A Floating Life

Anything written from the Zhuangzi/Daoist point of view, from Lin Yutang's 'Moment in Peking' on down the sadly short list, shows an entirely different portrait of China than we are used to seeing. Amid the conformity, an eccentric; amid the tradition, a progressive; amid the acquiescence, a rebel; amid the herd, an individual. The tide never has, and probably never will, turn, but it is nice to know that there will always be those willing to swim joyously against it.Li Po, or Li Bai as he is called in standard Mandarin, is one of those rare such characters in Chinese history, and Simon Elegant brings him convincingly to life, a man of flesh and blood and spirit.I know little of Li Bai; here in China he is much memorialized but less remembered, so the tales in "Floating Life" are as much as I know about the mythology beyond the repute of the poems. I'm sure Elegant did his research, though, and it makes for an engaging tale.The device of the acolyte/narrator is awkward at times, and the breaks away from Li Bai's voice cause the book's progression to stumble, but it does allow the tale to be told in first person and without overly rigorous chronology. Li Bai's tales, told through his perspective, witty and insightful, are what make the book. And the book does justice to Li Bai's poetry and ethic. Reading it, one gets lost in the quiet moment, as if downing a bowl of warm Huangjiu in a boat on the West Lake at dusk. Simple, sublime. Li Bai did many things, and is enshrined in the catacombs of history, but what matters is that he knew how to be happy, how to live in the moment.

The wind in the trees// makes the sound of the sliding stones// the song of the sparrows// is a distant cooing// the spray of the river// is not the river// the review// is not a review.

Simon Elegant's first fictional work is one of the best historical and/or biographical novels I've ever read! Li Po is many things, but bashful is not one of them. He tells his adventurous "life story" to a young boy named Wang Lung, who dutifully copies it down as an excercise in learning to write. As they sail together, banished, and waiting for a "reprive", the reader learns how Li Po has come to his banishment.Li Po was a poetic genius. Elegant treats the reader to his wonderful verse amid his drunken-ness, his love affairs, and his honored time with the Emperor. Li Po is brought to one's eyes as a man so fully human, it is hard to believe he lived almost 1300 years ago.

Li Po was the best poet in China during a time that poetry was as important as religion. This book paints the vast kingdom, from it's eclectic mix of different people, their lives dreams and aspirations from the peasantry to the court. Simon Elegant has written from the point of view of the poet, showing him at once to be a genius and a petty, foolish drunk. This leads the reader into a fable like tale of one man so much loved and so equally reviled because of his character. You are also given a sample of the great man's work - and I challenge anyone after reading this novel not to strat looking for more! A floating life is picture of how life was and how men are. And it is delivered beautifully.

The legendary Chinese versifier, Li Po, returns in full force in Simon Elegant's wonderful autobiographical fiction. Even if you know nothing of the poet, you feel as if you've walked in his shoes. More than 700 years before the Renaissance in Europe, the vagaries of Chinese court life are rendered familiar through a most illustrative life. At the very least, by the end of the novel you'll want to read some of Li Po's amazing poetry, like none before and little since, to come to know better this enigmatic and paradoxical man of many splendors and foibles.