This is a book that my husband brought into the relationship. It was something he read in college and thought I should read, so I added it to the queue. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I was expecting some sort of obtuse, hard-to-read, Chinese fable style tale. Instead, I got a very funny, very farcical, very easy to read fantasy novel. It was really a quite delightful story.

"My surname is Li and my personal name is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character."� ( )

This story was delightful! ( )

Hughart unfortunately only wrote 3 of his 7 planned mysteries set in a version of ancient China. This, the first story, is heavily rooted in a piece of mythology involving the translation of a mortal girl into an immortal consort of a god. With a tightly plotted mystery and compelling characters, this is one of my all-time favourites. ( )

Rarely do you come across a book as delightful as this one. I mean, people throw around the description 'delightful' to things that are anything but. You want real delightful? Read this book. It's a shame that Barry Hughart never got much recognition for this gem of a novel, and that he wasn't able to continue his writing career for long. Just goes to show how little justice there is in the publishing world.

Bridge of Birds is a fairy tale about Number Ten Ox, a young man in a mythical Ancient China whose village's children have been poisoned. To cure them, he buys the help of a cunning and drunken scholar, Li Kao, and off start their adventures for the Great Root of Power that will counteract the poison.

Bridge of Birds reads like a compilation of many Chinese folk tales. It's full of clever and witty dialogue, comedic characters, fantastical imagery, and genuine tenderness. For all his exaggerated humour, Hughart manages to capture nuances of Chinese society, little things here and there that I recognize from my own experiences in China. Bridge of Birds reminds me of an adult version of the books I was given as a child by my grandparents in Yinchuan. It's not completely accurate, of course. It doesn't try to be; the subtitle is "an Ancient China that never was." But it does exist, you see, in the mythologies and fantasies of a people and culture. It is the dream the way Snow White is a dream, the way the Golden Age is a dream. And when a writer like Hughart taps into that dream, the result is gold. ( )