The controversial bestseller from one of China's most influential novelists
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`Richly entertaining'
--Financial Times
--Financial Times
Book Description
From the acclaimed – and controversial – Chinese novelist, Brothers is a big-spirited comedy of society running amok in modern China. When Baldy Li’s mother marries Song Gang’s father their lives become entangled. Then when both their parents die, Song Gang swears never to forsake his younger brother. In the event, though, both are undone by their love for one woman. Sprawling, rambunctious, energetic and brutal, Brothers is a dizzying rollercoaster ride through life in a newly capitalist world. ‘Yu Hua has long been considered one of China’s most important novelists’ Nell Freudenberger ‘This is modern China coming to terms with itself in a mixture of gore, laughter and self-mockery’ Independent ‘Brothers gives us contemporary China with a picaresque panache that Western critics have been quick to call Rabelaisian, but which is actually Chinese all the way’ Financial Times ‘Yu Hua effortlessly moves from the grotesque to the tragic and from the ironic to the dramatic . . . There is Hemingway in Yu Hua, certainly, but also Stendhal’ Le Monde
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By J. Axup
Format:Hardcover
This fictional and humorous narrative follows a young boy growing up in China through the Cultural Revolution and then through the economic reforms of the 1980s. The book excels a producing exaggerated and comical portrayals of the suffering of Chinese during the 1960s. Some deaths are truly macabre, as people are beaten to death in the streets, others are humorous: drowning in a trench of feces whilst trying to look at womens' bottoms. this book is written to shock and to make you laugh. Common themes that prevail include the small boy repeatedly being asked to masturbate against electricity pylons by villagers for entertainment. Maybe the humor caters to the lowest denominator, but I laughed a lot.
Although this is a work of fiction, it is based on his own experience growing up in rural Zhejiang. As such, there is plenty to learn about living in a Chinese village on the poverty line.
[I read the Chinese version so can't comment on the translation]
You may also like the Zhang Yimou version of Yu Hua's To Live:
To Live [DVD] [1994] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Although this is a work of fiction, it is based on his own experience growing up in rural Zhejiang. As such, there is plenty to learn about living in a Chinese village on the poverty line.
[I read the Chinese version so can't comment on the translation]
You may also like the Zhang Yimou version of Yu Hua's To Live:
To Live [DVD] [1994] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By C. E. Carter
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I read a book like this, which is a translation of a book that was written in a very different language about a very different culture, I do wonder how much of the original story I am actually getting. The feat of translation is awesome and it must have been perhaps even more difficult to translate than was the original story was to write. Obviously I have no way of knowing how faithful the translation is to the original, but can only judge the translated version. What I get is a sort of understanding of what it is to be Chinese. They are, as you would expect, a more simple and less worldly people and problems are solved in more primitive ways that are quite alien to us. Their understanding of the function of government is quite different to our own. The story itself is gripping and although the book is very long, I got through it in a week, even though I am not normally a keen reader.
I hate it when reviewers spoil the story for me so I won't do that for you. People who complain about human rights abuse in China would do well to read this book. It does not in anyway excuse such abuse, but it gives a flavour of the context in which it is happening and the meteoric changes that are occurring to a relatively unsophisticated populous.
Perhaps a warning is in order; if you are a bit squeamish this book is extremely violent and heartbreaking in parts and should only be read after the watershed.
I hate it when reviewers spoil the story for me so I won't do that for you. People who complain about human rights abuse in China would do well to read this book. It does not in anyway excuse such abuse, but it gives a flavour of the context in which it is happening and the meteoric changes that are occurring to a relatively unsophisticated populous.
Perhaps a warning is in order; if you are a bit squeamish this book is extremely violent and heartbreaking in parts and should only be read after the watershed.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Gem of a book, the class struggle bits were harrowing and left me feeling miserable, and hoping that I will never know such pain for real, but this is juxtaposed later with pure comedy, I even found myself reading bits to my friend as I went along, if you read it look out for the brands (meat bun bra) I was in stitches! I get through a lotta books, so just trust me when I say that since 'Stasiland' this is the best thing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
good
Yu Hua is one of my fav writer. I bought this book for my husband who loves Yu Hua's book after I introduced to him. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Zhang An Qi
5.0 out of 5 stars
amazing
A heartrending book 1 followed by an often hilarious 2nd part. More 4-letter words than in a Gordon Ramsay kitchen, but somehow, it just seems right and funny. Read more
Published 19 months ago by ampengill70on
2.0 out of 5 stars
A smutty take on a modernising China
For supposedly such a popular book there are very few reviews for this tome. And why is that? Simply because it is not that good and it is way, way too long with a lot of... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2011 by Gregory P. Miller
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