Not many folks have heard of Barry Hughart. He’s only published three novels. But they are among my very favorite books; they are stories I can read and re-read with pleasure, delight and awe. I often call Hughart’s books the best novels you’ve never read.
The first is Bridge of Birds, which introduces us to Master Li, an ancient Chinese scholar with a slight flaw in his character, and Number Ten Ox, his peasant client. Set in an “ancient China that never was,” Hughart leads the reader through Chinese myth and literature, seamlessly blending Chinese culture with a very Western mystery. The plot is a puzzle that hides another puzzle. While our heroes set out to cure the children of Number Ten Ox’s village of a “plague that counts,” they find themselves also solving a great wrong worked against the gods themselves. Full of memorable characters, Bridge will move you between tears and laughter. And the ending is stupendous.
Hughart returned to Master Li and Number Ten Ox, this time with Ox as Master Li’s assistant, in The Story of the Stone. A lunatic, homicidal nobleman seems to have returned from the grave, wreaking havoc in the long-suffering Valley of Sorrows. Once again Master Li and Number Ten Ox must solve a mystery, and once again the mystery is fringed with the supernatural, homicide and genuine, laugh out loud developments. Along the way they meet some truly memorable characters, including Grief of Dawn, a young lady with a deeply mysterious past, and Moon Boy, a sound master and an entirely marvellous creation.
Perhaps the best invention in the novel is the characters’ mind trip through the Chinese Hell, which makes the efforts of Orpheus and Dante look pretty pitiful in comparison. The ending is less of a stunner than Bridge of Birds, but this story is a little more mature and tightly crafted than Bridge.
The third and, alas, last novel by Hughart is Eight Skilled Gentlemen. The execution of the Sixth Degree Hotsteler Wu, captured by Master Li and Ox, is interrupted by the appearance of a demon. That, in turn, leads to an assignment by the Celestial Master himself to investigate a mysterious murder of a mandarin. And once again our heroes have to battle demons, goddesses and an ancient myth that is all to real. This time, the survival of China itself is at stake.
I have this test for fantasy literature: when you finish the story, and look up, the real world seems just a bit dimmer, the colors a shade less bright, than where the author has taken you. By my test, Hughart is a great fantasy author. I only wish he had written more.
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