Against the ruin of the world, there is only one defense—the creative act.

—Kenneth Rexroth

MIDWAY IN THE JOURNEY OF OUR LIFE I CAME TO MYSELF IN A DARK WOOD.

-DANTE ALIGHIERI 

Dante Alighieri had done all the right things, according to the story of his culture. He had written beautiful poems that won him fame and respect. He married and had children, and he was a man of the church, faithful to his god. Later, he took up political leadership in his city and tried to govern justly, even when it meant sending his troublemaking best friend into exile. And what had this gotten him? He lost everything: his wealth, his power, and his family. If he hadn’t fled into exile, Dante would have lost his life.

“No ordinary sixties coming-of-age story . . . evocative . . . brilliantly crafted . . . transports us from the prison camps of China, to the slums of Hong Kong, to the beckoning frontiers of President Kennedy’s United States. We suffer with Li . . . and witness him becoming a bright light of the antiwar movement while cautioning American radicals against the lure of Maoism.”

— LAURA KALMAN, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of THE LONG REACH OF THE SIXTIES, Oxford University Press