A Tower for the Summer Heat

As he did in Li Yu's The Carnal Prayer Mat, Hanan, a Harvard professor of Chinese literature, fluidly translates Li Yu's 17th-century Chinese stories into English for the first time. This collection of novella-length parables illustrates lessons for life and love. Each of the six stories begins with an epigrammatic summary followed by a brief poem, and is concluded by a short critique. Despite that ornate setting, the heart of the parables is Li Yu's lyric prose as he weaves deceptively accessible stories. The plots are simple--the experiences of a young man who uses a telescope to spy on women and select a bride, courting her by exploiting the secret knowledge his long-distance vision gives him; the life of a con man; or the separation by fate and Mongol invasion of a loving family and their serendipitous reunification--but Li Yu's voice, characterized by deft moralizing and self-satisfied yet tongue-in-cheek humor, exalt these tales above the mundane. Readers who get caught up in the narrative momentum will have no trouble believing they are in 17th-century China, listening to a wizened man impart the wisdom of the elders. (Sept.)