Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds is a whimsical adventure through an ancient China cobbled together from history and myth. It tells the story of a peasant, Number Ten Ox, who accompanies the incorrigible sage Li Kao on a journey to find a cure to a mysterious plague that has struck the children of the village. But slowly they discover that there is much more to their quest than a simple search for a ginseng root with legendary restorative powers.

Hughart writes in an easy and almost facetious manner that befits the character of Li Kao, the optimistic and unfazeable scholar whose acumen saves Number Ten Ox and himself from a thousand grisly deaths. The combination of Hughart's style and Li Kao's machinations is hilarious--take, for instance, the following level-headed declamation by Li:

"Ho, Ox and I are wrapped in so many chains that we can't move, you are attached to the wall by a leg chain, this dungeon is solid rock, the torture chamber is crammed with soldiers, we are eleven stories beneath the earth, and each landing is guarded by more soldiers. The palace is swarming with the army of the Ancestress, the army of the Duke of Chi'in is camped outside the walls, and Ox and I must escape from here immediately. Unless you look forward to being drawn and quartered, I suggest that you accompany us."

And, of course, they escape--as they do again and again--but not before several hair-raising encounters and dazzling displays of ingenuity.

These almost farcical encounters fit into an intricately designed plot in which every piece--from a minor bit of trivia mentioned on page one, to an obscure legend recounted by a short-lived merchant--becomes essential to solving a mystery over a thousand years old. Although at first the plot seemed slow, almost meandering, within two chapters Hughart had begun the quick pace that would lead all the way to the book's conclusion. And what a conclusion it is, a gorgeous celebration of everything that is wonderful about the book. If the last chapter of this book leaves you unmoved, then you must have a heart colder than the Old Man of the Mountain's.

Finally, the plot takes place in a fictional China that Hughart has genuinely made magical. The China of Bridge of Birds is filled with a profound sense of history, with thousand-year legends and traditions that run "toward the beginning of time." It is also a China where all the myths are real--from immortality to invisible monsters to gods who step down from the sky. And through it all Hughart manages to weave his setting into a seamless tapestry, with no element seeming ridiculous, overblown, or out-of-place.

Bridge of Birds is a truly glorious novel. Few other books have given me such joy.

Copyright © 2002 Steven Wu