's own recipe, marinated twenty-four hours in the lees of fine wine, with honey and crushed apricots. Lord Lu of Yu, incidentally, is a disciple of Chang Chou, who said that he preferred his own cooking, but other people's wives."
"Joy!" shrieked the Key Rabbit.
It took me a while to find this book, but it was certainly well worth the looking-- and thanks again to Kate.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-06 12:18 am (UTC)Running around out there on the Internet is a .pdf file of his original ms. of this book. Different.
Begs to differ
Date: 2005-03-06 05:34 am (UTC)For comparison purposes, Silk Road by Jeanne Larsen does China and does it close to the original and then metas it for fun, which tickles me. (Not sure about her Daoist Immortals but since all *I* know about them comes from Japanese manga she probably has them right too.)
Re: Begs to differ
Date: 2005-03-06 02:06 pm (UTC)One, it's a play one Sherlock Holmes with bonus sleeze. Two, it's -meant- to be absurd: People do not, as a general rule, suddenly invent the helicopter to save them themselves from giant, creeping spoilers.
Re: Begs to differ
Date: 2005-03-06 08:01 pm (UTC)Re: Begs to differ
Date: 2005-03-08 09:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-06 07:50 am (UTC)Google finds a PDF and an HTML version:
http://www.maranci.net/abridge.pdf
http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/hughart/features.htm
no subject
Date: 2005-03-06 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-06 11:04 am (UTC)Randomly:
I read these books as chinoiserie, not straight-Chinese; they are pseudo-Oriental, but they're written with affection and humor. Also, seeing various folktales show up that I recognized (Korean folktales filtered down from China, no doubt) was neat, and the ending, Hughart's playful use of language (I remember one bit of doggerel from The Story of the Stone) charmed me. Also, I laughed myself hoarse the first time I read Bridge of Birds.
I can see them being off-putting for a number of reasons, however.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-06 05:33 pm (UTC)I actually just re-read this too, because I went looking for the section about the mythological perception of the Duke of Ch'in (King of Qin, in _Hero_) and of course had to read all the rest. I still love it passionately.
I don't think the later books were as good, but they don't retroactively ruin it by any means.