This book thoroughly deserves a five-star rating, even though I have a basic reservation about it. I found it easy to read, gripping and interesting to the point of fascination. I did not realise quite how much information was available about Li Po – a man who lived in the eighth century, after all. By painstakingly comparing all the various chronicles and chronologies, Ha Jin has managed to account for an astonishing amount of the great poet’s wandering life.
He provides a goodly number of poems, showing us the Chinese version of each one before providing his English translation. Some of his lines are a little banal, but the meaning is always made clear. Strangely he omits my favourite of all Li Po’s poems, the quatrain usually entitled Conversation in the Mountains.
My reservation concerns the book’s subtitle: A Life of Li Bai. Now I have at least half a shelf of books wholly or partially about Li Po, and they all refer to him thus – the name Li Bai was completely unknown to me before this book came my way. Ha Jin himself says that in the West the poet is known as Li Po, so in writing for an English-speaking audience, surely he should have made some move towards his readers? But no, all we get is a constant stream of references to Li Bai or just Bai. It is arrogant to assume that we shall, by some abstruse process of osmosis, work out who the subject of the book is. Nowhere on the front or back cover is it even mentioned that the book is about Li Po. This sort of revisionism drives me to distraction.
Fortunately for book buyers, Amazon does provide both versions of the poet’s name.
The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai (Li Po)
Audible Audiobook
– Unabridged
| Price | New from |
|
Kindle Edition
"Please retry" | — |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
₹0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Hardcover, Deckle Edge
"Please retry" | ₹3,216.24 |
- Read with Our Free App
-
Audiobook
₹0.00
Related to this topic
Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1
- Audible Audiobook
- Audible Audiobook
- Audible Audiobook
- Audible Audiobook
- Audible Audiobook
Top reviews from other countries
Tully Potter
A Strange Confusion Over Identity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 June 2021Verified Purchase
Reader
Okay...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 March 2021Verified Purchase
James B
Really well written
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 27 April 2020Verified Purchase
Gemba
chinese poet
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 6 May 2019Verified Purchase
Bryan J. McLean - Lyinghere
A Grand Telling for the life of Poet Li Bai
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 23 December 2019Verified Purchase
